God’s love is a special love. The person on the street and the person in church on Sunday all need to understand the love of God. An understanding of God’s love will affect your faith. An understanding of God’s love will affect your opinion of yourself. An understanding of God’s love will affect your service to God. An understanding of God’s love will affect your perspective of life. It is vitally important that we come to understand God’s special love for us.
Illustration: Last week I read a story that perfectly illustrates this truth. Dr. Howard Thurman served in missions in India. On one occasion, when he was preaching, a poor Indian boy from one of the villages heard him preach. After Dr. and Mrs. Thurman had gone to bed that night there was a timid knock at their door. Opening the door they saw this boy standing there, wearing the clothing of one of India’s untouchables. The boy said “I listened to you today and I want to ask you, Can you give hope to a nobody.” (P. 89, Living Illustrations, J.B. Fowler, Jr.) That boy needed to understand that he is special and that God loves him.
- The person who has attempted suicide needs to understand that God loves them.
- The person who has been in trouble with the law needs to understand that God loves them.
- The person who has had a personal failure in life needs to understand that God loves them.
- The person who has been through an abortion needs to understand that God loves them.
- The teenager who is struggling with self esteem issues needs to understand that God loves them.
- The adult who has been through a difficult time at work needs to understand that God loves them.
Every person needs to understand the love of God. In good times and bad, on good days and bad and even when we do not love ourselves God loves us.
The Bible helps us with our understanding of God’s love. Look at I John 4:7-21. In the original Greek language there were four words for love.
• Eros- refers to erotic love
• Storge- refers to family love
• Phileo- refers to brotherly love
• Agape- refers to God’s love
In I John 4:7-21 the word agape or a derivative occurs 27 times. When God repeats a word this many times He expects us to listen. He wants us to see the wonderful nature of His love. God cares about us! He loves us! Today, I want to define and describe the special nature of God’s love. I will define and describe God’s love under three categories.
1. God’s love is a Steadfast Love ( 9 ). Let me remind you of the definition of steadfast. According to Webster steadfast means firm, fixed, settled, or established. Thus, God loves us with a firm, settled and established love. It is not something that wavers with the changing times.
Illustration: C.H. Spurgeon told the story of the preacher who was walking in the country side and stopped by a farm house for a drink of water. The old farmer who lived there went out to talk to the preacher. As they were talking the preacher noticed that the barn had a weather vane on it that was spinning around in the wind. On the weather vane the words "GOD IS LOVE" was engraved. The preacher said to the man, "I don’t think that is a very good way to talk about God’s love. Are you saying that God’s love is Wishy Washy and changes depending on the way the wind blows?" " No, no" said the farmer. "That Weather Vane is saying, "No matter which way the wind blows, God is Love."
(Contributed to Sermon Central by Larry Jacobs)
A. God’s steadfast love continues when we do not deserve it. That is the essence of God’s relationship with man. God loves us even though we are sinners.
Illustration: On Saturday, September 18, 1982, the U.S. government released the results of a sad investigation. The government determined that an army soldier stationed in Korea had been a defector to the Communists. According to the investigation, on August 28, 1982, this twenty-year-old private willingly crossed the Korean Demilitarized Zone into North Korea “for motives that are not known.” His fellow American soldiers pleaded with him to turn back, but he did not respond.
The day after the findings were released, the parents of the young man held a press conference on the lawn of their St. Louis home. Wiping tears from his eyes, the father said that they had accepted the fact that their son was indeed a defector. “He has lost his credibility in this country, even with me, “said the man. But then he showed the heart of a father, “I still love my son,” he said, “and want him back.”
(Illustration 74, Contemporary Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers, Craig Brian Larson) Many people would say that soldier did not deserve such love.
B. God’s steadfast love will go to any lengths. In our text it states that Jesus died as a penalty for our sins. The message of Easter is that God paid the ultimate price to display His love for us.
