God Loves You
Once upon a time there was a young man, .Work and school kept him busy. He was friendly enough. One evening he came home from school a little early, there were was a car in the driveway. Not just any car but, a car that he knew.
He was suddenly afraid. What could be going on? Why were they there? Not knowing if he could face the scene, he did not stop at the house.
He called home and unfortunately his fear was correct. There was indeed something going on. In a short but, heated phone conversation with his wife he learned that they were waiting for him.
You see it was his birthday. He learned about cake, ice cream and presents just for him.
He learned that his early arrival caused him to stumble into a surprise party.
For reasons of his own, he refused to come home, until he was sure that every guest had left. He refused to go to a place where he actually knew he was loved and even celebrated as a family member.
I was the young man who refused to come home to family and friends that gathered to surprise me. It took months for me to get over the shame I eventually felt for my hard headed actions.
Do you know that Renee did not leave me and her family never shunned me?
They never tried to surprise me like that again. Not because I was right or apologized enough. Is was simpler than that, it was because, they love me, not because I deserve it, but because they are that good and forgiving.
God’s love is just like that and that I what I want to talk about this morning.
Sometimes we don’t notice God’s actions as much I as I think we should. If we don’t see his hand we will never notice His love. God’s love is all around us.
I want to point out this morning some of the ways we see His love.
Let me start with my personal favorite. (God’ creation)
God’ creation is an expression of love that is hard to ignore. Even if you are not the outdoor type, I hope that you notice the beauty that surrounds us.
Every spring I get on a kick where my prayers seem to include every blooming flower and sign of live. But I don’t want to start a list like that this morning. I want to pick just one to mention. Some mornings I am on the road early and I witness a sunrise that has the most fantastic colors. I wonder if I am the only one that is noticing.
It feels almost like it is something God is doing just for me. Why, because I know He Loves Me! So, I can’t help but think of God in the beauty of the moment. -Listen to Psalm 8,
1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise
because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
I am no less amazed than David when I look at nature and even more so when I look at our position in the structure. We are on the top in most categories and the ones we are not physically the best at we over come wit our intelligence.
To me that screams how obviously important we seem to be to Him. God show his love for us through creation.
Another sign of God’s genuine love for us is free will.
We have the ability to think and more specifically to choose. He loved us so much that he allowed free will. We are not robots or simple dolls for His entertainment. We are not automatically loving like the dogs at house that are so happy when I come home and yet I don’t clam them or directly feed them.
He made us with this unique ability to participate in a relationship with him.
Love is not a form of control from one person over anther. Love – “real love” is about freedom not slavery. God gave us freedom by giving us free choice about the relationship. We can say No and He will not make us love him.
Almost from the beginning, people used free will to ignore God rather than to have a relationship. Remember the Adam and Eve story in Genesis.
God made a covenant community, you know one of thoes places where there are a lot of beautiful homes, the yards look great, and the cars are nice. They usually put a high fence and a fancy gate up to keep the people safe. The covenant involves paying the fees and acting properly.
God called his - the Garden of Eden. No work, free food, animals wondering around offering no danger.
Adam and Eve had a relationship, a (hi God), first name basis relationship with GOD. Until that whole eating from the tree thing happened in Chapter 3. - Man and woman exorcized their free will because they wanted something more. Something more than a first name relationship with God.
Free will is a sign of the love of God, free will is the gift of freedom that is give by a loving creator..
The Bible is a love story. It is a story about God’s love for humanity, after the fall, after murders after disobedience. Even when mankind’s lives are filled with sin.
Through out the OT we read about God repeatedly inviting man into a covenant relationship – a mutual relationship of love. Noah, Abraham, both had covenants with God for mankind and their personal benefit.
A covenant is not God’s call for blind worship; he seeks our love in return for the affection he has already shown. He seeks a mutual love relationship.
If we recognize and accept God’s love, we will be transformed. For most people it seems like a very slow process, the kind of thing that takes a life time.
However, God pursues us throughout our lives. The theological term - prevenient grace, - grace that goes on before we even notice anything about God. Perhaps a movement of Grace that leads us to another step that God wants us to make.
Prevenient Grace OR Pre – Event Grace Is always working in our lives. We call it good luck or something like that.
But the moment we actually take notice and respond, is the moment we are justified. Our sins forgiven and / our lives empowered to trust God for something new. All we do id open our eyes and understand in our hearts and God does the rest. That is what the theologians call justifying grace.
We can not make ourselves right with God on our own, only by grace through faith- faith in God’s unqualified love toward us in Jesus Christ.
This means God loves us just as we are, not for how good or holy we can be. Even when we feel unacceptable to God, God accepts us.
Even when we fail God, God forgives us and is ready to give us another chance. Even when we see no future for ourselves God prepares a way, opening the future in ways we cannot imagine.
Accepting God’s unconditional Love is the basis of a Christian life.
Believing that nothing can separate us from God’s Love.
