A BIBLICAL VIEW OF THE "LOVE OF GOD"
Various Scriptures
• Have taken a couple of weeks in aftermath of Katrina for "Storm Stories", this message has been burned into my psyche.
• Candidly - Some messages are better understood
"After the storm" because in the aftermath of a storm we are more inclined to listen to truths which, at other times,we do not care to hear the truth because some of the content is not what we desire to hear.
• The message today is like the conception to birth of a baby. This message was conceived on Sunday August 28, 2005 and was "brought to life on Wednesday, August 31st. It was implanted in my heart as I drove to my parent’s house on that Sunday evening. It then became an embryo on Monday as the worse of the Katrina bore down on us in South Mississippi. It was "carried to full term on Tuesday as I listened to a Catholic Priest and a reporter discuss this very subject on a news report. Finally, on Wednesday Evening at my parent’s house, I got up in middle of night to deliver the baby that is now this message.
• Ladies, I mean no disrepect in drawing this parallel, just know that two thoughts come to my mind. First, this was indeed like having labor pains!! Secondly, I really didn’t care to deliver this particular baby. You may ask "Why?" and the answer is simple. This message possesses a large, sharp, and ominous looking hook.
• Consider with me the situation in which this message comes. We are living in an area in which many people who have lost every material possession they own. From the view point of many--which coincides with the opinion of the world as well as many church-going people--this devestation cannot be a part of God’s hand. The thinking goes something like this: "God is a loving God, and a loving God would not allow this catastrophe." While this thinking seems to "fit" modern day America, it doesn’t seem to ’square’ with the Bible. As a serious student of God’s word, my question is this, "If this is NOT God’s hand, who has taken over God’s place in this world?"
• In our present day churches and cultures there has seemingly been taught & in some measure, we have bought into a simplistic and “one-dimensional” view of the love of God. For many years Evangelist Oral Roberts began his telelvision show with the song, “Something Good is going to happen to you." Honestly, we have literally shouted "a part" of Romans 8:28 as a battle cry. You know which part we have leaned on, "For we know that all things work together for good..." Although this is scripture, it is only "half" of this scripture and my dad taught me a long time ago that a "half-truth" is a lie. I begin by saying we need to understand a ’balanced’ view of God’s love.
• When we leave this place today it is my prayerful desire to re-frame your concept about the "Love of God". My desire is to be basic, balance, and most of all Biblical in this trek.
• It is one thing to be “OFFERED the Love of God” and another thing entirely to “experience, receive, & embrace” that love.
• The Bible teaches in Romans 8:35 ”Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" In its haste to encapsule Holy God, our Culture completely misses the conduit of God’s Love flowing to us.
• Scriptures offer many texts to teach us the truth about the flow of God’s wonderful love. In Romans 8:1 it says; "Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus". The balanced love of Jehovah God begins and ends "IN" His Son, Christ Jesus. The proof of this statement can be confirmed in many other scriptures (John 3:16, Rom 5:8, etc) Our Lord Christ is the expression of God’s love in human form.
• But the question many are asking today is this, "How can a Loving God allow a catastrophy like this to happen to people that He says He loves?"
• To gain a balanced understanding, let’s take a quick look, eye-opening tour of Biblical history.
• In GENESIS we find the story of creation. Did you realize that Chapter 2 is the only chapter in the Old Testament which displays the Paradise which God intended for mankind for all time. He had designed a perfect world free from hurt, pain, and yes even disasters. However, in Chapter 3, that sorry, slippery, serpent, Satan slid into the Garden, convinced Eve to disobey God and, like a cancer, sin entered this paradise to begin eating away at this perfect world God had created. In Chapter 4 murder arrived on the scene. The result was that wickedness grew as “men sought to go his own ways”.
• By Genesis 6 we see one of the most startling verses in all of the Bible. It says, "God regretted, repented, and was sorry that HE had even created Mankind." He simply said, “I will destroy them."
• He then found Noah and offered mankind forgiveness through this one man. He sent Noah to preach for 120 years and no one listened. Why? They were all good people or so they thought, they were trying to do their best and be their best. In a modern day mindset, they only compared themselves to other and felt as if they were okay. (Sound familiar?)
• After 120 years, God sent not a category 5 storm with 35 foot title surge, but more like a category 25 Hurricane with a 300 foot surge. All living things were destroyed. Except for those in the ark, the world was gone. The question could be asked, "God did this?" The answer is yes, but we are far from through.
• The 18th chapter of Genesis reveals the story of Abraham & Lot. After Abraham is heard begging for the city, God sent Abraham to find 10 righteous men living in the city. When Abraham failed, God sent (what a close reading will give you the sense of) an erupting Volcano destroying and covering the city.
• You see, God’s love is a balanced love. He will only allow us to go “so far” as a people before He responds out of LOVE. And He does this because HE knows best.
• Allow me to elaborate on one more instance of God’s love. Consider Jeremiah 25. You will remember that the Jewish people are God’s chosen people. Yet, HIS chosen people continue to turn their backs on this loving and caring Heavenly Father. So what does God do? God uses a heathen, blood-thirsty, ungodly ruler named Nebuchadnezzar to bring His own special people to their knees.
• The question we ask when hearing these truths is "why?" Why would a loving God not only allow this to happen but be responsible for sending this grief, suffering, and pain on His "crown creation?"
