How Much Does God Love You?
Today?s scripture comes from the book of 1st John. ?God is love.? This scripture was written by John the apostle. One of Jesus? disciples and was one of the three core members that went everywhere with Jesus. He is noted for writing five of the New Testament books; which are John, first, second, and third John, and the book of Revelation.
The interesting thing about John though, is not just the fact that he was with Christ and a part of the core and also a writer in the Bible, though those are all fantastic things but the thing that catches my attention the most is the fact that John is someone that you can see grow right before your very eyes as you read through the Bible.
For example, in the Gospel of Luke Jesus sent messengers ahead of Him to get things ready for Him. Those messengers went into a Samaritan village but the people there did not welcome Him. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ?Lord, do you want us to call fire down from Heaven to destroy them??
This is where the transformation takes place from the John of old to the John of new. Because in this verse that I just told you about was a John that was on Fire for the Lord, and that is great but there was something that John was missing. The love. Jesus said, I come unto this world not to condemn it but to save it. And I believe by the time John wrote 1st John chapter four he had a better understanding and practiced this term that we will be discussing here today. Love.
How much does God love you? That is the question here on the table. How much does God truly love you? Many of us know the correct response in church, ?God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son? everyone knows John 3:16. And though that is true, and I certainly do not want to take anything from that very important point.
However, let us look into that a little more in depth. So again the question is How much does God really love you. the Bible says that God is love. But how much does He love us? The Bible says that God wants us love one another. But how much does God love us? The Bible says he that loves not is not of God. But how much does God love us? That is the question, HOW MUCH DOES GOD LOVE YOU!?
Today we will be looking at three areas of Gods love.
Gods love through salvation
Gods love through forgivness
Gods love through restoration
Lets look at verse nine, ?In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.?
God loves you so much that He certainly did send His only begotten son to die for us. Have you really considered the significance behind the fact that God was willing to send His Son down here to earth to die for you and I? Think about it for just a second. Jesus was already in Heaven, a perfect place where everyone is desiring to be after they pass from this life and enter into the next life.
Just think everyone including those who do not even believe in Heaven and Hell, if they had a choice would choose to go to Heaven. But you see Jesus was already in Heaven. He did not have to go through anything here on earth, but he did for you and I.
So if we could use our imagination for a few minutes. Think about how Jesus was sitting in heaven a perfect place, where there is no sin no darkness. This a place where there is no pain no jealousy, no anger, no hatred, no pride, no temptations. Nothing that is unpleasing to God was in heaven. Angels all around just praising the Lord. Perfect.
Then all of a sudden God sees a problem in the world, anyone have an idea as to what the problem was? Sin. Sin was in the world. Anything that is unpleasing to the Lord is sin, and there was a whole lot of sinning going on.
So God says lets see, what shall I do (a rhetorical question obviously), I already flooded the earth and I promised not to that again, people have been told to offer sacrifices to cover their sins from me, but still I need to go ahead and take care of this problem of sin once and for all. But who could I sent? And just at that moment Jesus stands up and says I will go.
Understand that Jesus knew what was going to take place. Jesus knew before the creation of the world that only by Him being sent unto the world was the penalty of sin going to be wiped away.
So if He knew before the creation of the world that he was going to die than think about this, he surely knew that he was going to be tormented, spat upon, beaten unmercifully, humiliated, scorned, yelled at, and hated. All by the people that He was trying to save.
Jesus loved you and the people in the biblical days so much. And before He came He already knew who would hurt Him, who would betray Him, and who would deny Him.
And think about this, Jesus did not just know them by face or by the action that they were going to carry out. Jesus knew them by name. Think, Jesus knew before the creation of the world the mans name that made that crown of thorns for Him, but Jesus says I love you so much that I am going to die for you.
The person that yelled at Him saying get down off the cross if you are God, He said I died for you.
The soldier that beat me till my face was swollen my eyes that I could barely see out of. I love you.
Those who beat me, I love you.
Those who hated me even though I was doing everything that I did for you, I love you.
Those of you that took the time to nail me to the cross, I love you.
The soldier who pieced my side I love you.
You that have hated me, I love you.
Those of you that say I want nothing to do with this Jesus, I love you.
Those who hate me because I am the only way to Heaven, I love you.
Those that confess me as Lord and Savior but still live the way you want, I love you.
Those of you that refuse to pray to me, read my word, or serve me, I love you.
That is how much God loves you. Regardless if you are White, Black, Latino, Asian, Indian, American Indian.
Whether you are American, Mexican, Puertorican. From Turkey, Russia or Iraq.
Regardless if you are a racist, part of the skin heads, kkk, or black panthers.
Whether you are Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or just a plain old ordinary sinner, God loves you( So you see even after all that you have done His love is so great that He is willing to forgive).
Jesus knew you were going to reject Him, He knew the sins that were going to take place. Regardless of the circumstance, just as Christ knew that the soldier was going to pierce him in the side Christ was still willing to forgive, and just as you and I have fallen short of perfection Jesus is willing to forgive.
His love for forgiveness. His love for you is so deep that He loves to forgive. How many people here love to forgive? I know, I know, we as Christians are supposed to forgive which is cool but my question is not who will forgive but rather who loves to forgive? God loves you so much that when you do sin He is willing to forgive you. That is strange because here we are as people who put limits and guidelines on our forgivness.