Nothing we do can make God stop loving us.
Too many people end up ignoring God’s love. The loose sight of Tod;s hand on their lives and the world.
Why would they do that?
-Arrogance –
Many people are sure they know what they want and how to get it. We get a little knowledge and it goes to our heads instead of our hearts and we all too often look down on everything in life.
It happens to Christians as often as it happens to non-Christians. When ever a person thinks I am glad I am not that bad., they are showing signs of arrogance which, will lead them to separate themselves from the love of God.
Many people have been taught misleading images of God. Some describe the wrath of God without ever talking about the Love of God. Some teach complete adherence to specific sections of scripture and ignore others. We can’t pick and choose without taking a look at all the information. In his letters, Paul confronts the teachings of others who come and teach another gospel. He calls for the churches to rely on the good news that brought them to faith.
-Some ignore God’s love because of a desire to be in control-
Trusting God with our needs, happiness, and life purpose is scary. We’d rather trust ourselves, our money or experience. The scriptures tell us about trust in at least two ways, by devotion and in advice.
2 Samuel 22: 3 ( Represents devotion )
3 my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—
from violent men you save me.
In NT 1 Tim 6:17 (Represents Advice)
17Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
Because of God’s love which allowed our Free Will we have the freedom to see what we want and go for it without listening to the wisdom or the love of God.
-Another reason some people ignore God is a doubt about the reality of God-
Some wonder if God is a figment of the human imagination. They say it is some primal need to find a higher power or authority…So where would that feeling come from? Another Time..
Many wonder if God is trustworthy - perhaps Adam and Eve is a good example.
Genesis 3:4-5
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
It is so easy to thinks that God id holding back and hiding something.
It seems that mankind is doomed to think something is up with God. So much of this world is untrustworthy…it is all to easy to smear God with the same feelings.
Still another excuse to ignore God is Pressure from others-
The power of peer pressure, we tend to go with the flow and let peers decide what we think. I am not just talking about kids here…. Adults are just as bad.
Not that any of us would like to admit it, we like to think that we are individuals…that totally make our own choices. But it we examine ourselves We all probably find some influences from peers. Not that we will die our hair purple or do some other crazy stunt…But the influences can lad us away from God.
We can let out lives become less fun in an attempt to be holy because, some might believe that you can’t have fun and be a Christian.
-So what are the effects of ignoring God’s love?
How about emptiness that we constantly try to fill?
The philosopher and scientist, Blasé Pascal said: "Every man has a God shaped void in his soul."
He is describing an empty space meant for our creator. That can never be filled with anything except the exact missing peace. We mistakenly think we can fill in the empty space with more things, more power or more of anything that makes you feel good about yourself. And less of an acceptance that there s a god that Loves you.
-Another effect of ignoring God is pain and guilt when we live against God’s image in us.
There is a basic sense of right and wrong in all of us, like grain in wood. People that sand furniture against the grain can damage it beyond repair if they go too long. When we live against the grain of God within us, we eventually experience guilt, inner pain, and lack of peace. It can feel like our life is totally ruined.
Like Adam and Eve, we seek ways to hide from God and even from ourselves.
When we ignore God it is like we are hiding in the bushes thinking nobody can see us.
The longer we ignore God the lower our self-image, low self-esteem, bad feelings about who we are.
You see when we are apart from God, we are like cut flowers. We loose our God given inner joy, and we are already dead and just don’t know it yet.
The vase of water, are pleasures of this world, are a short lived substution for the love of God and the end still comes.
We feel sorry for ourselves and give up on ourselves.
We get angry at the world for our troubles; we blame others.
-How would we accept the love relationship God offers?
Begin by choosing to be open to God.
Be open the possibility that God Exist and has an interest I your life and desires.
Believe God communicates. The Bible’s whole message is that God speaks. Find out if that is true. Listen for his voice when you read the bible. Listen to his voice when you listen to people that god places in your live. Especially the ones that have survived the struggles of faith that endured with God’s help the pain and sorrows of life..
Believe that God is around, just waiting to hear from you. But YOU have to we willing to participate and be open to a new relationship.
We can’t ignore God forever; God searches us out. He is so patient. And He can out wait you. Because, God yearns for relationship with you.
A relationship is a living thing. It should not be one way and unfortunately We leave God hanging line that all to often as we fait to notice his attempts to get out attention.
A story of Adam and Eve’ denying God, Adam and Eve hide from God. They are naked, afraid and ashamed. They know they have separated themselves from their maker’s love.
Yet God searches for them with love and calls their names: Adam, Eve, Where are you? I want a relationship with you.
God seeks us and calls our names as well, saying , Tom, Sandy, Fred………., Where are you?
God invites us to say yes to the offer of relationship. What will be your response?
We something even refuses to come to the party that God wants to offer all of us. We might have reasons, but I hope that you will be open to god’s call to a new and improved relationship.
All Gory be to God!
