REVIEW
 
So today, I believe we are wrapping up our series entitled “God Loves You!” where we have been endeavoring to truly know the greatness of God’s love for us.  
 
We have learned a lot of things through this series of teachings—things that have ranged from how God so loved the world—that is, those who are ungodly and His enemies—to how faithful His love is towards us especially now that we are His children. We’ve seen how His love mirrors both a father’s and mother’s love. Therefore, we should not let that religious view of God and His sovereignty skew our view of the fact that God is love. We’ve also learned that just because one might think they know these things about God’s love for them, that doesn’t mean that they know it the way they can and ought to. Likewise, just because one thinks they believe that He loves them, that doesn’t mean that they truly believe it in their hearts.
 
This is why we have been looking at all of these truths about God’s love throughout this series of teachings—because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So if we want to grow in both our knowledge & faith of His love, then we need to hear it with our ears and hearts.
 
Yes, church, there is another dimension to God’s love that we need to see, know, and believe and that’s exactly what I would like to conclude with today—the four dimensions of God’s love.
 
You see, with most of us, we are seeing God’s love the way we watch a television show, a movie, or even how we look at pictures of any kind. It’s like make-believe or a fictional story that we don’t believe in our hearts is true.
 
But do you remember what it was like when they started releasing movies in 3D? We had those plastic or cardboard glasses that we wore to make the movie picture “three-dimensional”, didn’t we? Well, this brought the movie more to life to us and caused us to watch it in more of the way that we viewed the “real” things of this world— in the three spatial dimensions of width, height, and depth. You see, the physical world and everything that is observed in it are seen three dimensionally, unlike other things we view like pictures, movies, etc. that do not include depth perception.
 
Well, it would be a big step forward for most of us to move from viewing God’s love two-dimensionally to seeing it in 3D. But did you know God’s love can be seen & known in even a greater way than that?  According to the apostle Paul, it can be experienced four-dimensionally.
 
So, while I believe that we will be moving into another aspect of God’s love next week, I always like to end teachings with some of the “how to’s” of that particular subject. In other words, I want us to look at some practical ways that we can grow in our revelation of God’s love for us and go from seeing it in two dimensions to seeing it four dimensionally.  
 
You see, it’s important that we understand that we do not come to know a truth simply by hearing about it. It will require us pressing into the revelation of that subject on our own. This is why James told us not to just be hearers of the Word but to be doers thereof.
 
IN PRAISE, LOVE IS KNOWN
 
Well, I’m going to give you two very simple and practical ways that we can apply the Word on God’s love for us to our lives—and it is found in two words: PRAYER and PRAISE. Yes, I believe that by being doers of these two things, we can have our eyes opened to the single greatest revelation that we can ever have and seeing it in all the dimensions that it’s available to be seen in!
 
So let’s begin with “praise” as the Lord likes to put it on the front lines …
 
I am one that wholeheartedly believes that living a life of praise introduces us more to our God. In other words, the more we praise Him, the more we come to know Him. Now I think that a lot of people look at the exact opposite: They see it like the more we know Him, the more we will praise Him –and that’s also true— but I believe it works both ways. We can actually come to know God better through praising Him. 
 
Our evidence of this is King David: It is obvious that David knew Jehovah in a unique way. In fact, one might say that David knew His God in a way that the average Old Testament saint didn’t. While most of the Jews knew God by the things He did and what Judaism taught them, David saw the true nature of God, seeing Him as good, gracious, faithful, loving, etc. We see this in the Psalms he wrote, where He obviously saw attributes of God unbeknownst to the majority of God’s chosen people.  
 
So a good question to ask is— Why did David see and know things about God’s true nature that very few Old Testament saints saw? Was it because God just chose to reveal these things to him but not to others? No, God is no respecter of persons, so He didn’t arbitrarily select David to know things that others could not know. There was obviously something different about David or things David did that enabled him to see the things that he did. So what do you think that is?
 
Well, let’s look at what we know about David: David was called a man after God’s own heart, right? That means he shared God’s heart on things. And church, one thing we need to know about the kingdom of God is that it’s all about the heart. Yes, the condition of heart that we have will determine so many things. 
 
But I can guarantee you that I know exactly why David knew his God so well: It was because he was a praiser! Yes, early on in his life, David was well known for the fact that he played his harp and sang praises unto the Lord.  And the Bible says in Psalm 76:1 that in Judah (The Hebrew word for “praised or celebrated”), God is known. So, God is known in the arena where He is praised and celebrated. So we could say that “in Praise, Love is known.” Amen!
 
Now this does not mean that you have to have some special gifting or musical ability either. Anyone and everyone has the ability to worship God in spirit and in truth whether they have a great singing voice or instrumental abilities. Again, it’s the heart that counts. So if you have a heart after God’s, you can praise God in this way that unlocks so many of His wonderful characteristics.
 
And the good news, church, is that beholding the Lord through thanksgiving, praise, and worship changes us! It causes us to see more and more of who He is, and when it does, we begin to reflect those same attributes.
 
We see this in the life of Moses—when he was on Mount Sinai, he saw God’s glory, and this changed him. So much so, that the Bible teaches us that his very face began to shine. So what his flesh was putting off was the same glory that he was beholding on the Mount. Likewise, the apostle Paul taught us that we too can reflect the glory of God’s goodness when he said in Second Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
 
By saying, “But we all”, Paul is differentiating between “just Moses” who had this experience and “we all” under this new and better covenant who can have a similar experience. Then he said we all “with unveiled face” describing how we are no longer veiled but have the opportunity to clearly see His true glory. And how does this happen? As we are “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord …”! 
 
Now that phrase “as in a mirror” is important because it shows us that like a mirror reflects the image of the thing beholding it, we reflect the image of the One we are beholding through praise. In other words, we become like what we praise. Glory!
 
So if I constantly behold God’s goodness, I become more good. If I constantly behold God’s faithfulness, I will become more faithful. And if I behold His love, then I will be filled with more of that love! Yes, just like the Scriptures tell us that the mountain melted like wax in the presence of the Lord (See Psalm 97:5), the mountains of carnality and hardness of heart will melt away in the Lord’s presence as well.
 
PRESSING INTO LOVE THROUGH PRAYER
 
Here shortly, I want us to look at a few of these things that the Psalmists had revealed to them in praise and that David’s praise life unlocked for him personally, but before I do let’s look now at the other way that we can unlock the revelation of God’s love—prayer. 
 
Let’s go back over to a passage of Scripture that we looked at in part one of this series—a prayer that the apostle Paul prayed for the church of Ephesus to know Christ’s love for them—Ephesians 3:14-20. We went through this prayer then and I encouraged you to start praying this prayer over yourself because in it, we have a Scripturally, God-inspired prayer that works.
 
You see, I am a big proponent of praying these Pauline prayers over ourselves. I had learned that the best prayers one could ever pray over themselves and the ones they loved were Scriptural prayers.
 
You see, one of the most important things we can learn about prayer is the importance of praying the will of God. If we are praying against the will of God our prayers will go nowhere. It’s important for us to sometimes include “Nevertheless, not what I will but your will be done” to our prayers but God doesn’t want us to use that as an excuse for ignorance. That is why the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5:17- “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” You see, God’s will is for us to fully understand His will!
 
Someone might ask, “Then how do I know the will of God?” The Word of God is the will of God! Yes, the Bible contains within it a perfect expression of what the Lord desires for our lives. Therefore, if I want to pray God’s will, the best way to do so is to pray Scripturally God-inspired prayers.
 
And, in my opinion, some of the best Bible based prayers are the ones that the apostle Paul prayed for his churches. Yes, these are New Testament based prayers that reveal to us God’s perfect will for His church.
 
So once I learned this, I started praying these prayers over myself. And specifically, when I prayed this one in Ephesians chapter 3, the Lord started revealing His love to me in four-dimensions. Let me explain … 
 
In Ephesians 3:14-19, the apostle Paul prayed this prayer over the church of Ephesus, saying, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
 
Notice in this prayer, in verse 17, that Paul prayed that they “may be able to comprehend”: Now Paul had just prayed that they would be rooted and grounded in love. So the phrase “may be able” means building our lives on His love is what “enables” us to comprehend all the dimensions of that love.
 
We’ve looked at this before, but the translation “comprehend” here is not the best. The Greek word Paul used here literally describes “taking” something or “laying hold” of it. A better translation of this word might be “apprehend,” which is exactly what we have been talking about in this series—that it’s not good enough to “comprehend” His love; we need to “apprehend” it. In other words, we don’t just need to know it in our heads, but we need to capture it in our hearts. Amen!
 
But the thing we need to understand about Christ’s love is that we will never be able to fully apprehend it! And the reason for this is because of its height, width, length, and depth! In other words, it is so vast that it is going to take us all eternity to grasp it! It’s awesome and incomprehensible!
 
SEEING HIS LOVE IN 4D
 
However, what we can do is come to “take” or “lay hold” of it here a little and there a little. Yes, we can do what the Message Bible says when translating verses 17-19— “You’ll be able to take in with all the Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.”
 
So as I began to pray this prayer over myself, something started happening. I began having the Lord teach me about the various attributes of His love. He started showing me things about His mercy, His faithfulness, His righteousness, etc.—the same things that the psalmists had revealed to them. So in learning about His love, I found that the various dimensions of it are all the rest of the virtues that Love possesses.
 
