How does God love?

I preached this sermon 10/15/08


Introduction:
I want to talk to you guys tonight about God’s love and what that looks like and how we can find this great Love. We sing the song How He Loves and it’s an amazing song speaking about how God loves us so much. I love that song and it really speaks to my heart when we sing it. I decided to talk about God’s love because I was reading these fiction books by author Ted Dekker. They are called the Circle Trilogy Black, Red, and White. It’s a story about this guy from our time era living in Denver, Colorado and he has gotten involved with the mafia to pay off some family debt but now the mafia people are looking for him to repay them. Well one night on his way home from work he is attacked by a gunman and he gets shot in the head and he wakes us into the future, In this future it is very simple. No computers, no cell phones, no cars, no crime, nothing whatsoever. It’s this great colored forest and across the river is the black forest where the evil one lives. The people their worship this God called Elyon and well as the story goes on it, A great deception happens and it goes on until Elyon sends Justin to die for everyone. And during this time he finds out about a huge virus that is going to wipe out the entire earth that happens in the Histories and he learns about it and is trying to stop it in our world or the histories as the future calls it. It talks about in the books about Elyons love for his people and it’s really an allegory about God’s love for us and that is what I’m going to talk about tonight. So let’s look at how does God love?
I. He chooses
We don’t choose God, He chooses us but it’s our choice to accept that and Him into our lives. He has chosen us since before time began. Ephesians 1:4-6 says: “4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he[a] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” God has chosen us to be holy and blameless in his sight. This doesn’t mean we have to be perfect and be sinless because we can’t do that. We are not Jesus. Living a life without sin cannot be done. It is our choice to sin. We can’t live a life without sin but we can live a life without choosing to sin. I believe the only way that this can be done is Love. God loves us so much that while we were still sinners, He died for us, the Romans 5:8 in the Message Bible says 6-8Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. and according to Ephesians 1:5 he adopted us into his family. Romans 8:29 in the NLT says 29 For God knew his people in advance and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. God knows us and yet He still chooses us everyday to be in His family and He will never change his mind. The Bible says that God does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
II. He pursues
God pursues us. We would never seek God if He didn’t seek us first. God wants a relationship with you. He want us to want to pursue a relationship with Him. He doesn’t wait for us to be ready for Him. Remember the verse I read earlier that said He didn’t wait and doesn’t wait until we’re ready. I’m reminded of Genesis 3:9 where Adam and Eve had just sinned against God and God goes out seeking them. Looking for them and yet they were hiding. I’m sure God knew where they were at. They weren’t playing some game of Hide and Seek because God knows where they were at. But He asks the question. “ Where are you?” It wasn’t until after God looked for them that they responded. It is shown in many places in the Bible that God pursues us first. We would never look for God because we think We do not need God. John 6:44 says 44"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. God is relentless when He pursues us. I was going to have many verses on How God pursues us but then I realized that the whole Bible is God’s love letter that He pursues us with. I’m sorry guys but it’s a Great Romance. It’s one huge love story to us. It’s filled with so much love. I have to admit and I’m sure Darrin would admit it as well but we’re suckers to love stories. My three favorite chick flicks/ love stories are P.S. I love you, The Notebook and A lot like Love. Darrin has told me his favorites as well. Girls, your not the only one who can enjoy love stories. God has written one for us, For all of us. God loves us so much that He pursues us and wants a relationship with Him. It’s our choice to choose Him. He chose and pursued us. Let’s continue on…
III. He Rescues us
