REVIEW
A few weeks ago, we began a new series of teaching which I’m entitling “Imitators of Love.” And the reason I’ve entitled it this is because God Himself is said to be the epitome of love. Therefore, when we have verses like Ephesians 5:1 that instruct us to imitate God as dear children, then we are essentially imitating love because the One we are imitating is love. But what we are doing here is not just learning about what we are to be imitating but we are seeing how what the Lord teaches us about how we are to treat one another shows us who our God is. In other words, we are learning from the loving things He instructs us to do towards our neighbor how He does these things Himself towards each of us. So essentially, we are continuing our most recent study of God’s love for us in a different way: We are studying verses that teach us how to walk in love in order to learn more about how our God walks in love towards us. Yes, our Heavenly Father commands us to treat our brothers and sisters a certain way because He wants us to act like Him! He wants us to forgive, to do good, and to have compassion on our fellow man because this is how God treats us. So, in essence, you could say that everything God instructs or commands us to do in His Word can be summarized in one statement— Be like Me. So we’ve looked at our golden text of Ephesians 5:1-2 and learned some very powerful truths: I made the point that I see this verse as the bullseye of everything that we aim to be as Christians. Why is this? It’s because being imitators of God would encompass everything else we could ever aspire to be in Him. Yes, if we were imitating God, then we would love perfectly. We would bless abundantly. We would do good to all, and our mercy would endure forever. The list could go on and on. So just mimicking the nature of our Heavenly Father would encompass all of the weightier matters of the law and fulfill its righteous requirement in our lives. Amen? We learned that this word “imitators” can make us think of someone who “mimics, copies, or follows after” someone else. In fact, in the original King James version, this word is used seven times and is always translated as “follower(s).” The apostle Paul liked to use this word in encouraging his churches to “follow” his example and “imitate” him. Here are a few other translations of Ephesians 5:1 that bring out some of these other ways of describing “imitators”:
We focused on the last part of Ephesians 5:1, “as dear children.” The imagery that he is giving us is of a child imitating his or her dad, but we highlighted that Paul said it was His “dear” children that did this. This word describes children who are “beloved”—which I believe to describe how a child who does imitate his or her parents is “dear” to the parents. Not that the parent loves the child any more because of their actions, but it describes how the parent holds “dear” the child that imitates them. You see, regarding this, all of us parents out there can see how this would be true, right? There are not too many things that can bless a parent more than when their child attempts to mimic them. At a young age, our kids might repeat what we say. Many times, they will want to do what we do vocationally when they grow up. They simply just get interested in what we are interested in because of their love and admiration for us. Then when they grow up, what a joy it is to any parent when their child follows in their footsteps by maybe choosing the school that their parents went to or following the same career path that they did. Now, of course, this is not always the path that our children are to take, but when it comes to our Heavenly Father, following exactly in His footsteps is always the right thing to do. My point is that it pleases any parent to either see their young child doing their best to be like their daddy or seeing their grown-up children making the mature decision to be about their father’s business. And we looked at how Jesus, the original “dear child” of God, was certainly all about His Father’s business in that He went about doing good and reflecting our Heavenly Father in both word & deed. So as we learned in John 1:18 that even though God cannot be seen, His only begotten Son came to declare Him. This means that not only did Jesus declare Him in word, but He also declared Him in action. In other words, Jesus’ life reveals the true nature of the Father. Therefore, Jesus would be the best example we have for imitating God. So if we are told to imitate God as His dear children, then that means you and I need to emulate what we saw Jesus doing, right? In other words, we need to follow and practice the things we believe Jesus would do. This is how we imitate our Heavenly Father, right—by following His only begotten Son? So I guess if you are one of those who believes God is putting sickness on people to teach them something, is causing tragedies in our lives to draw us closer to Him, or is taking people to heaven as He wills because He needs them there more than we need them here, then I guess you better get busy … I guess you need to start imitating Him by helping spread sickness to those around you, to cause grief and create tragedies in the lives of those who love you, and even (God forbid) start killing people and stealing things from them. Of course, we know it’s foolish to even consider that, but it does prove a good point – that if we are supposed to be imitating God, then the things we know that are evil, wicked, and unloving things to do to others couldn’t be what our loving Heavenly Father could be doing to us. In other words, it’s safe to assume that God is practicing the very things He tells us to practice with one another or the things that are just common knowledge of how we should treat one another, right? Which leads me to the point I believe the Holy Spirit wants to make next – how the things Paul tells us in the verses just before Ephesians 5:1-2 teach us about how our Heavenly Father does things … So I gave you a little homework a couple of weeks ago – and that was to determine why the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 5:1, “Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children.” In other words, I asked you to take a look at the end of chapter 4 and see why Paul might have said “Therefore” when talking about us imitating Him. We specifically looked at verses 41-42 first where we saw how Paul taught us about “putting on” Christ’s clothing of being kind and forgiving one another while first “putting off” the behaviors of the old man. We even went over to Colossians chapter 3 and looked at some verses where Paul went into a lot more detail about this same thing. Then with it being Father’s Day the following Sunday, we went back to verse 25 and looked at some of the things Paul said that show us what a good, good Heavenly Father we have. In other words, we are going to look at today how we can follow in our Father’s footsteps and do things like He does. LOVE CANNOT LIE He begins by telling us in verse 25 to put away lying and to speak truth with our neighbor. Don’t you think it’s interesting that the apostle Paul had to tell the Ephesian church, which was probably one of the greatest churches in history, to quit lying. The reason this is so astounding is because we tend to over-glamorize the early church and assume that they were super spiritual. And while they certainly walked in greater power than the church does today, the truth is, these believers struggled with the same carnal things that you and I do. Yes, they