Let’s end today by looking at some of these verses that talk about all the dimensions of God’s love …
 
Let’s start with the “width” of God’s love …
 
How wide is Christ’s love, you ask? John 3:16 gives us that answer: “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” God so loves everyone in the world, even the worse sinner. His love is wide enough for anyone and everyone—no matter our sex, race, color, etc. No, there are no number of sinners that His wide wingspan is not both able and willing to embrace. This means it doesn’t matter who we are, in Christ Jesus, we are all accepted in the Beloved.
 
We see this in the life of Jesus, who was said to be the express image of God’s person (See Hebrews 1:3). This means that Jesus showed us the heart of God’s love for His creation because He only did what He saw the Father doing and said what He heard the Father saying. Yes, His arms were wide open! Yes, there was no one that Jesus Christ wouldn’t accept and embrace. He loved the saint. He loved the sinner. He loved the Pharisee. He loved the tax collector. He loved Peter. He loved Pilate. Heck, He even loved Judas.  
 
The King James version uses the term “breadth” here for “width,” breadth being the distance or measurement from the side to side of something. So not only does this “width” describe how wide His arms are spread for His creation, but “breadth” also describes something that is accommodating, where there is ample space and room to breathe. It describes how encompassing it is. So God’s accommodating love encompasses all—the lovely and the unlovely, the likeable and the unlikeable, etc. His love does not discriminate. It is broad and open to all—whosoever will come.
 
So I see the “breadth” of God’s love as describing the “broad place” that His love desires to place us: Psalm 118:5 says, “I called on the Lord in distress; The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.” Psalm 18:19 says, “He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.”
 
Now let’s look at the “length” of God’s love …
 
This describes how far His love reaches. God’s love is longsuffering and He is able to save to the uttermost (See Hebrews 7:25) This speaks of how His love is willing to endure. His love truly does endure forever (See Psalm 136)!
 
So when I look at length, I see how far His love will go. And let me assure you, church, His love will endure and bear with us much longer than we would ever imagine. When we are ready to give up on people; His love is just getting started.
 
Now the “depth” of His love describes how deep His love would go for us. And let me tell you, for Jesus to first of all, come down from heaven to the earth to become a man is FAR more than we ever deserved. Love lowered Himself to the depths of the earth.
 
But love didn’t stop there: Even when dwelt among us, He lowered Himself to unimaginable depths by making Himself like a bondservant to His creation. No, He did not come to be served, but to serve. We see this fulfilled in the Gospel of John when Jesus girded Himself like a slave and washed His disciple’s feet.
 
But then He went to even greater depths by dying on the Cross and descending to the lower parts of the earth for us! Thank You, Jesus! Yes, He made His bed in hell for you and me to fully complete our redemption!
 
Jesus went to these “depths” all because of God’s great love for us! If I go to the pit of hell, He will be there. Yea though I walk through the shadow of death, He is there with me!
 
Well did Paul say in Romans 11:33 – “Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.”
 
And finally, we have the “height” of His love …
 
This gives us such a graphic illustration of how vast His love is. In fact this was an example that the psalmists used time and time again to show how great His love is. Let’s look at a couple of them.
 
I love what David said in Psalm 36:5-7 when he said, “Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O Lord, You preserve man and beast. How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.”
 
Notice how David describes the various attributes of God from the highest dimension that mankind knows to the lowest: He begins in the “heavens”, which is obviously talking about the universe around where we see the sun, moon, and stars. Then he moves down to the “clouds” which describe the atmospheric heavens around us on the earth. Then he refers to the mountains which reach from this earth’s surface to the clouds. And finally, he refers to the “great deep” which is obviously well below “sea level.”
 
Therefore, David is describing how God’s glorious attributes of love such as His mercy, faithfulness, righteousness, and justice fill all in all. There is nothing too high and nothing too low that can separate us from God’s loving characteristics. Glory to God!
 
Another Psalm that describes the four-dimensional description of God’s love is Psalm 103:11–12. It says, "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His mercy for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."
 
Verse eleven is very near and dear to me because I remember a time when I was being plagued with condemnation for things I was struggling with in my flesh, and the Lord gave me this verse, showing me the height of His mercy for me. He said to me— “Trey, do you desire to live free from these sins of the flesh.” Yes sir, I do, I answered. He then gave me this verse to show me how much mercy He has for those who fear Him, or those who desire to live for Him. Wow! That’s a lot of mercy.
 
Then David goes on to say, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Now I don’t know if this is more referring to the “length” of His love or the “width” of it, but regardless, this is some unlimited and immeasurable forgiveness, amen?
 
Then in verses 13-14, we see what God’s mentality is that enables Him to be so merciful and forgiving of His creation. It’s because He has compassion on us His children, understanding our fleshly nature.
 
CONCLUSION
 
Church, if we will press into the Lord through praying Scriptural prayers like this to know & see all of the dimensions of God’s love and if we will praise Him for His glorious attributes, we will begin to have His love revealed to us.  
 
Yes, to get to the place of Ephesians 3:19 that talks about being filled with all the fullness of God, we have to apprehend the dimensions of God’s love: the width, length, depth, and height of the Father’s love.
 
Do you want to be filled with the fullness of God? Then, you must function by the dimensions of God’s love. Stay at the high level of love that thinks and talks differently; you’ll be amazed at the workings of God in your life.
 
There is absolutely nothing at all that can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:38–39), and that’s because His love covers all dimensions. So no matter where we are at in our walk, God’s love is there. Amen.

REVIEW
 
In this series entitled “God Loves You!”, we are endeavoring to grasp the height, length, depth, and width of God’s amazing love for each of us because capturing the various dimensions of His love is what will fill us with all the fullness of God.
 
Thus far, we have looked at how important it is that we truly come to both “know” His love and “believe” it. This is when we will see His fruit produced in our lives. We’ve also looked at how faithful His love is and how that love is not just extended towards us when we are good, righteous, and holy. No, He so loves the world! So, it doesn’t matter how bad we’ve been, His love remains the same.    
 
But last week, on Mother’s Day, we looked at one of the greatest examples of love that we have— a mother’s love! But what we learned is that this maternal love did not originate with mankind; this pure motherly love came from God.
 
We looked at several Scriptures that prove to us that the feminine natures and characteristics came from God just like the good masculine ones did. Therefore, in and of himself, man does not fully represent the image and likeness of God. Only man and woman, when joined together in their perfection and God-instilled characteristics, fully represent the image and likeness of God!
 
We then looked at several Scriptures that show us more of that maternal nature of God: We saw how the Lord describes Himself as being like a mama bird in that He hides His children under the shadow of His wings and bears us up on those wings. And what we learned from this example is that God’s maternal nature is absolutely willing and desirous to protect & keep His children just like a mother will do what’s in her power to guard her children from harm.
 
But we also learned from this and God’s first name given to Himself in the Scriptures—the name El Shaddai—is that His heart is to provide for His children. So in their day, seeing God as the “All Breasty One” revealed that God gives “more than enough” provision to His children. Yes, He prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies and our cups run over. This shows God as having the heart of Martha in that He desires to feed and serve His children with abundance.
 
We also saw how the Third Member of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, carries a lot of these feminine qualities as well. In fact, the Hebrew references to Him are all in the feminine. Therefore, there are many—including myself—who see the Holy Spirit as being the One who exemplifies this maternal side of God.
 
So, a major point I made last week was that in order to fully see God’s love for us, we have to understand that God’s love is also akin to a mother’s love and even greater so.  
 
 
 
THE PARABLE OF THE PRODIGAL?
 
Now this week, I want us to move on from looking at a mother’s love to looking at the father’s love. I know it’s not quite Father’s Day yet, but we need to understand that God’s love is perfectly mirrored in both the purest fatherly love and motherly love.
 
So let’s take a look at a parable that Jesus taught – one many of us are familiar with that illustrates how loving our Heavenly Father is. I’m referring to what is commonly known as “The Parable of the Prodigal Son” found in Luke chapter 15. But is that an accurate title for this parable? I don’t believe so.
 
You see, the word “prodigal” itself simply describes the spending of money or resources in a wasteful, reckless, and extravagant way—which is exactly what this younger son did in this parable, thus the name given to him. Yes, he certainly took his portion of His father’s inheritance and “wasted” it on “wild” and “reckless” living (See verse 13). But is that the emphasis of this parable – this young man’s waste of his father’s money? No, it’s not. Now it is a part of the story, but it’s not the purpose of this parable. The purpose of this parable is not his poor choices, but the reconciliation that was found in the midst of his poor choices.
 
Not only this, but this parable isn’t even just about this younger son. While it certainly teaches us about the lost son—how we all were once lost in sin and how we are to return to the Lord through repentance when we stray—this parable involves other characters …
 
Notice how in verse 11, Jesus said that a certain man had two sons. So, there is not just the prodigal son. There is also another son—the elder son—who we find to represent the religious leaders of Jesus’ day who found fault in Jesus’ acceptance of the sinners and tax collectors. (This is a story for another day)
 
So the only thing I have ever heard explained about this parable other than it being about the prodigal son was that it was a story to teach us about both sons. But I am here to submit to you today that this parable is actually meant to teach us about three people, not just two. Yes, it’s meant to teach us about the younger, prodigal son. Sure, it’s meant to teach us about the elder, self-righteous son. But it also teaches us about the loving father of both sons, which is an obvious type of our Heavenly Father.
 