After God chooses us and pursues us, Next He rescues us. Does anyone know what God rescues us from? Sin but not just sin, but from our own sinful self. He rescued us from perishing into hell. John 3:16-17 talks about this. 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. God loves us so much that He gave us his only Son so that way we would not perish and die but he saved us from death, hell, and the grave. We now have eternal life with God up in heaven because of His love. Ephesians 1:4 says: 4who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, God gave himself to rescue us from our present evil age, our present life of sin. We are evil and he has rescued us from that. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 says 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath. Jesus has rescued us from the coming wrath. He did that by dying for our sins. He does this by rescuing us from the wrath of God for our sins. God rescued us. It’s like those movies where the damsel in distress is taken by the evil bad guy and the Hero comes and saves the day. I’m sorry but we’re that damsel in distress. We need rescuing from ourselves. We need rescuing from this world who hates us. God has rescued us from the evil one. God is still in the rescuing business and He has rescued your friends by sending Jesus. He gave His life for us. Why aren’t we doing something about that? Why aren’t we telling them about this great love?
IV. We Choose God
We know that God has chosen us, and that God has pursued after us, and that God sent Christ to rescue us. Now We need to know how to choose God. How do we do this? We need to accept what God did for us. God has given his grace to us. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve. He gives us freedom from the punishment we deserve for our sins. We are evil and we do not deserve grace but God choose to give us this grace. We need to accept Jesus into our lives and become Christ-Followers. Our gross and sinful selves are now sons and daughters of the Ever-Living God. God has freely given us His son so we can know his glorious grace. Romans 10:9 says, “If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.” God has made choosing Him, very simple in our complicated religious world. The bible says in Romans 10:12, “Whosover calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” So it takes three things to be saved.. They are called the ABC’s of salvation. A- Admit we are a sinner. We need to tell God that we have messed up. We don’t need a special prayer to do this. We just need to accept that we can’t do this on our own, that we are screw-ups and need help. That we are evil and without God we are bound for hell. B- Believe in your heart that God gave his son to die and that Jesus is still alive today. This is very simple to do. C- Confess with your Mouth that Jesus is your Lord and Savior. This is the hardest of the three to do. That doesn’t mean just doing here while we are at church and the music is going or when we sit through a sermon of P. Skips. This means doing it out there when nobody is watching and living a life of love. Let your life confess that you are different because of God’s love.
V. He woos us
God woos us. What does that mean? The definition of woos is too seek the affection of with the intention to romance. It’s like those movies where the guy is doing all this stuff trying to get the girls attention. However God doesn’t look stupid or cheesy doing it. Zephaniah 3:17 says: 17 The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save, He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. God woos us by saving us, by being with us, by taking great delight in us, by quieting us with His great love, by rejoicing over us with singing. God wants our affection, He doesn’t need it. God needs nothing from us. We should be willing to give God our affection and worship is the greatest way to show it. Song of Solomon 2:4 says that His banner of us is Love. Anymore people use the term flags instead of banners. Flags are there so we can recognize who that is. The American Flag is known to everyone that it symbolizes America. The same thing is about God’s banner. It shows everyone that WE ARE GOD’S CHILD and HE LOVES US. Jesus Christ is God’s banner of love over us. It is God’s unfathomable love. It’s His arms over us and is shouting to everyone and saying I love this child. He whispers it to us when we listen. God woos us with His Love. God wants to have a relationship with us. God wants to bless us. God lavishes us with blessings, gifts, His love, and most important part of love is His grace. Ephesians 1:7-8 says “7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” God’s greatest gift that he lavished on us is His grace. God knew and understood since the beginning of time that He would have to send His Son to die for us. That is the greatest gift that God gave us. God gives us so much. He gives us life each morning, He gives us food to eat, a shelter, clothes and many other blessings. God lavishes us with the His beauty and we can see that evident in the world which He has created. God created this earth for us to live on and enjoy. God loves us so much that he wants us to experience who he is. God is love (1 John 4:8,16)