struggled with lying, anger, stealing, hurtful words, and bitterness like we all do in the church today (vs.25-31). But why do you reckon telling the truth and not lying is so important to the Lord? Why do you suppose it was important enough for the Holy Spirit to inspire Paul to write this? You got it – It’s because He does not (more accurately, He cannot) lie! It is just not part of His nature and is a complete violation to the truth that He is! Here are three verses that establish the truth of God’s inability to lie: Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?” Titus 1:2 says, “in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,” And finally, Hebrews 6:18, “that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.” In fact, we are told earlier in Ephesians chapter 4 to speak the truth in love (verse 15), signifying that speaking the truth is one of the things that love does. Now you can speak the truth and not do it in love, but you cannot walk in love and not speak the truth. Let me explain… There are a lot of people (even Christians) who are proficient in speaking the truth. Yes, they will tell people the way it is and not balk at being brutally honest with people. The problem, however, is that not everyone who does this does it “in love.” In other words, they like to “call it like they see it” but they are generally not too concerned about the other person’s feelings. And sure, sometimes the other person’s feelings might be hurt when we tell them the truth, but my point is that we genuinely do care about the other person, so we are at least conscious of their feelings and wouldn’t treat them the way we wouldn’t want to be treated. Aren’t you thankful that God does not tell you everything He sees wrong with you? No, even though He is certainly aware with ALL your flaws and mistakes, He doesn’t go around telling you or others even a small fraction of them. Why? Because He is love, and while He is certainly the truth as well, He only tells people the truth when its best for them—not because He’s irritated by something they are doing or for some other selfish reason. But on the same token, if we truly love someone, we will tell them the truth they need to hear in the moment because it will help them. No, there will not be this – “Oh, I don’t want to offend them” – because love is not as concerned about their response towards what we are telling them as it is about genuinely trying to help the person and doing what’s best for them. But the bottom line is that if you lie, you are not walking in love towards the one you are lying to, because the majority of the time someone lies, they are thinking only of covering up something and protecting themselves. That’s not love, is it? So know this- this is a BIG reason that God cannot lie. It’s because He is love! He is faithful to what He has said. So if the Lord makes you a promise, He will surely bring it to pass because He loves you that much! LOVE HAS ANGER Then in verses 26&27, we are told how love also knows how to channel its anger: Paul said in these verses – “ ‘Be angry, and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.” Now there has been a lot of misunderstanding about what Paul was saying in these verses because many have interpreted these verses incorrectly. I always heard people say regarding verse 26, “When you get angry, make sure you don’t sin by going to bed angry. Make sure you make it right before you go to sleep.” And while that is an okay standard to live by, I don’t think God wants us to harbor ill-will towards our neighbor for any portion of the day! No, this verse is saying something totally different. It is actually commanding us “be angry” but “do not sin” –meaning, God wants us to be angry at something but just not let it turn into sin. This verse is actually telling us to not let the sun go down on that wrath - meaning, don’t let that wrath go to sleep. So a good question then is – Aren’t things like anger and wrath wrong? No, they are only wrong when aimed at the wrong thing! You see, anger becomes sin only when it is aimed at God or other people. Anger is only appropriate when aimed at Satan and sin. In fact, we are told in this verse to be angry and to allow ourselves to stay infuriated against the devil. That is why he says at the beginning of verse 27 – “nor give place to the devil.” In other words, keep your anger, wrath and hostility against the devil awake and don’t give him any place! Amen! The word “sin” in its simplest sense means “to miss the mark.” So, Paul was essentially saying, “Be angry, but don’t miss the mark with that anger.” In other words, aim your anger at its proper target – not at people or God, but rather at sin and all its effects. By understanding this we are enabled to love our enemies that are in the natural realm and channel our anger towards our real enemies that are in the spiritual realm. However, if we do not understand this, then the devil will have us constantly channeling our anger in the wrong direction, and in so doing, we will be “giving him place” in our lives. So when someone does something that angers us, we have to see the root cause of that hurtful action which is the devil. We must understand that flesh and blood is not who we are wrestling against but that it is the devil who is behind the scenes inspiring the offense. Then we can truly be angry and sin not. We sin when we focus our anger on our brothers and sisters – allowing ourselves to become bitter, resentful, offended, and unforgiving towards them. However, it is okay to be angry when that anger is channeled towards the devil. So what does this have to do with the Lord? How is this imitating Him? Well, He certainly knows who the real enemy is, and His anger is aimed at him. Therefore, His anger and wrath are towards the sin and not towards the sinner. And why does He hate sin and the kingdom of darkness so much? It is because He loves us so much, and sin and Satan are seeking to steal, kill, and destroy us. Therefore, He does not let the sun go down on His wrath against all ungodliness. Why? It is because He loves the sinner and hates the sin, all because the sin hurts the ones His love is poured out on, namely you and me. Even in the Old Testament, the Lord was expressing His nature of love towards the children of Israel … You see, this is one of the reasons that the Lord gave them the Law. We know from Paul’s epistle to the Romans that one of the main purposes of the Law was to reveal sin and cause His people to cry out for a Savior. But another reason that the Lord gave them commandments was for the same reason any good and loving parent gives their kids commandments. Why? It is because they love them, and they know the effects of those actions on their children! For instance, they tell them to look both ways before they cross the street because they are ultimately protecting them. Therefore, love will make every attempt to eradicate the sin from the object of its love before the sin yields death in them. But my point is that love is not just passive and all-embracing. It does not just overlook the thing that is killing the one it loves. Love will seek to expose and remove that thing that is working death in the object of its love. Friends, we have embraced what we call a “seeker-sensitive” type of love that is absolutely ungodly. When we ignore the absolutes and sweep the truth under the table all because we don’t want to offend, we are no longer walking in the pure love of God. But it is much better to speak the truth in love with the risk of offending