So what I want to do this morning is to also focus on the father in this parable because I believe this paints a beautiful picture of the loving nature of our Heavenly Father. But before we do, let’s look back quickly at the beginning of this chapter because this parable is not the only one Jesus taught in this setting. 
 
LOVE FOR THE LOST
 
In Luke 15:1-2, we are told – “Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, ‘This Man receives sinners and eats with them.’ ”              
 
Notice here that the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to hear Him. You could say that they were drawn to Him. And why? Because He obviously showed unconditional love towards them. He did not act “holier than thou” and look down on them. He showed them that they had value by spending time with them, instructing them in the ways of God.
 
Now it is important to understand that God hates sin and He was not condoning their inappropriate lifestyles. But at the same time, you do not throw the baby out with the bathwater. In other words, there is a difference between the person and the filth they are living in. That is not who God created them to be, and buried underneath those sinful behavior lies the one God created in His own likeness and image.
 
And this is what love does: It sees beyond the actions and sees who God created them to be. Hey, this is what He does. He looks at the finished product and all our potential and does not focus on the mess we currently are in. This is the eye of love—to look at others through rose colored glasses. But the problem is we tend to do the opposite: We look at ourselves through rose colored glasses and at everyone else through a microscope. The opposite should be true. We are to only judge ourselves and give great grace to everyone else.
 
Now notice verse 2: The Pharisees could not believe that the man of God received sinners and ate with them. This is what a spirit of religion acts like. It has no true value for people and looks down on those who do.
 
Then, beginning in verse 3 through the end of the chapter, we have three parables that the Lord told in response to the attitude of the Pharisees:
 
The first was the Parable of the Lost Sheep. The second was the Parable of the Lost Coin. And the third was the Parable of the Lost Son. Now what is the common theme of all three of these parables? It is the lost—the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. So let’s first quickly focus on these first two parables …
 
In the Parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, the point Jesus was trying to make to these Pharisees was that if they lost something like a sheep or a coin that had value to them, they would leave all of the rest to find the one that was lost. What this did was that it showed that they did not value these lost sinners the way they valued their own possessions—namely things that were worth money.
 
But the awesome thing about all three of these parables is that they show us that God values the sinner. He will drop everything and pursue the lost with unwavering persistence—all because He dearly loves them!
 
Now we tend to value things, but God values people! And He values them because He loves them. You too will value what you love. So this means that God values us! He values us enough to seek us out! This is what happened in the Garden - After Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and found themselves naked, they hid themselves. Then we see God walking through the Garden. Doing what? Seeking the sinners! And this is what love does. It pursues the sinner; it doesn’t run from them.
 
And this is what we need to understand when we sin… We are not to run from God; we need to run to Him. We need to come boldly before the throne of grace when we are in need of mercy and grace. But the mistake we make is when we sin, we tend to stop praying, reading the Word, attending times of fellowship, etc. We stop seeking God during these times when, what we should be doing is seeking Him all the more! This is when you come boldly—when you need Him, not when you think you don’t.
 
But I can guarantee you one thing—not only should you be seeking Him when you miss it; He is seeking you when you miss it! And not to condemn you; but to restore you! He is the minister of reconciliation!
 
And let me interject something that is very important for you to understand: If you believe God has sent you to this church with us here at HPC, if you believe that God has planted you here at least for this season, then you need to open your heart and receive what is being taught here. Why do I say this? Because I made this mistake when I went to Charis Bible College: I did not whole-heartedly receive everything I was taught while I was there and had to learn things after I had graduated. But if I would have been wise, I would have understood that since God had led me to attend school there, then there must have been things there that He felt I needed to learn whether my heart and mind had caught up to them yet or not.
 
A CERTAIN FATHER
 
So let’s now get into this third and final parable …
           
Verses 11-12 say, “Then He said: ‘A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood.”
 
Now, again, notice that in this parable the two sons are examples of us, and the father is Almighty God. Now this is a simple and elementary truth that many of us know in our heads, but do we really know it in our hearts?
 
If we truly saw God as our Father, then the perception of Him that many have would have to change. You see, many view God as a harsh and quick to judge God who will even place sickness and tragedy in our life to teach us something. So let me ask you a question: What if one day I took Levi’s puppy and threw it out in the road in front of a car to kill it and then on another, I took flue germs and intentionally put them all around him to make him sick in order to teach him some lesson? Would I ever be awarded the father of the year award and be so strongly referred to as “Trey is love”? Of course not! That would not make any sense at all! In fact, if I were known to do those types of things to Levi then I might end up on Jerry Springer (God have mercy on his soul)!
 
No, the very simple truth that God is likened to a father to us in this parable and is referred to as such in many other Scriptures should teach us a very powerful truth- that God is love and He is the best, most loving and caring daddy in the whole world! He is our Heavenly Father and He is a good and loving Father. This one truth should immediately dispel many of the wrong doctrines that we have heard about God in many churches.
 
You see, it is extremely important to have this heart understanding that God is our Father. Why? Because it will make us approach Him in prayer much differently… You see, if I have a need and I need to approach either my dad or my employer, there will be a big difference between how I will approach these two authority figures. If I am approaching my boss, I will come to him less confidently and even in a little fear and trembling to how he might react to my request, but if I approach my father, then I would come much more boldly and confidently to ask him. There is no comparison.
 
This is exactly the point Jesus was making when He began His teaching on prayer with “Our Father, who is in heaven …”
 
First of all, let me say that although this is commonly known as “The Lord’s Prayer” to many, it would be more correctly referred to as “The Model Prayer” because Jesus was not teaching His disciples what to pray; He was teaching them how to pray. Notice that He said, “In this manner, therefore, pray…” This means that He was not giving them the words to pray; He was giving them a guideline or an outline of the best manner in which to pray.
 
So when He began the prayer with “Our Father”, He was actually teaching them a revolutionary truth. You see, this concept that God is our Father was new to them. It was a new covenant reality that Jesus brought with Him and practiced regularly Himself.
 
So what Jesus was conveying to them in “The Model Prayer” was that the first thing we need to possess in approaching God in prayer is the revelation that we are approaching our Father. Therefore, we are coming to Him in a completely different manner than most ever realize. We are approaching Him in complete confidence—knowing that since He is our Father, we can count on Him lovingly giving us the things we ask of Him. And this leads me to the next point …
 
Another powerful truth about the nature of our Heavenly Father in this verse is that when the younger son came to ask him for his portion of his father’s inheritance, the father did not say no. Now consider this for a moment: Number one - Don’t you think it is a little inappropriate for this son to come to his father prematurely and ask for his part of the inheritance? How would you feel if your children came to you and asked you for their portion of your will now? This is amazing that this younger son had the audacity to do this! But what is even more amazing is that there is no evidence that the father ever ridiculed him for this, and then that he gave it to him! Ask and you shall receive, right?
 
This, to me, shows a wonderful thing about the nature of our Heavenly Father: Many times, we think God thinks and acts like we would, but this is simply untrue. The Bible refers to us as evil in comparison to Him and if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Heavenly Father who is love give good gifts to those who ask Him. In other words, He will not reproach us or rebuke us for ever asking Him for anything that might be inappropriate or presumptuous if it falls under our inheritance. He wants to give it to us!
 
But some think that God says no sometimes if He knows that what we are asking for will hurt us because it is used incorrectly, but this is simply untrue. How can I say this, you ask? Well, look at the example we have in this parable… If this father is likened to our Father God, wouldn’t He have known what this premature withdrawal of His inheritance would do to him? And He gave it to him anyways!
 
Friends, I am telling you that God is the greatest Giver that exists, and He said that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us, and if He hears us, we know that we have the petitions we have asked of Him. It also says that when we ask, He gives to all liberally and without reproach. The problem lies in our asking and receiving, not in His giving. We ask timidly and in unbelief and then at other times we do not even ask because we feel like we are asking too much or for too much.
 
For many of us, we do not want to ask for certain things because we do not want it to hurt us like it did this prodigal son. This is certainly admirable and wise, so let me tell you how to pray when you are unsure if something you want to ask the Lord for is His perfect will for your life… During these times, it is best to pray as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane- “Nevertheless, not my will but Your will be done.” You see, this is not always appropriate to be prayed. For instance, when it comes to something that we know is God’s will, like healing. We are not to pray for the sick and then say, “But Lord not our will but Your will be done.” That is a prayer of unbelief concerning what God has said and will nullify receiving healing 99 out of 100 times (the 1% is based on the slight possibility that a gift of the Spirit is operated in which I highly doubt based on the unbelief already present). But there are times where you might be wanting the Lord to provide you with your mate and you say, “Lord, I am asking you for my husband or my wife. I really want to be married and ask that you would give me someone this year. Nevertheless, not my will but Your will be done.” This is an appropriate time to add this on the end of your prayer, because most of the time you will not know if it is God’s perfect will to give you certain things like this or if it is the best time for certain things to be given to you. This is when we are to put our will and desires on the altar and ask Him, but put the little disclaimer at the end that gives God the option to do what He sees as best for your life. That’s good stuff right there!
 