God on the other hand says that he will forgive us if we confess our sin. And not only will He forgive us but He will cleanse us of all impurities. My favorite word in that scripture is ALL. Everything that you and I have done past, present, and future, has been thrown out the window. That is true love when you can forgive no matter what comes down the pike.
But you know what? This part of the sermon that explains that no matter what you have done Jesus is willing and desires to forgive you. He loves to forgive.
So the question is what have you done that makes you think that God is either unable to or unwilling to forgive. If we remember that heaven is not earned or deserved than we would be able to see that no matter what you have done God is able to forgive.
Lets look at some of the Biblical people that flawed but were still able to be forgiven. Adam, a man that is usually noticed as being the guy that messed everything up along with Eve, but guess what Jesus came from the bloodline of Adam.
Moses was a murderer. He killed an Egyptian soldier and then ran. Yet Moses led the Hebrews out of Egypt.
David, an adulterer and a murderer, is noted to have a heart after God.
And finally who could ever forget about Paul, or in his B.C. days known as Saul. Here is man that was persecuting Christians so horrifically that when Jesus did save him people were still afraid of him because of his bad rap. But yet he wrote most of the New Testament.
So you see, there are just a few people that have done horrible things in the eyes of the Lord yet the Lord was still able and willing to forgive. And not only did He forgive but He was also willing and able to use them to bring glory to the Lord.
And because we know that the Lord loves to forgive than we should also know how it is that God is able to forgive us.
You see a long time ago God demanded that our sins be covered, or in other words our sin had to be paid for. That is why in the old testament people had to sacrifice animals, to cover themselves of all sin.
But God in all of his sovereignty decided to send a sacrifice that would pay the penalty of sin, which is death, once and for all.
Hebrews 10:5 says, ?Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ?Here I am-it is written about me in the scroll-I have come to do your will, O God.?
The Bible goes on to say that He set aside the first to establish the second. In plain English He set aside the slaughtering of the animals which just covered our sins and moved to an ultimate sacrifice that was able to do more than just cover our sin and instead washed away our sin.
Micah 7:19 says that He will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. Let me give you an example of what I mean by that. When I was younger my family took a trip to the ocean. While we were there, my brother and I started to play with our frisbee. One particular time my brother cranked back and let the frisbee fly. The frisbee came towards me, sailing over my head and landing into the cold water. At that point, the tide pulled my frisbee out and away from me, never to be seen again. And that is how our sins are in the eyes of God. Once we ask for forgiveness, our sins are cast into the depths of the sea never to be found again.
My frisbee, where is it? Somewhere in the ocean. Where is my sins? All I know is that they are in the sea somewhere, gone forever never to be brought up again.
God loves to forgive so much so that regardless of the things that you have done He is willing to throw them into the depths of the sea never to be seen again, never be brought to the surface.
The greatest thing is that God loves you so much that when you have decided to make a change in your life and start to live the way that He has desired you to do from the beginning that He still accepts you and will receive you.
God wants you. He wants you so bad that he sent his son for you. The Bible talks about the love of God being so deep that you can?t go under it, so wide you can?t go around it, and so high you can?t go over it.
That is amazing because it goes to show that you can?t get away from the love of God. No matter where you are or what you are in, God still loves you! He may hate the sin that you are in but He always loves you. Think about this.
If Gods love is so deep than those coal miners that were trapped in the shaft, do you think that Gods love was there with them?
If Gods love is so wide do you think that Gods love is with all the troops in the middle east?
If Gods love is so high do you think that His love was with those astronauts as they were re-entering the earth?s atmosphere?
His love is everywhere! His love brought you here today,
His love saved you from that accident that you were in.
His love provided for you when you had no clue as to where your next meal was coming from.
Truth be told, you should be dead because of the things that you have done and for some of you the things that you are doing.
Gods love has kept it together for you even though , you should have been put in the crazy house years ago.
Gods love allowed His Son to come to earth, His love allowed His Son to be put on the cross.
Gods love allowed the sacrifice of His Son to be the payment for all sin.
Gods love allows you to accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.
His love is so unimaginable that when you tell people that you can not get to Heaven by the good things that you have done, are doing, or will do, but rather by the free gift that God gave to us, which is Jesus Christ. People think that your crazy. God loves you so much that all He wants for you to do is to reach out your hand accept the free gift of eternal life through the person of Jesus Christ, and follow after Him!
Devote your life to Him. Practical application is a must here. And this is it.
If you are here today and do not know Jesus as your personal Savior, which is to say that you have yet to decide to live your life for Jesus but rather you still are living the way the world does than the application is for you to decide, make up your mind to live for Jesus.
And after you have decided to live for Jesus stand up and come to the front to make a public confession of Christ. He loves you so much that He wants you to come. He wants you to accept Him. He wants to have a relationship with you and He is waiting for you.
Have you ever played a sport or a game and you were the last one to be picked? Well that will never happen with God. He wants you now and He wants you real bad. But just as in those sports or games where you were picked you were picked based upon what? Your talent. How fast did you run, or how far could you kick the ball. How hard and fast can you throw the ball. But guess what you don?t get Gods attention by how good you are but rather you got Gods attention by being you, a sinner. Don?t you see that?s why Jesus came because you are a sinner. And because you can do nothing to get the attention of God lets stop trying to get everything in order before you come to Jesus. He?s ready for you, are you ready for him?