than to ignore the darkness and watch the person continue to not walk in all of their God-given potential or even experience death in an area of their life. But again, my entire motivation for speaking truth is because of my love for the people I’m sharing it with. Love always has to be the reason I am speaking truth—not my own personal agenda or my frustration. LOVE DOES NOT STEAL; LOVE GIVES Then in verse 28, we see yet another reflection of God in the form of a commandment towards us: Paul said, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.” Actually, there are two aspects of God’s loving nature contained in this verse. Number one, God tells us not to steal: And why does He command us not to steal? It is because He does not steal! But why do so many in the church today attribute the characteristics of a thief to their God? For example, the majority of the church today blames God for taking their health to teach them something, stripping them of their finances to humble them, or “taking” their loved one because He needed another angel in heaven. Is this really true? I know that our Heavenly Father is the giver of every good and perfect gift. Therefore, all of the blessings we possess are gifts from Him. But to say that God is giving us a blessing and then turning around and taking it from us would be like me giving you $100, you putting it in your wallet, and then when I see your wallet laying around, I take it back without your permission. That would be “unrighteous”, right? So why has the church accused God of doing things like that? And if this were correct, like I said earlier, it wouldn’t be wrong for me to do this to you because, after all, I’m just copying what God does like I’m told to do, right? Of course, it’s foolish to think God would want us to imitate someone who steals from others. Likewise, it’s foolish to think that God Himself is doing the same. No, the reason we should be able to clearly see why the Lord is against stealing is because the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy and He is ultimately against us imitating the devil. Amen! So how do we imitate God and not the devil? The answer is by doing what the second half of this verse says – being a giver! That is who God is! So if we want to imitate God, we need to learn to be givers! This is revealed in John 10:10 when after Jesus described the thief, He then described God’s nature by saying He had come to give life and life more abundantly. Then Paul tells us in this verse what the whole purpose of the jobs that we have to earn money is – It is that we may have something to give to him who has need! Wow! That means that our whole attitude for working should be so that we can have enough to bless others with. And why? It is because this is who our loving Father is! God is a giver and that is what He lives to do! My dad did this for his family when I was young: He worked a side job as a referee in high school basketball simply to earn money so that he could buy Christmas gifts for me, my sister, and my mom. How many of you know, that’s something God would do (and has done)? You see, selfishness only works for itself so that it can gather more into its own barns; love works because it wants to have more to give! Therefore, God wants us to “live to give” like He focuses on supplying all of our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus! Thanks be to God! PART 4 – THE WORD OF LOVE & THE SPIRIT OF LOVE THE WORD OF LOVE Then in verse 29, Paul instructs us in how to use our words by focusing on how they are affecting those who hear them: He says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.” Essentially in this verse, Paul is saying that our words are not meant to tear down, but for building up. They are meant to impart grace to the hearers, not condemnation. You know, the Bible has a lot to say about the power of our words. In fact, not only did the apostle Paul talk about our words in his epistles, the Lord Jesus said a lot about our words as well in the Gospels. But do you know what Book of the Bible has the most to say about our words? The Book of Wisdom, Proverbs, does. So this teaches me that a wise man chooses his words carefully, knowing that there is life & death in the power of the tongue. Seems like that should be in the Bible somehow. But wait! It is! Proverbs 18:20-21 says, “A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; From the produce of his lips he shall be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” First of all, notice that Proverbs 18:21 specifically says that those who love it will eat its fruit. Love what? Well, this could refer to the power that is in the tongue or the life that our tongue has the power to produce. Either way, embracing this truth that our words are powerful is an important part of seeing the fruit of it. But the truth is, our tongues hold more power than most realize – the power to produce both death and life. No, not just life and not just death; our tongues hold the power to accomplish both! But notice how this verse doesn’t say “life and death are in the power of the tongue”; it says “death and life …” And I believe the reason for this is because one must first realize what to stop saying with their mouths before they start learning what to say. Notice in Ephesians 4:28, Paul did the same thing— He started by saying to not let any corrupt communication come out of our mouths before he focused on the good things our tongue is meant to accomplish. Now “corrupt communication” describes words that can spoil or even kill. And, church, we need to know that words do indeed have that power … This corrupting & destructive nature of the tongue is mentioned all throughout Proverbs. Many do not understand this; they do not see how words can do so much damage. We say things like, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That is so untrue, church! The truth is - words can hurt! Yes, they can even kill! Proverbs 12:18 says, There is one who speaks like the piercings of a sword… In other places, words are described as arrows, snake bites, fire (see Psalm 57:4, 64:3, 120:2-4, 140:3; Proverbs 16:27, 25:18, 26:21 & James 3:2-12). So yes, words can be used as weapons to demolish, destroy, condemn, and even kill. But as Proverbs 12:18 & Proverbs 4:28 go on to say, words are not just instruments of death, they are also instruments of life. Therefore, we need to see how our words can be constructive; not just destructive. I had the Lord correct me one time on this because when I first got the revelation of the power of our words, I only gravitated to the negative. It set in me a holy fear of not saying anything that I did not want to see in my life. I would avoid saying anything about how I felt in my body, what I was experiencing negatively in my life, etc. I knew that I did not want to say what I didn’t want to see. And while there is certainly truth to this, there was something I had not put into practice yet. You see, although I knew that there was death in the power of the tongue, I had not put as much importance on the fact that there is also life in the power of the tongue. Therefore, I needed to adopt the principle of calling things that be not as though they were instead of just not calling things that be as though they were not. Both are truths that we need to learn, church – because, again, words can be both extremely destructive and extremely constructive. Notice what the 2nd half of this Proverb says, “… but the tongue of the wise promotes health.” So, just as our words can be weapons