The other awesome truth about verse 12 is that not only did the father give the younger son his portion of the inheritance when he asked, but this Scripture says that the father “divided to them his livelihood.” In other words, he did not just give it to the one who asked; he gave it to both of them in advance.
 
Now the important truth to understand here is that the older son apparently never took or used his portion of the inheritance because we see at the end of this parable that this son was still working for his father in the field and, by his own testimony, he was busy with serving his father for years. He also said that his father never had even given him a goat to have fun with his friends.
 
Now this one thing is obvious: He must have never asked! I guess he just assumed if it be his father’s will, his father would have given him all of these things. But is that true? Did the father not tell him in verse 31 that he was always with him and all that he had was his? He sure did! So, this should illustrate to us a very important truth: If we do not receive our inheritance, it is not because our Father did not will for us to have it and did not give it to us. It is because we did not take advantage of all that was already ours! Well, that is a story for another day
 
On a side note, notice that at the end of verse 12 that it says that it was the father’s “livelihood” that he divided to his two sons. What is one’s livelihood? It is what they worked for, right! Well, friends, God has made available to us what He has already worked for and earned for us. So we do not need to work for or earn our inheritance. It is ours by ways of the new birth and the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is not our livelihood; it is His livelihood!
 
HE WILL DRAW NEAR TO YOU
 
So moving on to verse 13, we are told that this younger son “gathered all together”—meaning that this was not one of those one foot in and one foot out kind of things. No, he wasn’t planning on coming back. He gave everything over to the flesh and to sin. Then Jesus said that he “journeyed to a far country”, which describes that he “went into the world.” And there, we are told that he “wasted his possessions on prodigal living”—which describes him recklessly throwing everything he had down the tubes.
 
And as verse 14 goes on describe, this is always the end result of sin—the severe famine will come, and we will be in “want.” Romans 6:23 teaches us that the wages of sin is death. Sin will always take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. A spiritual famine always follows a sinful harvest. Remember dat. No, sin does not affect God’s love for you, but it certainly affects the devil’s inroads into your life.
 
Then, beginning with verse 15, we see how this man wound up getting into such a desperate situation that he began to work for a man, feeding his swine, and had to resort to eating the pigs’ food because no one would give him anything. So this was the situation that this younger son found himself in by his wasteful living. And this prompted him to realize something …  
 
In verses 17-19, Jesus said, “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’ ”
 
Now these verses teach us not only what true repentance is, but they also teach us how God responds to true repentance: Notice that the prodigal son first “came to himself”… This means, as Hebrews 10:23 says, he was “illuminated.” In other words, the light turned on! He saw the light and realized what he had done and what he needed to do.
 
Then in the rest of verses 17-19 we see the son realizing what he had done and even rehearsing in his mind what he needed to do. Then in verse 20 he backed up the decision he made beforehand with the works of repentance.
 
But I just love this next part that we see verse 20: After he saw the light, made the decision to return, and then backed up that decision with the fruits of repentance, his father was looking for him and saw him while he was “a great way off.” This teaches us a very important point—that our Heavenly Father seeks us even when we are a great way off.
 
You’ll have people say, “Oh, I have just done too many bad things”, “I have fallen too greatly” or “I’m just too far gone” but this is when these need to look at this one powerful phrase - that even when this prodigal son was a great way off his father was looking for him. Wow! That is awesome! In other words, it’s not just when you have departed from the Lord a little bit that He seeks you, it is even when you are a “great way off” that His eyes are inclined towards you.
 
This is important to understand because the devil just loves to feed us the lie that because we’ve missed it a bunch of times or we’ve done too many bad things that forgiveness is no longer an option. But this is a lie! God is not sitting up in heaven taking account of how many times we’ve missed it in a certain area and then once we pass that threshold, He won’t grant us mercy any longer.
 
First Corinthians 13:5 tells us that “love thinks no evil.” This word “thinks” is actually an accounting term that literally means to “count or take account of.” So what this verse is saying is that love takes no account of a suffered wrong. In other words, love is not counting and calculating the sins of others against itself. So God, who is love, is not doing this either! He is not counting our mistakes! As a matter of fact, He is separating them- as far as the east is from the west - not to remember them anymore! So not only is God not counting them and taking account of them; they are not even on His desk anymore! He sent the record of them to the shredder! Hallelujah! 
 
Then we are told that when the father saw him, he had compassion - not he had anger, animosity, or ill-will towards him. No, he had compassion. Likewise, our Father God does not look on us with anger when we’ve missed it, but He looks on us with mercy and compassion—sympathizing with us in our infirmities. This is a far cry from what most Christians believe about their God.
 
Psalm 103 says that as a father pities (i.e., has compassion on) his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. (Why?) For He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust.” You see, the Lord understands our weaknesses. We have a merciful and faithful high priest who can sympathize with us in our weaknesses because He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. He knows what it is like to walk in this fleshly body and how it wants to go diametrically opposed to the will of God. He knows this. Therefore, He has compassion on us and desires to work with us, helping us to overcome.
 
This is why we see in the next verse the Father going out to meet him on his road back to the father’s house. You see, James 4:8 says that when we draw near to God that He draws near to us. In other words, He does not make us make the journey back to Him on our own! Praise God! Once we make the decision to repent and make a step or two in the right direction, He meets us on the road and gives us more grace for the journey. In other words, He gives you the grace and strength to repent and does not make you do it all on your own. This is the grace of our Heavenly Father! 
 
Then notice what happened next: This ought to upset most of our theology even more… “and (He) ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” How many of you have seen those coke zero commercials where the word “and” is emphasized? Well, this is what is being done here! Not only was the father looking for him while he was a great way off and had compassion on him, he also ran to him. Then he also fell on his neck. On top of that, he kissed him.
 
Notice the picture of our Heavenly Father that is being painted here… Did you know that God is so in love with you that when He sees you coming that He runs to you. He does not just sit there and lounge around until you get to him. He doesn’t just take His time walking to you. He runs to you! When I read this, I think of that image of a couple who is madly in love with each other and how they are running through an open field covered with flowers towards each other. This should illustrate to us just how excited God is about us! 
 
Then we see how his father fell on his neck and then kissed him! What a beautiful picture of the love of our God! When we draw near to Him, He draws near to us. But He does not just draw near to us complacently; He draws near to us in a full sprint! And then when He gets to us, He embraces us and kisses us. Friends, I can assure you that eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the greatness of God’s love for us!
 
Then in verses 21-22, notice what happened next … The son begins his rehearsed confession about what he had done and how unworthy he is, then in verse 22 it begins with “But the father said to his servants …” Underline that word “but” because it shows us that God ignores our rehearsed confessions. What He hears is when we make that decision in our heart and have corresponding actions. He is not as interested in our works and the penance that we feel we need to pay.
 
You see, we are the ones who feel that we need to say or do certain things in order to get back in God’s good graces. But in many of those cases, God is not interested at all in our tears, words, or actions when we have already returned to Him in our hearts. All He is interested in is the fact that we are there with Him at that moment talking to Him. It is us that feel like we need to “do something.” 
 
ROBE, RING, AND SANDALS
 
No, “but the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet’.” Let’s look at these three items in detail …
 
First of all, notice that the Father said to bring out the best robe and put it on him. Now this is an easy analogy to uncover. What do the Scriptures compare a robe to? You guessed it.  Righteousness is the robe! Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with a robe of righteousness.” But notice that it is not just any robe of righteousness that He has clothed us with. Luke 15:22 says that the father said to bring out the best robe. Now let me ask you a question: What would have been considered the best robe in the father’s house? It would have been the father’s very own robe! And this is exactly what our Heavenly Father has done for us … He has not clothed us in just any righteousness; He has clothed us in His very own righteousness!
 
Second Corinthians 5:21 says that He who knew no sin was made to be sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. You see, this is not a generic righteousness we have been made. This is the righteousness OF GOD we have been given! Hallelujah!
 
But again, what would cause a father to give his very own robe to someone who was unworthy and undeserving? Only love. Yes, only love would do such a thing! And God the Father has clothed us in His own robe of righteousness because He has preferred us, because He delights in us, and because He loves us more than much! Praise His Name!
 
Notice next of all that the father had his servants bring his younger son a “ring.” Now this ring in their days was a symbol of status and authority. They used signet rings in those days which were essentially their family’s checkbook or credit card. So what the father did here is very significant and a good lesson for us: This son did not have to work his way back up into the position that he fell from. You see, most of the time we feel that when we’ve missed it that we have to rebuild God’s trust in us again and that He certainly will not let us operate in the same level of authority for a period of time. But, you see, that is how we think. God’s ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts! The moment we repent and confess, we are immediately restored into the same level of authority that we were in during the peak of our walk! Hallelujah!
 
And, last but not least, we see that the father told the servants to put sandals on his feet: Now the very fact that the prodigal son returned home without shoes shows how truly desperate and destitute he had become, because only slaves and servants were barefoot in those days. So the father giving him sandals again shows that, because of his great love for his son, he was completely restoring him not just to a place of right standing with Him, not just to a place of authority with Him, but also to a place of sonship with Him.
 