• The answer to this question is relatively simple. It is the same reason you discipline your children (in a sense—your creation). You know best, You want the best, and want it so badly for your offsprings that you are willing to administer discipline. I don’t know about you, but my Bible teaches ’to spare the rod is to spoil the child’. My dad certainly believed that truth, I believe that truth because God’s word teaches that truth.
• But consider this with me: If God can use a Nebuchadnezzar to bring Israel to their knees, what makes us think He can’t use a McVay or Bin Laudin to bring this country to her knees? If God can use a Volcano to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah what makes us believe that the 1989 earthquake seen on National Television was not His doing? If God can use a flood to destroy the entire world because of the wickedness of mankind, why do we think Him incapable of using a hurricane to focus our attention back on Him.
• I submit we have played by our own rules, lived with our own priorities, made our own determination of good and bad as well as right and wrong until today’s culture is like it was during the days of Moses. In Deuteronomy 12:8 "..everyone is doing whatever seems right in his own eyes."
• God love is "calling us today". In the aftermath of this tragedy there are three callings which He gives:
1) CALL TO REPENT
• I submit this is the most UNPOPULAR call which God extends. why? To repent means to admit you’ve done something wrong, had a wrong mindset, gone a wrong direction, made a wrong decision. Today we do not care to admit any wrongs. Yet, repentance is a requirement for all people.
• In Rev 2:5, as John pens the letter to the church at Ephesus, there are 3 r’s which are mentioned. Remember, Repent, and Return. What a picture for us to see.
• What is the meaning of repentance? Literally it means a change of mind, a change of heart, and/or a change of direction. It is required that we turn from one thing (from sin, there are several lists in the Bible of things we need to turn FROM: Rom 1:22ff/ Eph 4/ Col 3/ 1 Pet 3 / James 4:17 ) & turn to something or someone else (Christ).
• This truth begs the question: “what do you have in your life that is displeasing to God?" What is the Answer? Simple, Repent. It is a call.
There is also a second call
2) CALL TO RIGHTEOUSNESS –
• What does it mean to be "righteous?" As I’ve already mentioned, I suggest it means being “right according to GOD.” We must understand that since the Garden of Eden God’s standard of behavior, action, or living, has not ever been reduced. We may like to think that it has, that we can do it OUR way, and that the level of holiness and obedience has changed, but nothing we can do will make this true. We try to change the standard and instead of trying to become like “Christ”, we place our standard as our friends, neighbors, or even the pastor. Problem is, that none of these are God desired standard to which we should compare ourselves.
• Jesus taught us about righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matt 5:6, He said, "blessed are those who hunger & thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.”
• Some in this building know what it is to be hungry and thirsty? Because after the storm food and water were scarce. However, just the thought of being hungry and thirsty was motivation enough to give us the patient endurance to stand in long lines. (I.E. 3 hours for gas, 2 hours for water, 4 hours generator)
• How sad it is that we will stand for 4 hours in line for water & food for the body but hardly 40 minutes in search of food for the soul. The result is we miss the "washing of our souls with the water of the word."
• I submit to you this morning that God’s love gives a call to repent and a call to righteousness, but also
3) CALL TO RESPOND –
• He call us to respond to His overwhelming and overflowing Love.
• This call has gone out since the beginning of time. It is a call which was repeated by Jesus when He said, "Come unto me, all ye who are weary..". It was repeated on Calvary’s cross when Jesus said, "forgive them, they know not what they do", and it was continually displayed on crucifixion day as our Lord uttered those final words, "it is finished". God’s love plan for man is seen in the most brutal, barbaric and horrendous death ever witnessed in history.
• That day on Golgatha, with God’s love on display, we saw the 2 sides or the balanced view of God’s love. God certainly loved His own Son yet He allowed the tragedy of Calvary, the pain of the nailed, the hurt of the thorns, and the loss of life to occur. God orchestrated it. And it happened according to His plan. Why? Because of His perfect and complete love.
•Today we can do one of three things with His love:
First, we can reject His love. We can say, "No thanks God, I don’t need you, I have my own plan". This is not smart but it is an option
Next, we can replace His love. This is the person who thinks "church" has the answer. Oh yea, we attend (even faithfully), we teach a class, sing in the choir, but our lives do not refect the walk with Christ which is evident. We have determined we know better than the Bible so we "have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof" by replacing His irreplaceable word in our lives.
Finally, we can receive His love. We are called to respond by receiving all God has for us. What exactly does God’s love offer us? A "payment in full" for our sin. He offers us His only Son, Jesus, to forgive our sin, cleanse our souls, and take control of our lives. God’s love is reaching for you today. Romans 5 tells us that God’s love is shed abroad” or “poured out”. How? By the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus.
• His love reaches. His love is determined and will stop at nothing, not even the brutal death of His only Son. He wants you and me to respond to His love.
In closing, when I personally consider the Biblical, Balanced view of God’s love along side of tragedies like hurricanes Katrina, Ivan, Camille, or any other. Today, the question in my mind is not “why”, but “why not”. The real question is not “why was it so bad?” but rather, “why was it not worse (and more often)?”
We have been created & designed to walk with God in the cool of the day and have chosen to walk on our own in the heat of the day.
Seems that every time God gives us an opportunity of grace to “remember”, “repent”, “return”, we seem to play “bait and switch”. All the while thinking we are fooling God.
This morning God, in His love (a costly love), has given this group of people a choice. He has made a way to reconnect. WHAT WILL YOU DO?