and be used to hurt people and things, our words can also be agents of healing and health! (I wonder then what God’s Words will promote in those who have ears to hear them) Amen! So as the apostle Paul said, our words are supposed to do good, to bring necessary edification, and to impart grace to the hearers. Likewise, Proverbs talks about the destructive tendency of our words, it also has a lot to say about the life that’s in our tongue as well: Proverbs 10:11 says that “the mouth of the righteous is a well of life …” Most other translations describe the mouth of the righteous as a “fountain of life.” In other words, it is the source of life. You see, a fountain or well was their source of water in that day. Therefore, our mouths are where we need to look to when we are feeling dry, thirsty, and not experiencing the life of God. Our own mouths can change the narrative and give a life-giving drink of water to both those we might be encouraging and our own selves that might need encouraging. Proverbs 15:4 says, “A wholesome tongue is a tree of life …” So, a wholesome (or, healthy) tongue is a tree of life. What does this mean? Well, the tree of life did what? It gave eternal, everlasting life! So, how does one become satisfied with long life (see Psalm 91:16)? It is through a whole and healthy tongue! Proverbs 15:23 says, A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it is! Did you know that how we decide to answer things with our mouth can determine whether we walk in joy or not? For example, if a “barren fig tree” is in our path and we answer it with the right words, it can greatly determine us experiencing the fruit of joy. Regarding others, we need to be declarers of the “good report”- not running to bring bad news to others. I get joy when people call me with good news. Proverbs 16:24 says, Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. In other words, pleasant, beautiful, gracious and kind words have a similar effect on us as good honey does: they positively affect us both emotionally and physically. Be an agent of words that both add to others and to you! Finally, I want to draw our attention back to the last half of Proverbs 18:21, which says, “and those who love it shall eat the fruit of it.” What fruit do you want in your life? What do you desire to partake of? Well, according to Proverbs 18:21, we see that we will eat the fruit of the words that we speak. “Eating our words” is a much truer statement than we realized, huh? Well, we have three verses in Proverbs that speak along these same lines. Let’s look at one of them that is coincidently located one verse before Proverbs 18:21. Quickly, the other two say:
Finally, notice again that Proverbs 18:20 says, A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; From the produce of his lips he shall be filled. So, these are three witnesses that establish us in the importance of only speaking of the fruit we desire to partake of. So now you know where I am going with this, right? If our words hold such power, what do you suppose God’s Word is capable of!?! It absolutely has the power to produce life and health! This is why Proverbs 4:22 teaches us how His Words are “life to those who find them and health to all their flesh.” And Ephesians 4:29 teaches us exactly what else His Words have the power to do-- They are certainly not capable of “corruption” because Paul told us not to let any corrupt communication proceed from our mouth. This means that nothing God says to us will ever yield corruption or death; rather they “preserve.” The Book of Proverbs even talks about how His wise words will “preserve” us. In other words, God’s Words always produce life and lead to our fruit being fresh and flourishing. Likewise, all of His words are good and are for necessary edification. This means all that He says is good, beneficial, and edifying. The word “edification” literally means to build up. Therefore, His words will always build us up and not tear us down. And finally, His words always impart grace to the hearers: Didn’t Paul say over in Colossians 4:6 that our words should always be with grace. This is how God talks. Do you want to know what language God speaks in? It is grace! Grace is the language of love. So if God told us that our speech is always to be with grace, then how can we believe that His Words are not going to always be “laced with grace”? Yes, if the Lord told us to always let our speech be with grace and seasoned with salt, then you can rest assured that this is the way He is always going to communicate with you. In other words, His Words will always be in the specific flavor that you prefer them to be in. Again, is this not what God’s Word does for us? It builds us up, it edifies us, it feeds our spirits, and it imparts grace to us, for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. In this verse, God is saying that He wants our words to have the same effect on others as His Word does on us. You see, there are different ways in which we can hear God’s Word. Some only hear it through the filter of condemnation, but this is not how God spoke it. His Word was intended to minister to us the same way as Paul said here our words are to minister to others – and that way is the way of love. This is why you could call the Word of God, the Word of Love. THE SPIRIT OF LOVE Then in verse 30, we have another eye-opening truth: Paul says in it that we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Now this idea of grieving the Holy Spirit must be understood by the context. You see, I’ve heard a lot of squirrely ideas of what “grieves” the Holy Spirit, but this verse is sandwiched between the words of our mouth (vs. 29) and the taking off & putting on of certain behaviors. So the fact is, the Holy Spirit can be grieved when you or I choose to conduct ourselves in a certain way. But again, will God give us a standard that He is not already living by? Nope! So this should tell us that He tells us not to grieve the Holy Spirit because He does not and will not grieve us! Wow! What a powerful truth! Now it’s important to understand what this word “grieve” means: It comes from the Greek word lupeo which means to make sorrowful, to sadden, or to cause pain, injury, or distress. Have you ever done something wrong and just felt an overwhelming state of sorrow? And no, I am not referring to a normal kind of feeling bad about what you did, but an oppressive kind of guilt that zapped you of your joy and left you with a dark cloud over your head. You see, as the apostle Paul taught us, there is certainly a godly kind of sorrow that leads us to repentance, but there is also a worldly sorrow that yields death (Second Corinthians 7:8-11). So we need to be able to distinguish when the grief that we are experiencing is the godly kind versus the worldly kind. Now a great example of this worldly kind of sorrow is Judas: We all know that he made some very bad decisions and the very worst of mistakes, and we see how he was even very remorseful for betraying the Lord like he did. But His sorrow was certainly not the godly kind because there was no repentance. In fact, we see how he took his own life as a result—bringing to pass in the most literal sense what the apostle Paul taught us - that worldly sorrow yields death. So, there is obviously a kind of grief that can come from making mistakes and stumbling in our Christian walk, but does that mean that it’s the Holy Spirit who is “grieving” us? Not necessarily! It might just be that our own heart is condemning us because of some value system that is