Not only that, but do you remember when the Lord began to wash His disciples’ feet at the Last Supper? He came to Peter, and Peter wanted the Lord to not just wash His feet but all of Him because he wanted all of the fellowship that he could with the Lord. Well, Jesus responded that only his hands and feet needed to be washed because the rest of Him was already cleansed. This is a beautiful illustration of what has taken place in all of us …
 
You see, when we miss it, we do not lose our right-standing with God. Our “do” does not affect our “who.” We remain cleansed by the blood, but it is our hands and our feet – the parts of us that have contact with the world – that need to be cleansed and washed.
 
So what the Lord was teaching His twelve disciples and us is that our position never changes when we sin, but our proverbial hands and feet do need to be sanctified. And this is what the father did to his prodigal son. By placing sandals back on his feet, he provided him with sanctification (i.e., the grace for sanctification - separated from the world and empowered to walk for the Lord). Hallelujah! This is what is so awesome about our Heavenly Father … He doesn’t just positionally make us right; He also gives us the strength and ability to live right! In other words, He gives us the grace to walk out who we are in Christ! And why? Because He loves us so much!
 
THE MERRY FATHER
 
Now verse 23 goes on to say— “And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. And they began to be merry.”
 
To me, this is the culmination of the father’s love! On top of all the amazing acts of grace that He had already performed in his younger son’s life – putting Him back in right standing with him, giving him back his position of authority, and restoring him to his place of sonship—now He is putting the cherry on top by throwing a party to celebrate his son’s restoration. And this wasn’t just any old party! The father went all out by asking for “the fatted calf.”
 
Now by using the terminology the fatted calf, this evidently refers to not just one of the fatted calves, but it refers to the one and only fatted calf. Not that he did not have some other quality calves, but this was evidently the best and the most precious calf that he possessed.
 
And don’t you know that this is what our Heavenly Father does for us? He does not just give us what He can spare out of His riches! He gives us His very best every time! He proved this through the giving of His only begotten Son whom He offered up for our sins, crucifying Him on the Cross. This was not just any blood that He shed for us; it was the precious blood of Jesus Christ. This was not just any salvation that He provided; it is so great of a salvation. God the Father never does just enough; He always does more than enough!
 
And in the midst of these exceedingly great and precious acts of provision, God the Father is celebrating us as this father did in this parable.
 
Did you know that God is merry over us! The word “merry” is defined as being cheerful and lively and is characterized by festivity and rejoicing. It means to be cheerful and joyous; to be laughingly happy, festively joyous, and hilarious.
 
The prophet Zephaniah brings to light this side of our heavenly Father when he said in Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Does this fit the picture you have of God? It doesn’t fit many of our molds of Him. I mean, can you honestly see God the Father actually getting excited over you and enveloped in gladness? Can you see Him singing songs about you full of joy? That is amazing! But it is exactly the same picture we see in Luke chapter 15! This is His heart towards us! He loves us so much that He jumps, dances, and sings over us! Praise the Lord!  
 
Church, we have a Heavenly Father that mirrors the character of the father in this parable. He will give to us when we ask. He will look for you if you stray. He will run to you when you return. He will restore to you everything His grace provided you with. He will even be merry over you and give to you the very best He’s got. All because He loves you infinitely more than the most loving father on this earth loves his son or daughter. Believe dat!

So we are currently on a teaching series that I have entitled “God Loves You!” where we are camping on the subject of God’s love for each of us individually.
 
Thus far, we have looked at how important it is that we truly come to “know” His love. Yes, while a lot of Christians would say they know He loves them, the fact is most do not. What these are saying is that they have mentally accented to the fact that He loves them, but that doesn’t mean that they know His love the way the Scriptures teach us we are to know it. We found that “knowing” in the Biblical sense describes an intimate kind of knowledge like how a husband knows his wife and vice versa.
 
So how does one know if they know His love in this sense? Well, like it said in Genesis 4:1 that Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived and bore a son. So it’s to be understood that when you and I come to “know” a truth like God’s love for us, it will produce fruit in our lives. Amen? In other words, if I truly have come to know God’s love for me, I will see evidence of it in my emotions, in my love for others, etc.
 
But we also learned that it’s important that we have faith in His love and not just base it on the things we can see in our lives. Yes, like it is with so many things in the kingdom of God, the key to receiving from the Lord is to believe it without any physical evidence. God’s love for us is no different – He expects us to have faith in His love based on what He did for us on the Cross and then we can start seeing it’s fruit in our lives. In other words, while God definitely wants us to experience His love, we need to avoid gravitating towards needing to feel it or have any other evidence of it in our lives.
 
But like we learned a couple of weeks ago, even though our circumstances & situations shouldn’t be things we base God’s love for us on, the fact is with most people, they do. And the reason for this is because of what the vast majority of people believe about God’s “sovereignty.” So we dispelled a lot of popular theology out there about who God is and how He operates because this is one of the greatest obstacles to understanding God’s love for us.
 
And last week, we looked at that very familiar passage of Scripture, John 3:16, and saw how God’s motivation for sending Jesus in the first place was because He “so loved” us. Now we saw how it would have been enough for Jesus to tell us that God loved the world, but He went as far as saying that He so loved it.
 
I used the example of how I’m sure there’s certain foods that we love but others that we “so love.” We might say, “we love Chinese food” but we “really” love Italian. Then there’s certainly people that we love but others that we “so love.” Like we might say we love a certain friend, but we “dearly” love our child or grandchild. These are the ways that we might differentiate a general level of love for something or someone and a more special level of love.
 
So we learned that God “so loved” you like you really love your most treasured thing and like you dearly love the most precious person in your life. But here’s a big difference between God’s love and ours—Jesus said that He so loved the “world.”
 
We learned that the Greek word for “world” is the word kosmos and describes this world in a wide & narrow sense. It can describe this planet and the universe around it (i.e., the physical world we live in), and it can also describe the inhabitants of this world and the things which concern us. So, He didn’t so love a world that was perfect, that loved Him in return, and was worthy of that love. No, God so loved the very creation that rejected Him, sinned against Him, and was following the flesh & satan. That’s who & what God “really, dearly” loves. Amen!     
 
So what we saw was that God so loved the place & people who certainly did not deserve it, who were lost & enemies of their Creator and destined to die for our sin, that He gave us the most precious thing that He could ever have given us, His only Son, so that we could live together with Him. Now that’s love, church! That’s the greatest example of love that you will ever find!
 
But do you know what else is one of the greatest examples of love that we have? A mother’s love! Yes, there is not a greater example of God’s love in this world we live in that the love a mother has for her children.  
 
So with it being Mother’s Day today, I felt led to share on the love of God from a somewhat different perspective.
 
MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM
 
You see, most of time when it comes to this subject, we rightfully focus on the fact that God is called our Heavenly Father. So then the emphasis gets placed on a father’s love, but did you know that God does not just have paternal (i.e. fatherly) characteristics; He also has maternal (i.e. motherly) characteristics too?  
 
Now I know that this needs to be prefaced with an explanation because I am certainly not saying that God is a “She.” In fact, God is a Person—not a “He” or a “”She”—but He is most definitely to be referred to in the masculine form simply because that’s the way we see Him referred to in the Scriptures. So with that being said, let me explain where I get this that God also has maternal characteristics:
 
In the beginning, we are told that when God created man that He created him in His own image and according to His likeness (See Genesis 1:26). This resulted in His creating the first man named Adam. In fact, in the next verse, we are told— “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27).  
 
Now that’s interesting, isn’t it? Well, before God went through the process of taking woman from this man He just created, we are told that “male and female He created them.” This, of course, could be a forecast of what God was about to do and not necessarily a chronological account of what happened, but it also could be the fact that when God created Adam that it was to be viewed as His creating both male & female at that time—which is exactly what I believe was the case. Let me explain …
 
You see, it was some time after this (how long we do not know) that God said that it was not good that man be alone (See Genesis 2:18). This resulted in God putting Adam into a deep sleep and drawing “woman” out of him. Most translations describe this as God taking one of Adam’s ribs, but the Hebrew word that is used, while it could certainly describe a physical rib, literally refers to the “side” of something or someone.
 
And on a side note, let me tell you why I don’t believe it was Adam’s ribs: How on earth could a loving God ever take ribs away from a man? That wouldn’t be love, would it? I mean, have you ever had good ribs? They are awesome, so I just cannot see God taking a man’s ribs away from him. LOL!
 
But all joking aside, here is my point: If man was created in God’s own image and likeness and then woman was taken from man, then wouldn’t that mean that “woman” also would have at least a portion of the image & likeness, the nature & characteristics of God? Sure, she would! She would also have a portion of the image and likeness of God too!
 
So what this means then is—in and of himself, man does not fully represent the image and likeness of God. Only man and woman, when joined together in their perfection and God-instilled characteristics, fully represent the image and likeness of God! So this means that a man can only represent a portion of what God is like just as a woman cannot fully represent Him either. It is only when a man and a woman join together in one flesh that God can fully be personified.
 
ONE FLESH
 
On a side note, have you ever wondered why God gave us the institution of marriage? There are several different reasons for this, but I believe what we have just been talking about is one of those reasons—so that a man and woman can become one and full represent the character & nature of God.
 