VI. He protects us
God keeps us safe. Many times we allow our faith to be hindered by the problems in our life that we forget that God is in control and He does know what’s going on. God gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us and give us the power to protect us. God’s word says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. It also says that we are more than conquerors, over the enemy and ourselves. Just remember that God is on our side according to Romans 8:31. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” So remember that God is on your side protecting you but you have to remember also that when we go through horrible things in our life that we have to persevere because God has something great for us. God doesn’t want us to be in pain. He wants us to be safe. We go through things such as love ones dying, sexual temptations, parents getting divorce, and other problems. The Bible says we should consider it pure joy when we go through trials and temptations. (James 1:2-4) It says that it tests are faith and causes us to persevere through the difficult times. Why should we consider these things pure joy? We should know that God would not let us go through something that He knows we can’t handle it, and that it is causing our faith in God to grow if we continue to live for God. God protects because He loves us. He doesn’t want anything bad to happen to you. He wants a relationship with you. God protects us while we pursue Him through his Word, through worship, through prayer, through reaching out to others around us.


VII. Conclusion
So How Does God love? God first off chooses us, it’s up to us to decide to choose Him back, then God pursues us because we would never pursue a relationship with God if He didn’t act first. God rescued us from our sins by sending Jesus to die on the cross. God wants a relationship with us, He woos us with His love by giving it abundantly. God protects us from the dangers of the world and we just need to have faith in the almighty God. God lavishes his love upon us by blessing us. The miracle we get daily is life itself. We have freedom from our sin. When we mess up, we can go to God and ask for forgiveness and He isn’t just willing to forgive us, He does! What does God ask for in return? Well what does any person who loves ask for in return. He wants to be loved. God created us to love Him. We were created to worship God because God is love. Everything about God is love. God also wants you to love others. Mark 12:30-31 “Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: “ Love your neighbor as yourself….” What does loving God with all you have look like: Do as Jesus would, Do everything you do, for God and in love. Make God first in your life. Then after God is first then love your neighbor which is anyone who is not you as you love yourself. Everyone loves themselves and you can’t deny it. Love everyone as you love yourself. God also says in John 4:8,16: “ Whoever does not love, does not know God because God is love.” 16: And so we know and rely on the love of God had for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in Him.” If you don’t live a life of love then you do not really know God. It’s really simple actually, We don’t have to go around telling people we love them even though that is great but love is an action. We need to show people that we love them! There are some of us in this room tonight that have never felt the love of God. Without His amazing love, our songs to Him are just songs without meaning, The love of God changes us and we are never the same. If you have never encountered the love of God, I want to invite you right now to give your life over to Him. The Bible says that if “We confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead we will be saved.” Remember the ABC’s Admit you’re a sinner, Believe in your heart that God has saved you, and confess with your mouth and life that Jesus is Lord. So in a second I’m going to invite all of you up. I don’t want anyone left in the chairs. But you all get the choice to decide. If you haven’t asked Jesus in your heart and you want to experience this great love, then I want you to come up now and a crew member will come up and talk with you. But for everyone else (Angel turns on music). If you want to encounter God’s great love then I want you to come up and spread out and just worship Him. If there is something hindering you from worshipping God, Then I want you to go and take care of that first. Maybe the person is here tonight or maybe not. If they are not then I want you to talk with God about it and this week I want you to go and talk to them. Tell them how they hurt you or apologize for how you hurt them. God is all about love and forgiveness. Forgiveness starts with God and you. The first step in showing God’s love is to reach out and show people that you have changed. Also spend time with God this week. Remember those notebooks Darrin gave out a couple of weeks ago. USE THEM! The rest of you, Come and immerse yourself in God’s love and just worship Him.

Existence

We all have one reason to exist and that is to worship God with everything we have. By living a life of love. Here is a great quote I found.


It is a slow and painful suicide. To exist without purpose or meaning. We are slowly regressing into a sad and pathetic state of existentialism. Some... to the most extreme by living like there is no God... others just dangle their toes in the water but never dive in by simply not fulfilling their purpose. And this has created a generation of people with a mindset that the goal is just to survive, that greatness isn’t attainable. The basis of existentialism is that there is no God. One of the prominent contributors to this notion is 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who declared "God is dead." But what Nietzsche failed to realize is that a lack of God is a lack of purpose, and therefore a lack of life. The exigency of meaning is an undeniable part of the human condition. We were created to need fulfillment. Because with out it we’d become a hopeless shell of a human being. There is an intrinsic desire in all of us to be great. And without God that desire will never be satisfied. You may become rich or famous or rich and famous, but it will never be enough. God is essential because purpose and meaning are essential. Nietzsche may have thought God was dead, but do you want to know where he ended up? He went crazy and spent the last 11 years of his life alone in an insane asylum. Without God...man exists without meaning. Its a slow and painful suicide.... the fatality of this existential mindset.