set in it, or it could be the devil is heaping condemnation on us. But what we do know is that the Lord will not grieve us anymore than He wants us to grieve His Spirit. In fact, we can see where Jesus taught us how the Holy Spirit’s own ministry is to not do this. The Lord Jesus showed us that the Holy Spirit is commissioned to “convict” (See John 16:8-11). Now let me begin by dispelling a couple of popular belief systems that people have of these verses and about the workings of the Holy Spirit in general: Notice, first of all, that Jesus said, “And when He has come (And He most certainly has come!), He will convict the world…” Convict who? “The world.” So, who is it that the Holy Spirit will convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment? The world! And we know that when Jesus refers to the world here, He is certainly including unbelievers because, in verse 9, when He goes on to explain why He will convict the world of these three things, He says, “of sin, because they do not believe in Me.” Therefore, this is certainly talking about those of the world who have not yet believed on Jesus. However, I also see it as including those who are in the world but not of the world as well (i.e., believers) because in verse 10 He says, “of righteousness, because I go to the Father and you see Me no more.” So, this particular commission of the Holy Spirit in John 16:8-11 is what He is assigned to do for everyone living in the world, and not necessarily just for God’s children. This is important to understand, particularly as it pertains to the sin portion, because how many of us have heard how the Holy Spirit “convicted” one of our brothers & sisters in Christ of their sin—taking them to the woodshed and making them feel horrible for what they did wrong—and they used these very verses to substantiate it? Well, I’m here to tell you that what a lot of Christians say is the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit—which leads me to point number two: Part of the reason people misunderstand the workings of the Holy Spirit is because of this word we see in the King James version— “convict.” You see, in our modern-day terminology, the word “convict” has more of a negative tone to it. To us, the word “convict” paints the picture of a courtroom and carries the idea of some judge who is looking down on the guilty and condemning them for their wrongdoing. And religion certainly has not helped this perception of conviction either: It has painted the picture that God is looking down on us with a lightning bolt in His hand ready to strike us down at any moment for our sinful ways. So, therefore, a good portion of the Church teaches that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to constantly hound us—condemning us for all our various faults and shortcomings. Saints, this is not what the Holy Spirit is commissioned to do! So, what does the word “convict” actually mean? The Greek word translated as “convict” carries more of the idea to “convince or to prove” than it does to “condemn.” In fact, the Greek word that the apostle John used here literally means “to bring something to light, and thus to expose it.” So, don’t get stuck on the word “convict” and let that word paint a negative picture of the Holy Spirit’s dealings with the world. But the fact is (as we’ve made the point of already), Jesus specifically said that the Holy Spirit’s assignment to “convict” of sin is aimed at the world, and not at the church. In other words, the Holy Spirit’s job of convicting, convincing, and simply bringing to light one’s sinful condition is specifically targeting unbelievers. Now does this mean that the Holy Spirit is not dealing with us—God’s children—as well? Since Jesus said here that the Holy Spirit is doing this commission of convicting & convincing to the world, does that mean that He does not show us things as well? I do not believe so. No, just because Jesus only addressed “the world” as being subject to the Holy Spirit’s conviction here, does not mean that He does not fulfill this in a certain measure to the Church. We are in the world as well, just not of the world. I for one am thankful for all of the times that the Holy Spirit has shown me when I am missing it and what I ought to be doing. I have seen many in the Church today reject even the notion of God correcting us or pointing out our mistakes because they see it as a negative thing. But the truth is, we all do stupid things, and we all need correction from time to time. So, who better to provide us with all of the instruction, correction, and direction that we so desperately need than the Holy Spirit? Again, people take correction as such a negative thing. But this particular part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry is not a negative ministry; it is a positive ministry! He is an exhorter and an encourager, not a “beat ‘em down in the dumps” condemner (see Romans 8:1&34)! While He certainly does “convict” us when we do something wrong in the sense that He simply brings it to our attention, He does it in order to teach and train us to become more like Jesus in our attitudes and conduct, and not to make us feel bad. Church, He is a convicter, and not a condemner! The question that begs to be answered then is: What is the difference between conviction and condemnation? Understanding the difference between these two is vital to being able to discern the difference between what comes from God, Satan, and even us. Earlier in my walk with the Lord, He taught me how to tell the difference between these two: He said, “Conviction brings a state of hope; Condemnation brings a state of hopelessness.” What this means is that when you just feel bad over what you did and are basically void of any hope of ever getting back on track—then rest assured, what you are experiencing is condemnation and not conviction. You see, condemnation only yields death. It does nothing but beat you over the head for the mess you are in and does nothing to help you out. It will lay on you such a heavy burden, but not help you lift it even in the least. Condemnation will even try and ultimately cause you to despair of life in general. In other words, it will not stop with making you feel hopeless with your individual mistake. It will end up trying to make you feel hopeless about your Christian walk altogether. Condemnation is a quitter! So, if you are ever being tempted to entertain the thoughts of quitting, know that condemnation is in there somewhere. On the other hand, when you are receiving the conviction of the Holy Spirit, you might feel remorse, but it won’t be the kind of hopeless, guilt-infested sorrow that the world brings. You will sense hope to overcome, hope for change, and hope for forgiveness! The way I personally can discern the conviction of the Holy Spirit is that I always end up feeling better after I receive it. During those times (which are more than I would like), I feel like I can genuinely say to the Holy Spirit, “Thank you sir! May I have another!?!” His loving and gracious rebukes do not make me feel like a failure. Instead, they infuse me with a hope for repentance and also provide the way of escape at the same time (i.e., the “how to” in regard to repentance). But my point is that the Holy Spirit’s commission to convict is a positive, life-giving commission and not something that we should dread. His is a commission of conviction, not condemnation! Yes, church, we must know that the Holy Spirit never, ever condemns us! So, if we ever feel even a hint of condemnation over something