This revelation was birthed in me one day while Shannon and I were talking about one of the reasons God put us together: I was explaining to Shannon how she possesses certain traits and characteristics that I am not as strong in. So God put us together because He knows what He has called us to do and what we both needed in each other in order to perfectly complement each other for that calling.
 
You see, man needs woman and woman needs man in order to be perfect and entire lacking nothing. Now of course this does not at all mean that God cannot make up for what one may lack in a mate. Our complete sufficiency is found in God alone! But as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 4:12— “A threefold cord is not easily broken.” It is the three cords of God, man, and woman when joined together that is not easily broken. God has to be involved in anything, including our marriages, in order for it to be successful, but the other two cords of husband and wife are part of the equation too.
 
Husbands, your wives are vital to you being successful and fulfilling God’s plan and purpose for your life. And wives, your husbands likewise are vital to you as well.
 
You see, men and women are different! If you do not know this already, then you have definitely never been married Marriage can offer a myriad of challenges because of the sole fact that men and women are just different. But that does not mean that men need to change and become more sensitive and emotional like women generally are. And it also does not mean that the woman needs to change and become more reason-oriented and less emotional like the man is. The remedy to these challenges is first of all recognizing and understanding these differences and then learning to appreciate and yield to them instead of change them.
 
But back to my point of God having some of these characteristics that women have. Let’s look at a few scriptures that validate this truth about His Person …
 
You see, there are, albeit just a few, feminine metaphors used to describe God in the Bible. So let me highlight a few of these maternal or motherly metaphors used to describe God in the Scriptures.
 
MOTHER BIRD & MAMA BEAR
One of the common images of God’s maternal side that we have in the Scriptures is Him as a mother bird sheltering her children under her wings. In fact, there are a lot of Scriptural references of this. Let’s look at a couple of them …

1. Deuteronomy 32:11 talks about how God took His people “as an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreading out its wings, taking them up, carrying them on its wings.”
2. Again, in Exodus 19:4, He says, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you up on eagle’s wings and brought you to Myself.”
3. In Psalm 17:8, David prayed – “Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.”

Notice here in Psalm 17:8 how David associated being hidden under His wings with being kept as the apple of His eye. Church, this phrase comes from a Hebrew expression that literally means ‘little man of the eye.’ It refers to the tiny reflection of yourself that you can see in other people’s pupils. To be the apple of someone’s eye clearly means that you are being focused on and watched closely by that person. Why? Because to Him you are dearly loved, greatly cherished, and He’s terribly fond of you. This describes God’s love, saints! 
And because God loves us so, He will do what? He will do what that mother bird does for her young— He will carry His young, bring us to Himself, and hide us under the shadow of His wings!
Another very familiar verse--Psalm 91:4—says, “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge …” This points to the protective nature of mother bird to cover and hide her young from predators—all because she loves her chicks.
We call this the nature of “mama bear”—which, in fact, is used to describe God in the Scriptures as well: In Hosea 13:8 we are told— “Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open,” says the Lord. Here, we see that the maternal instinct to protect the children can produce wrath as much as warmth. Beware of the protective instincts of a mother.
Finally, let’s look at how Jesus picks up these images when he laments over Jerusalem:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” (See Matthew 23:37)
Now one thing that is worth noting in all of these images and that we see clearly in Matthew 23:37 is how just because God’s nature is have that motherly protective instincts doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to happen for us.
Notice how in Matthew, Jesus is speaking to Jerusalem, God’s chosen city of God’s chosen people. He is lamenting over the people of God, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! This describes the voice of God because the prophets and those sent to her were the ones coming to declare to them the Word of the Lord.
Now we are quick to judge them and wonder how they could reject God’s messengers like this but how many of us do the same thing? Now we might not be rejecting a physical messenger but most of us reject the message that God speaks directly to us. When we are making a wrong decision or are headed down a wrong path and God’s still small voice speaks on the inside of us, “Don’t go there, Don’t say that, Let’s go another direction, etc.” what do we do? We try to suppress that inner voice because we don’t want to hear what He is saying. We want to go ahead and do what our flesh wants to do. We basically are stoning that still small voice when we do this which is essentially the same thing that Jerusalem did to the prophets sent to her. 
And what does Jesus go on to say? “How often I wanted to gather your children together…”
If you were to ask your average Christian “Does God get what He wants?” your resounding answer would be— “Yes, of course He does!” But is that true? Does God get everything He wants? According to this Scripture, He often wanted to gather the children of Israel together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings! And based on the analogy we have just been using, this a picture of God’s protection. So He wanted to gather His people together under His protective covering- close to Him and free from all danger- but they were not willing! Now, again, was God willing? Yes! He wanted them under His wings! But they were not willing- proving to us that our will can override His will. And we have to know this is true when you see the majority of God’s church weak and powerless and living defeated, not turning the world upside down like the early church did. Friends, if we are not seeing what the early church did, then it is not God who changed; It is the church who is not willing. Amen?
No, saints, God wants His church to be under the shadow of His wings. It is the church who rejects the still small voice of God and does its own thing. But not us! I said, not us! We are going to be those chicks that listen for that low clucking sound of the Master and stay hidden and sheltered under the protective wings of Almighty God! We are those who will learn to listen to that inner witness of the Holy Spirit and be led out of all temptation and, subsequently, delivered from all evil. For His is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen!
But the fact is, God’s maternal nature is absolutely willing and desirous to protect & keep His children just like a mother will do what’s in her power to guard her children from harm.
THE ALL BREASTY ONE
But not only does a mother’s love protect; it also provides …
We are familiar with the first name God was given in the Bible, El Shaddai, right? Most know this name to mean the “Almighty,” but it literally is defined as “the All Breasty One.”
Now in their time, this described something beautiful & powerful—the all-sufficiency of a mother to provide nourishment for her children. So in their day, seeing God has the “All Breasty One” revealed that God gives “more than enough” provision to His children.
And, oh, does God show this to be His nature throughout the Scriptures?! We see time and time again God has providing more than enough for His people, David saying in Psalm 23:5 He prepares a table before him in the presence of my enemies and his cup runs over. This shows God as having the heart of Martha in that He desires to feed and serve His children with abundance.
So that nature that we see in many mothers to provide a good nourishing meal for their children is obviously God-instilled. In other words, mothers get that tendency from Love Himself.  
But like it was with the protective instincts of mama bird, the providing instincts are contingent on us receiving them.
 
I’m thinking of one passage of Scripture that echoes this, and it’s found in Psalm 81:10. It says, “I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
 
We saw earlier in Exodus & Deuteronomy how the Lord described the deliverance of His people from the Egyptians as Him being that mother eagle who bore His people on His wings and brought them to himself. But notice how the Psalmist goes on to say, “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”
 
This describes how those little eaglets react to food being brought to them by mama eagle. Have you ever seen how baby birds respond to mama bird when she brings her young food? They open up their beaks as wide as they can, desiring mama to feed them. Well, this example from nature describes how one gets “fed” by the Lord. It comes through great desire and diligence.
 
You’ve seen how a litter of puppies goes after their mommy’s tummy when it’s dinner time, right? It’s survival of the fittest in some respects. She doesn’t pick and choose who gets the best spot at the “table.” No, they choose! Likewise, we choose where and how much provision we receive from the maternal nature of our God.
 
As the apostle Peter reveals to us in First Peter 2:2-3— “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” Church, this shows us how even with us humans, newborn babies show their hunger by how they cry out for their mama’s milk. So, again, it’s the desire. It’s opening our mouths as wide as we can so that we can get filled! Amen?
 
THE HOLY HELPMATE
 
Finally, let’s look at one last and very important part of God that points to His maternal nature—the Holy Spirit.
 
You see, I see the Holy Spirit as sharing a lot of those maternal characteristics that we see in mothers. Let’s look at a few examples of this …
 
The first is in God’s creation when we are given our first reference of the Holy Spirit--Genesis 1:2. In this verse, we are told how the Holy Spirit moved upon the face of the waters. This describes Him as brooding over the waters during creation like a hen ready to lay her eggs.
 
And if you recall we see the same thing in the beginning of the New Testament where the angel answered Mary after she asked how she would bear a son that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her (similar to how He overshadowed the face of the waters in Genesis 1:2).
 
Well, all of this shows the Holy Spirit’s similarities to a mother bird laying her eggs—which points us towards a role we see in the New Testament that the Holy Spirit plays.
 
We are taught in the New Testament that just as the Holy Spirit was used to birth the original creation and form the Lord Jesus Christ in Mary’s bosom, He is the one who gives (re)birth to God’s children under this new & better covenant—for we are regenerated by Him. Yes, the Holy Spirit is the One who does the work of the new birth in our spirit when we call on the name of the Lord. So you could say that He is maternal side of God in being the One who gives us our life.
 
Sticking with Genesis, did you know that Adam & Eve both typified many things. One is that Eve was called a “helper,” and we know what the Holy Spirit is referred to in our New Testament—the Helper. So I see the Holy Spirit as representing some of the more common feminine qualities & characteristics.
 
This is borne out in other verses of the New Testament that describe Him with some more “emotional” traits— We are told that He can be grieved (Ephesians 4:30), how He can be jealous (James 4:5), etc. And while these emotional tendencies are not exclusive to women, they are said to be more prominent in them.
 