C. God’s steadfast love continues when we do not love ourselves. We have a good example of this in the Bible. David, who was the greatest king of Israel, made some bad decisions and poor choices that broke the heart of God. He committed a sexual sin that hurt many and brought disgrace on himself. Think about what he said about himself. “Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned” (Ps. 51:2-4 NLT)
Illustration: Lee Strobel shares a story that illustrates how we sometimes dislike ourselves. We were doing a baptism service. We told people before they came up to the platform to be baptized to take a piece of paper, write down a few of the sins they’ve committed, and fold the paper. When they come up to the platform, there was a large wooden cross on the stage. Take that piece of paper, take a pin and pin it to the cross, because the Bible says our sins are nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ, and fully paid for by his death. Then turn and come to the pastor to be baptized.
I want to read you a letter a woman wrote who was baptized in one of those services. She said: I remember my fear. In fact, it was the most fear I remember in my life. I wrote as tiny as I could on that piece of paper the word abortion. I was so scared someone would open the paper and read it and find out it was me. I wanted to get up and walk out of the auditorium during the service, the guilt and fear were that strong. When my turn came, I walked toward the cross, and I pinned the paper there. I was directed to a pastor to be baptized. He looked me straight in the eyes, and I thought for sure that he was going to read this terrible secret I kept from everybody for so long. But instead, I felt like God was telling me, I love you. It’s okay. You’ve been forgiven. I felt so much love for me, a terrible sinner. It’s the first time I ever really felt forgiveness and unconditional love. It was unbelievable, indescribable.
[Abortion Guilt Removed, Citation: Lee Strobel, "Meet the Jesus I Know," Preaching Today tape no. 211] Contributed by: A. Todd Coget)
That lady discovered that God loved her even when she did not love herself.
D. God’s steadfast love continues in difficult times. Sometimes when we go through difficult times we may question God’s love for us. We may doubt the goodness of God. There is a passage of scripture in the book of Habakkuk that should help us with this.
“Fig trees may not grow figs, and there may be no grapes on the vines. There may be no olives growing and no food growing in the fields. There may be no sheep in the pens and no cattle in the barns. But I will still be glad in the LORD; I will rejoice in God my Savior. The Lord GOD is my strength. (Hab. 3:17-19 NCV)
2. God’s love is a Satisfying love (17-19). We know what it means to be satisfied. If your favorite team makes it to the finals, you are satisfied. If you finish a good meal you will feel a sense of satisfaction. It you are sitting at your favorite fishing hole catching fish, you will feel as sense of satisfaction. However, in the spiritual realm you find the ultimate satisfaction. John addresses this satisfaction in verses 17-19. This satisfaction expresses itself in three ways.
In verse 17 John points out that when you meet Jesus God gives you “boldness in the day of judgment.” The Bible says we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Fear of judgment is a horrible thing. Many people live their lives as if there is not going to be a day of accountability. John says the person who is secure in Christ does not have to fear that day.
Illustration: Most of us have experienced the rush of blood when we looked into the mirror and saw a blue light flashing in our mirror. The fear of judgment caused that rush. The Bible teaches that there is a final judgment coming. There will be no backing away from that judgment. Are you ready?
In verse 18 John points out that Jesus satisfies by giving assurance during times of fear.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”(vs. 18 NKJV)
In verse 19 John points out that Jesus satisfies by giving us His love. “We love Him because He first loved us.”(vs. 19 NKJV) “There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, There is nothing we can do to make God love us less.”
(SOURCE: Philip Yancey, "What’s So Amazing About Grace?")
Television advertisements portray people who are satisfied. We see Bowflex advertisements which show people with bulging muscles who are satisfied with their exercise machine. Weight loss advertisements show skinny people who are satisfied with a weight control product.
Some years ago there was a Rev. Williams who pastored in Norfolk, VA. One week he telephoned the local newspaper to share his sermon topic, which was to be printed in their newspaper ad. He told the reporter the sermon topic was “The Lord is my Shepherd.” The newspaper worker said “Is that all?” He replied “That’s enough.” The following weekend the paper carried the title “The Lord is my Shepherd---that’s enough.”
(Sermon 1955 in Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, Paul Lee Tan) Even though the topic was printed in error it was correct. The essence of I John 4:17-21 is God loves us and that’s enough.
I pray that you will understand by faith the tremendous love of God. He loves you with a special love.