that we did, then we should eliminate the Holy Spirit from being a possible suspect, which would leave Satan or ourselves as the only two possible suspects. Have you ever known someone who just had a tendency to injure you with their words? They would say something that just plain hurt you, leaving you saying, “Ouch!” They had a sharp tongue and when they made remarks or statements, they were rather pointed and injurious. For instance, maybe you made a comment like- “Oh, I didn’t realize that” and then they would say something like- “Well, you should have!” That is just condemning! I mean, why would we reinforce to someone the mistake they made when they are already aware of it? How does that profit them if they already realize what they have done? This is not how God wants our speech to be. And why? It is because His Words are not like this towards us! He does not talk to us like many believe that He does. There are many believers who think that God will remind us of our mistakes and shortcomings after we already realize them. This is not God! How many times do we hear of Christians who say, “Man, the Holy Spirit just condemned the mess out me today! He let me know how wrong what I did was and sent me to the woodshed. He told me, ‘I ought to be ashamed of myself and that I should feel bad about what I did.” Now again, I certainly believe that part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to let us know when we are missing the mark, but what I totally disagree with is how many believe He does this. He does not grieve us anymore than He wants us to grieve Him. He is not going to send us into distress nor is He going to attempt to cause injury to our soul. Friends, love does not condemn! Love always seeks to speak words of life that build up and don’t tear down! And this is exactly how God’s Word and God’s Spirit seek to communicate to you! CONCLUSION You see, church, the Spirit of God and the Word of God always agree! And what they specifically agree on is to communicate things to us that preserve us, that build us & edify us, and to add to us! This is always what God’s written Word and His Holy Spirit will communicate to us. In fact, if you study what prophecy is meant to do, you can see clearly what both God’s Word—which is called the more sure word of prophecy—and God’s Spirit—which is the One who gives this gift in the first place—intend to do as they speak to us. First Corinthians 14:3 says that he who prophesies speaks edification, exhortation, and comfort to men. Well, if that is what this gift of the Spirit accomplishes, then you can be pretty sure that this is how God will speak to us all the time. Yes, everything He shares with us through His Word and His Spirit will edify, exhort, and bring comfort to us. Amen.
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INTRODUCTION
As most of you know, we have been looking at God’s love for us over the past few months—attempting to deepen our understanding & revelation of His love for each one of us. Well, today, I want us to move into something similar, yet a little different. Yes, I want us to continue learning about God’s amazing love for us, but we are going to take a different approach than most do. What we are going to do is we are going to look at some verses that instruct us how to love each other, and by this, learn how God loves us in the same way. Someone might ask, “How is studying verses that teach us how to love other people going to teach us about God’s love for us?” The answer is simple, but let me answer that question by asking you one: Would God give us a standard for loving others that He Himself is not already walking in? In other words, would God tell us to do something that He is not already doing? The obvious answer to those two questions is – Of course, He wouldn’t! Our Heavenly Father commands us to treat our brothers and sisters a certain way because He wants us to act like Him! He wants us to forgive, to do good, and to have compassion on our fellow man because this is how God treats us. So, in essence, you could say that everything God instructs or commands us to do in His Word can be summarized in one statement— Be like Me. So, what I am entitling this new series is – “Imitators of Love” – because we know God is love, right? So, if we are imitating God, then we are imitating love. MIMICKING THE FATHER I get this title from a verse of the Bible which I believe to be the most concise statement of truth concerning our role and responsibility on the earth. Yes, church, if there was one verse that I believe puts everything that we are called to do for the Lord in a nutshell, it would be Ephesians 5:1, which says, “Therefore, be imitators of God as dear children.” You see, I see this verse as the bullseye of everything that we aim to be as Christians. Why is this? It’s because being imitators of God would encompass everything else we could ever aspire to be in Him. Yes, if we were imitating God, then we would love perfectly. We would bless abundantly. We would do good to all, and our mercy would endure forever. The list could go on and on. So just mimicking the nature of our Heavenly Father would encompass all of the weightier matters of the law and fulfill its righteous requirement. Amen? Now when we see this word “imitators” we think of someone who “mimics, copies, or follows after” someone else. In fact, in the original King James version, this word is used seven times and is always translated as “follower(s).” The apostle Paul liked to use this word in encouraging his churches to “follow” his example and to “imitate” him. Wasn’t Jesus also known for calling His disciples with two words— “Follow me.” Well, what they heard (and probably most of us too) when Jesus invited them to do this was to lay down whatever they were doing and physically follow Him. But I believe Jesus was also saying the same thing that we read here—to follow His example and imitate Him. Let me give you a few other translations of this verse that bring out some of these other ways of describing “imitators”:
So let’s talk a little today about Paul telling us that we need to be imitators of God “as dear children.” The imagery that he is giving us is of a child imitating his or her dad. But notice that Paul says to do it as “dear” children. This word describes children who are “beloved”—which could mean one of two things:
So if the apostle Paul intended my first point – to describe how a child who is dearly loved will tend towards mimicking their parents – then this shows the importance of us receiving what we have been learning over the past few months because the fact that we “be-loved” by God, being His “dear children”, should inspire us to be more like God. Yes, the more we receive God’s love and see how good He is, the more it should inspire us to be more like Him. It will create more of an admiration of Him, and the result will be us striving to replicate our Heavenly Father’s goodness. But if Paul intended to describe how much a parent loves it when their child mimics them, then we can see how this is a way that we can bless the Lord even more. You know, regarding this latter point, all of us parents out there can see how this would be true, right? There are not too many things that can bless a parent more than when their child attempts to mimic them. At a young age, our kids might repeat what we say. Many times, they will want to do what we do vocationally when they grow up. They simply just get interested in what we are interested in because of their love and admiration for us. Then when