You see, many people think that being emotional is not spiritual, but God gave us our emotions. Therefore, emotions are of God. The problem is that too many people are led by their emotions, but I digress.
 
The fact is, there is a lot that points towards the Holy Spirit bearing a lot of those maternal characteristics of the Godhead. And we need to understand just how valuable those are to us receiving God’s love. Yes, just as it is not good that man be alone, it is not good that we only receive the paternal, masculine traits of love in our lives. We need the Helper to perfect our understanding of God’s love. Amen.

Currently, we are on a series that I have entitled “God Loves You!” where we are camping on the subject of God’s love for us. I’ve given this series this title because it is so important that we let it sink into our hearts that God doesn’t just love us but that He loves YOU and ME.
 
You see, it is easy to gravitate towards believing that God loves all of us without it ever dawning on us that God loves each of us individually. In other words, He’s not just all about His overall plan and things that pertain to His kingdom’s cause; He actually cares about you as an individual and loves you personally.
 
I’ve found that this is where the real disconnect is with a lot of people—they can believe the truth that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, but they never come to realize that God so loved them that He gave us Jesus. This is where receiving His love for us individually comes in—which is what this teaching is designed to do. Yes, I believe the Lord wants you to know today that He loves YOU! He came for YOU! He died for YOU! He rose for YOU! It was all for YOU!
 
As we started off talking about in this series, this is what is important for us to both “know” and “believe.”
 
We talked about how the Bible’s use of “knowing” is different than the way we use it in the world today. In the Bible, “knowing” something is to have an experiential and intimate knowledge of something. So, we need to have an experiential knowledge of His love for us to where our hearts have been impacted by it and we haven’t just mentally accented to some fact.  
 
We made the point that while many Christians might claim they know God loves them, what most have done is simply mentally accented to the fact God loves us. In other words, they have come to agree with some facts that they have heard or read, but how many of you know that there’s a big difference between knowing something in our heads and experiencing it in our hearts?
 
But we saw how it is also important that we believe the love that God has for us. So what this means is that while it is great that we come to experience the love that God has for us, there is also a place for believing in this love whether we ever experience it or not. In other words, while God definitely wants us to experience His love, we need to avoid gravitating towards needing to feel it or have any other evidence of it in our lives. That is not when we are to come to believe the love God has for us.
 
We learned that the reason this is important for us to understand is because what so many Christians want is other manifestations of His love for them—like financial, emotional, or physical provision. However, this is not the primary way that God has chosen to manifest His love. Sure, He has promised to provide for us and heal our bodies, etc., but these are not meant to be the manifestation of His love that we look to; only the Cross is! In other words, the only evidence of His love that we need is the giving of God’s only begotten Son. And this is how God chose to manifest how much He loves us.
 
But there are many who want God to prove His love for them, basing His love for us on their circumstances. Saints, the only proof we need that God loves each and every one of us is the fact that He gave us His Son. The disciple whom Jesus loved said that this is the manifestation of God’s love for us (See First John 4:9). It’s not our circumstances or our situation. It’s the Cross, and the Cross alone.
 
But like we learned a couple of weeks ago, even though our circumstances & situations shouldn’t be things we base God’s love for us on, the fact is with most people, they do. And the reason for this is because of what the vast majority of people believe about God’s “sovereignty.” So we dispelled a lot of popular theology out there about who God is and how He operates because this is one of the greatest obstacles to understanding God’s love for us.
 
You see, if I believe that God is the One who is “in control” of all that happens in my life, including the bad things, then how am I going to believe He loves me? Sure, someone might say, “That’s because in His love for you, he knows what’s best for you”, but is that true? It’s certainly not true in this world we live in. There is no parent who throws their children to the wolves because they love them. So let’s not overcomplicate this whole thing: If God is love and He is good, let’s give ourselves enough credit to know what is good and what is bad, what love looks like and what it doesn’t look like.
 
And last week, the Holy Spirit led me to share a testimony of how He taught me about how faithful His love is. It was powerful and it was a great example of how it doesn’t matter how far gone we think we are, God’s love is the most faithful kind of love that there is! 
 
Church, God IS LOVE and He IS GOOD, and we need to understand that. Then and only then, can we know and believe the love God has for us! Amen?
 
SO LOVED THE WORLD
 
So this week, let’s look at a very popular & powerful Scripture that most of us in here are very familiar with—John 3:16.
 
Now even though we might have heard many sermons on this verse and can even maybe quote it—that doesn’t mean we “know” it. My prayer today is that the Holy Spirit will reveal the wonderful truths contained therein and help us to see God’s love in a special way through it.
 
Now this verse describes His great love for us that motivated all He did for us in Christ Jesus, but I want us to begin in the couple of verses before because I believe they give us better insight into what Jesus said in the 16th verse …  
 
John 3:14-16 reads — “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
 
Now we know what happened in the wilderness, don’t we? The people became impatient and began to speak against God and Moses. And when they did this, the Lord sent venomous snakes that began killing the people. So when the people asked Moses to plead with the Lord to take the snakes away, God told Moses to make a snake and put in on a pole so that everyone who was bit could look on it and live.
 
So here Jesus is showing us that this bronze serpent that was lifted up and put on a pole was a type of Christ who would be lifted up on the Cross. What’s interesting to me is that here in John chapter 3, Jesus equates “believing” with the “looking” that we see in this story. So evidently, a big part of believing is what you are looking at. You see, the children of Israel were simply told to look at that bronze serpent if they had been bitten and they would live. Here, Jesus says that we must believe on what Jesus would do for us on that “pole” in order to have eternal life. So where our focus and attention are set is obviously a big part of faith.  
 
Now what I find interesting about that story in Numbers is how guilty the children of Israel were, yet God provided a means for salvation from the serpents. In other words, they were ungodly and deserved judgment, yet God heeded the intercession of their high priest, Moses, and offered them a way for mercy. Well, that echoes something I see in John 3:16 that I’d like us to highlight about God’s love for us!
 
Again, John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
 
So Jesus starts off by saying, “For God so loved the world …” Now it would have been enough for Jesus to tell us that God loved the world, but He went as far as saying that He SO loved it.
 
You know, we can go around saying that we love our spouse, we love our kids, we love coffee, we love pizza, etc. We throw all of those same things under the same category that we call “love”, but do you know how one might differentiate their love for one thing from another? They might say, “I so love” this or that. What are the things that you so love? Well, I’d imagine it would be the people or things that are on a completely different level than the other stuff you like or enjoy, right?  
 
I’m sure there’s certain foods that we love but others that we “so love.” We might say, “we love Chinese food” but we “really” love Italian. Then there’s certainly people that we love but others that we “so love.” Like we might say we love a certain friend, but we “dearly” love our child or grandchild. These are the ways that we might differentiate a general level of love for something or someone and a more special level of love.
 
So God “so loved” you like you really love your most treasured thing and like you dearly love the most precious person in your life. But here’s a big difference between God’s love and ours—Jesus said that He so loved the “world.”
 
So what did Jesus mean by the “world.” What is the “world”? Was He talking about this planet? No, of course, we know that Jesus was not just talking about the earth itself—although His sacrifice did pay for the redemption of this physical world we live in as well.
 
The Greek word for “world” is the word kosmos and describes this world in a wide & narrow sense. It can describe this planet and the universe around it (i.e., the physical world we live in), and it can also describe the inhabitants of this world and the things which concern us.
 
Now we know that all of these things that kosmos describes were thrown into a cursed, sinful state through the sin of Adam, right? This is when death entered in, which is why everything physical & natural is passing away. It’s why every physical inhabitant of this world and why the earth itself are destined to die. But again, this condition of the world is not because we are without fault—for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is none good, none righteous. We are all guilty and worthy of condemnation & damnation. Yet this “world” is what God so loved! In other words, He didn’t so love a world that was perfect, that loved Him in return, and was worthy of that love. No, God so loved the very creation that rejected Him, sinned against Him, and was following the flesh & satan. That’s who & what God “really, dearly” loves. Amen!     
 
What this means for you and I is that God’s love for us is not based on merit. It’s not determined by us. It’s solely based on the way God feels about us—even in our fallen, sinful state. Thank You, Jesus!
 
And what makes this Gospel even “Gospelier” is that God so loved His creation that had become wicked & corrupt that it motivated Him to do something …
 
John 3:16 goes on to say that God so loved the world “that He gave His only begotten Son …” So God—because He loved us so much—gave His very best, most prized thing, described as His “only begotten Son.”
 
So I want you to see this: God so loved the place & people who certainly did not deserve it, who were lost & enemies of their Creator and destined to die for our sin, that He gave us the most precious thing that He could ever have given us, His only Son, so that we could live together with Him. Now that’s love, church! That’s the greatest example of love that you will ever find!
 
NOT ONLY THAT
 
Now let’s look over at Romans chapter 5 because I believe the apostle Paul describes all of these things best there …
 
Romans 5:1-11 says, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
 
So the apostle Paul starts off by saying, “Therefore, having been justified by faith …” As I like to say, when you see the word “therefore,” you need to find out what it’s “there-for.” And in this case, I see this statement as being a summary of what he had been teaching in the previous two chapters. Yes, in Romans chapters 3 & 4, Paul was attempting to explain to this body of believers how righteousness never could come by the law but could only be obtained by faith. (I’d encourage you to study these two chapters in depth in your own time as they are critical to our faith).
 
So when Paul said here, “having been justified by faith,” he is establishing the truth of how one is now made righteous in the sight of God—by faith in the Lord Jesus.
 
Then he goes on to say, “(Therefore) we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now the “peace” that is being spoken of here is not to be confused with the peace of God. This is referring to peace with God. That describes the peace we have with our Heavenly Father and our Creator. In other words, “through our Lord Jesus Christ” God is not mad with us. There’s no longer a great divide between us and our Creator. Why? Because the sin issue has been taken care of through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
 
Not only that, but Paul goes to describe that “through whom (Jesus) also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
 
Glory to God, in Christ Jesus, we also have access by this faith into this grace in which we stand! Now to have “access” denotes favor. Say we were to give you a key and alarm code to the church building, then you have “access” right? Well, that obviously means you are trusted by us, that you are important to us, etc. So if we have “access” into this grace in which we now stand, that means God trusts & values us. We have great opportunity & responsibility in Christ!    
 
So do you see where this is going? Regarding the grace that we’ve received in Christ Jesus, it’s one thing on top of another. We’ve been justified! We have peace with God! We have access into this grace! Yes, we’ve received all these things and so much more through our Lord Jesus Christ! Glory to the Lord!
 
Speaking of glory, we also can rejoice in our hope of God’s glory that is to come! I’ll tell you, church, we have a lot to be thankful for in Christ Jesus! There’s so much that we have received, are receiving, and have to look forward to receiving.
 
Then in verses 4-5, Paul says, “And not only that …” as in, “But wait! There’s more!” However, in these next two verses, he begins talking about the grace that is found in trials and tribulations when he said, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
 
You see, church, there is even grace found in the difficult times. Why? Because we have the opportunity to grow spiritually through natural/physical adversity. So even in tribulations, we have reasons to rejoice—because of the perseverance, character, and hope they can produce in us.
 
And how did all of this grace get provided for us? Through the great love that God so loved us with! Amen! In other words, all of these wonderful & amazing things that have been provided for us in Christ, were given in the giving of His only begotten Son. And what motivated Him to give us Jesus? It was how He “so loved” the world.  
 
Which is the point Paul went on to make in verse 5: Romans 5:5 says, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
 
Now I will come back to this verse at the end, but one thing that is noteworthy about this verse is that it is obviously referring to God’s love for us. Yes, this is the love of God that the Holy Spirit has poured out in our hearts. The reason I know this is because of what Paul goes on to say in the following verses …
 
Verses 6-11 say, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” Wow! There are some powerful truths contained in these verses! Let’s look at them …
 
The apostle starts off in verse 6 by saying, “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” The words “without strength” describe those who are weak, infirmed, and feeble, and saints, this was most definitely all of our conditions before we met Christ. We were powerless to help ourselves (as one translation says), we were sick in need of a physician, and we were too feeble to walk without Him. So when we were in this helpless, weak, and infirmed condition, Paul says, “in due time” Christ died for the ungodly. That means “at the right time.”
 
On a side note, the thing we can learn from this is that when we were at the end of our rope, at our weakest moment, that’s the “due time” for Christ to show up on the scene and help us. So if you are nearing the end of yourself and just don’t feel like you can do it any longer and have no more strength, then rejoice—because that’s the “right time” for Christ to give you the power & strength that you need. Amen!
 
Well, in this case, who was it that was “without strength”? It was the ungodly! This is who Christ died for! It wasn’t for those who were okay or not as bad as others. No, it was for the pure, unadulterated “ungodly” person. This is what God did in His love—He died for the ungodly! This is what Paul goes on to further explain in the following verses …
 
Verse 7 goes on to say, “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.” The word “scarcely” describes “barely, rarely, or hardly.” So this shows how even for a person who is considered righteous (i.e., a good, moral person who does right by people) will hardly ever find someone to die for them. But Paul goes on to describe how a person who is considered to be a good person will not have too many people who would dare to die for them either. So in this world, we will hardly ever see someone lay down their life for a good or righteous person outside of a person who is physically related to them.
 
And that’s the point—in this world, you will be hard pressed to find that kind of love—one willing to die for someone else, even a person who is considered to be a person worth dying for. But as Paul goes on to say in verse 8— “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
 
Have you ever thought about this? Christ did not die for us when we were at our best; He died for us when we were at our worst. It was when we were sinners, not when we were righteous. So if He loved us enough to die for us when we were sinners, then I wonder what His love will do for those who at least desire to love Him in return.
 
But that’s the way most of us think, isn’t it? If I could just love God more and be more a good & righteous person, maybe God would love me in return. No, that’s not how it works. The truth we have revealed to us here is that God demonstrated the kind of love He has for us by sending Christ to die for us when we were still sinners. Glory to God! 
 
In verse 9, he goes on to say, “Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
 
I love this “Much more then” phrase! He’s using a brilliant argument to show that if Christ would dare to die for us when we were still sinners, then there’s “much more” we expect Him to do for us through that same love! And in this case, it is this— “having now be justified (or made righteous) by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” In other words, if He loved us enough to die for us when we were lost in sin, then how much more can we expect Him to save us from the wrath of God that is to come?
 
Church, how many good, well-meaning Christians fear the judgment that is to come? They are terrified that they haven’t done enough and are in danger of being judged. But do you know what the Bible teaches us about the wrath of God? It teaches us that it’s not aimed at the redeemed. It’s not targeting those who are justified. No, the wrath of God is reserved for those who have rejected Jesus and the salvation He purchased for us.
 
Isaiah chapter 54:4-10 shows us what God’s covenant of peace, purchased by the blood of Jesus, looks like: It says, “‘For your Maker is your husband, The Lord of hosts is His name; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel; He is called the God of the whole earth. For the Lord has called you like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a youthful wife when you were refused,’ says your God. ‘For a mere moment I have forsaken you, but with great mercies I will gather you. With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,’ says the Lord, your Redeemer. ‘For this is like the waters of Noah to Me; for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,’ says the Lord, who has mercy on you.”
 
Church, this chapter follows what Jesus was going to do for us on the Cross! So this is the result of our new & better covenant, called here our “covenant of peace.” Praise the Lord!
 
Then in verse 10, we see Paul continuing to make his argument-- “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
 
Here, Paul clarifies what we were when we were “sinners” & “ungodly.” He says here that we were God’s “enemies.” Wow, that puts a different spin on the way we view the ungodly sinner, doesn’t it? We all were once God’s enemies. Yet, through His great love, Jesus died for us and reconciled us to God! This is that covenant of peace referred to in Isaiah chapter 54—the gospel of reconciliation where you and I now have peace with God through what Jesus did for us on the Cross.
 
Furthermore (or as Paul said, “much more”), having been reconciled to God (which denotes we are no longer enemies, but at peace with Him), we shall be saved by His life. This “life” spoken of here is the resurrection life He experienced, so Paul’s point is that if we experienced reconciliation with God through Jesus’ death, what we can we expect to receive through His life is even more evidence of Christ’s love!
 
Then Paul says again, “But wait! There’s more!” by saying, “And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”
 
So now we are back to rejoicing: Earlier Paul said that we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Then he said we rejoice in tribulations. Now he said we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ! Why do we rejoice in God through the Lord Jesus? It’s because He so loved us enough to send Jesus for us! Thank You, Father!
 
YIELDING TO HIS LOVE
 
But in conclusion, I want to draw your attention back to verse 5 where Paul says that the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit … 
 
Saints, what a glorious promise we have here! That means that all of us who have been born again & filled with His Holy Spirit have resident in our hearts God’s amazing love for us! So it’s the Holy Spirit who helps us to experience the love of God.
 
Now the term “poured out” is used in other places to describes how Jesus’ blood was poured out for us, how the bowls of God’s wrath will be poured out during the tribulation, and even how the Holy Spirit Himself will be poured out on all flesh under this new & better covenant.
 
So let’s look at this latter example of “pouring out” because I believe it shows how you and I can experience more of God’s love in our lives: When the Holy Spirit is poured out on us in what we call the baptism of the Holy Spirit or being filled with the Holy Spirit, does this mean that He just takes charge in our lives and starts making us do things in our lives? Of course not! The Holy Spirit is the perfect gentleman, so even though He takes abode in us, we must yield to Him. We must be led by Him. And we must learn to follow His directions. Amen?
 
Well then, it’s to be understood that if this is the way it is with the One who has been poured out on us, then it must be similar with the thing that He pours out in us—the love of God. Amen? Yes, church, we must yield to and be led by the love God has put in us like we yield to and are led by the Spirit.
 
You see, some of us have never learned how to yield to certain aspects of God. It’s there. It’s available. But it must be submitted to and learned to be led by. And it’s definitely that way with God’s love too. We must learn to receive, submit, and yield to that love in our hearts. Then, and only then, can we begin to experience it in our lives.
 
I’ll tell you—I am thankful for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, but it wasn’t until I learned how to be led by Him and how to yield to Him that I started experiencing all the fruit He was meant to produce in my life. Likewise, I believe that we need to learn similar things about the love God has for us so that we can experience all the fruit of His love.