they grow up, what a joy it is to any parent when their child follows in their footsteps by maybe choosing the school that their parents went to or following the same career path that they did. Now, of course, this is not always the path that our children are to take, but when it comes to our Heavenly Father, following exactly in His footsteps is always the right thing to do. My point is that it pleases any parent to either see their young child doing their best to be like their daddy or seeing their grown-up children making the mature decision to be about their father’s business. So how about the Lord? Do you reckon Father God is pleased when His children begin to imitate Him? I guarantee you that this ministers to His heart as it does to any of us who are parents here. But, you see, the reason why this statement is what I believe to be all of the commandments rolled up into one is because ultimately everything God has told us do in the Word of God is a reflection of what He is already doing. In other words, in all of His commandments and instructions, He is saying, “Sons and daughters, just be like Me.” WALKING AFTER LOVE And if we are going to just be like Him, what will be doing? Well, the apostle Paul goes on to tell us in the following verse when he says, “And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” (Ephesians 5:2) So if we are imitating our Father God, then we are imitating love, right? Yes, us walking in love is us imitating God who is love. So based on what we’ve learned about imitating someone, us walking in love would be us “walking after Love”—that is, us following after Love Himself. But not only are we imitating our Heavenly Father when we walk in love, but Paul goes on to describe that we are also imitating His Son, Jesus Christ, who “has loved us and given Himself for us …” And I believe the idea here is that since we have Jesus’ example here on the earth, we can simply look to His example and “copy that.” You see, understanding one simple truth is key to understanding the nature of God—and that truth is that one Jesus gave us in John chapter 14 … In John 14:7-9, Jesus had a conversation with His disciple, Philip, that holds a tremendous truth: Jesus started off by saying, “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? So Jesus shows us that if we have seen Him, we will have seen the Father. This truth is echoed in other New Testament verses as well … Jesus was said by the apostle Paul to be “the image of the invisible God” in Colossians 1:15. Let’s look at this phrase in more detail … Notice, first of all, that God is called “invisible” here. Jesus revealed to us that God is a spirit (See John 4:24). Therefore, being spiritual Himself, He would be invisible to the physical eye. However, Paul calls Jesus here “the image of the invisible God.” The Greek word for “image” is eikon and describes an exact stamp, representation, or manifestation of something or someone. This Greek word is actually where we get our word “icon” from, which is defined similarly. Interestingly enough, this same word for “image” was used over in Romans 1:23, albeit in a negative sense when he said that pagans “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man …” But in Jesus’ case, the image and glory of the invisible God was perfectly displayed in the life of a Man who is now incorruptible Himself! Glory! Therefore, just as the first Adam was created in the image and likeness of God (See Genesis 1:26), the Last Adam—Jesus Christ—is the perfect image and likeness of His Father. Let me give you a couple of good examples of this word “image”: Sometimes stamps carry an image of a famous person. Likewise, Jesus is the exact “stamp” of the image of God Himself. Again, this is why Jesus said that if you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father (See John 14:9). Another example is of a coin. Just as coins generally bear the image of the head of a sovereign, likewise Jesus bore the image of the Sovereign God. All of this to say that Jesus was, is, and evermore shall be the exact image and representation of the invisible God—the express image of His person (See Hebrews 1:3). Yes, even though God is invisible, and no one can see Him, His only begotten Son came to declare Him … John 1:18 says that no one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared Him. You see, you cannot truly see God’s nature by how He operated in the Old Testament—particularly under the law. That’s right— You do not see God in Moses because heck, not even he saw God’s face & fullness, just a part of Him. Now we see God the Father in God the Son. He (Jesus) has declared Him fully. Amen. So, what does it mean that Jesus “declared Him (God)”? It means that He not only declared Him in Word, but He also declared Him in action. In other words, Jesus’ life—both words and deeds—reveals the true nature of the Father. Therefore, if you have seen Jesus, then you have seen God. Yes, church, Jesus came to the earth to reveal the very nature and characteristics of God to us. Yes, He was God manifest in the flesh (First Timothy 3:16). The lesson then is this: whatever you see Jesus doing or hear Jesus saying in the Gospels is the perfect revelation of the will of God yesterday, today, and forevermore (Hebrews 13:8)! Therefore, Jesus would be the best example we have for imitating God, amen? Absolutely! As Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father”, we might say, “If you have imitated Jesus, you have imitated God.” Now this whole idea Paul presents here of “as Christ also has loved us” is certainly reminiscent of what Jesus taught us in John 13:34 when He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” What Jesus was giving His disciples here was not a new idea; love was also taught under the Old Covenant as their greatest commandment contained loving God and loving their neighbor. The difference here was that while the law taught loving our neighbor “as we do ourselves”, the New Testament teaches us to love one another “as He has loved us.” Therefore, it’s not a new commandment in that love is a new concept; it’s just a new standard of love where we are loving with His love and not our own. And this example Paul gave of how He has loved us is culminated in how He gave Himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. So the example of love that we are to be walking in can be boiled down to the laying down of our lives for others. But here’s the deal— the Lord did this first! It began with God so loving the world that He gave His only begotten Son (See John 3:16), and then His only begotten Son gave Himself after He got here. Amen! And church, that is exactly the kind of love that we are called to imitate—loving the world enough to give them our very best and loving one another enough to give our very lives for them. This is the example we are to follow, mimic, copy, and imitate as His “dear children.” 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 …
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. So for a couple of weeks now, we have been looking at what I consider to be the single-greatest truth we can ever have revealed to us—God’s amazing love for us. And church, I want you to know today that this subject is oh so very important to your life! If you need healing in your body, you need to know God loves you! If you need God to meet some financial/material need in your life, you need to know God loves you! If you desire to simply grow in God and become the Christian you are called to be, you need to know God loves you!
Saints, it is all wrapped up in knowing His deep, passionate love that He has for us! Once we are rooted and grounded in His love, our lives can be built on this foundation and brick by brick we can see the fruit of God’s promises manifest in our lives! Amen! The reason I say this is because the very virtue that we use to receive any & everything from God—faith—is said to “work by love” (See Galatians 5:6). The word “work” is where we get our word “energy” from, so if our faith is “energized” by love then it’s going to be hard for our faith to have any power without knowing we are loved, right? Therefore, we aren’t going to be able to receive much from God, not having energized faith. So this is why I say knowing & believing God’s love for us is so vital—because it is the foundation of our faith and us receiving everything He has for us. Amen? Now over the first two weeks of this series, I have talked about the importance of knowing & believing the love that God has for us. So let’s quickly review these very important foundations of God’s love … REVIEW 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? Like where I used the illustration of three kinds of knowing last week—there’s the knowing of someone like we might know about a certain famous person, but that certainly doesn’t mean that we know them. Then there’s someone who is a friend that we have spent time with and have come to know. We definitely know that person much more than we know someone whom we’ve never even met. But then there’s the knowing someone like spouses know one another, where they share the same roof, the same bed, and so many other things. That is the intimate kind of “knowing” that is available to you and me when it comes to knowing Love Himself. So we looked at a few passages of Scripture that talk about this intimate, experiential kind of knowing of His love and saw how this kind of knowledge of His love is not taught; rather, it is caught. This was what he called “knowing the love of Christ that passes knowledge”—that is, experiencing the love that you would never be able to fully understand. But then last time, we looked at how it is not just important that we know His love in this way; we also need to believe the love that God has for us. I made the point that next to the “knowing” of God’s love, this is a huge issue in the body of Christ. People do not truly believe that God loves them. Again, they might say they believe that He loves them, but look at their fruit. There is a big difference between believing that He loves us in our head and believing He loves us in our heart. Faith of the heart produces a change in our life. This is the place we all need to desire to get to concerning the love of God—knowing and believing the love God has for us. So what this means is that it is great that we come to experience the love that God has for us, but there is also the place where we believe 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. There is only one manifestation of His love that we need, and that needs to settle it for us, and that’s the giving of His Son. 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. Again, this is how God chose to manifest how much He loves us. I also made the point that another reason why I feel this is important for us to realize is because the devil likes to tempt us to doubt God’s love for us when our circumstances are not favorable. And too many believers take this bait by basing God’s love for them on the situations and circumstances that occur in their lives. For instance, if a tragedy or disaster occurs in certain Christian’s lives, they begin to question whether God really loves them or not. But what they need to understand is that our circumstances are not in any way a reflection of God’s love for us! How many times have we heard—when someone has suffered a tragedy or something that they needed did not come to pass in their life—that they do not feel God loves them? This is one of the greatest devices satan uses in our hardships—bringing into question God’s love. This should not be so, saints! We looked at the example of Abraham and his willingness to give His only begotten son, and how God knew that He feared Him because of His willingness to sacrifice Isaac for Him. We learned from this that we should likewise know that God loves us since He did not withhold His Son, His only begotten Son, from us! In other words, we should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loves us and will provide us with everything we need—spirit, soul, and body—simply because He gave us Jesus! Hallelujah! You see, 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. SOVERIEGN LOVE But the fact is, even though our circumstances & situations shouldn’t be things we base God’s love for us on, with most people, they do. And the reason for this is because of what the vast majority of people believe about the Almighty and His “sovereignty.” You see, there is the common belief about God that if He is God, then He is the Creator of all things. Yes, and as the Creator, He is the Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent One. This means that He is the All-Powerful, All-Knowing, and All-Present God of universe. Therefore, God is the top of the food chain and the One that is, in fact, “Sovereign.” And you know what? All of this is absolutely true, and just about every true Christian would and should agree to all of these things I just said about the One True and Living God. The problem is, however, in how people then assume God does or does not do things in light of His sovereignty. Let me explain: Most people believe that because God has all the power, then He can do anything He wants. Yes, if He is the Almighty, then nothing enters our life that He has not allowed. Therefore, if something does or does not happen, then it must be because God decided not to do something about it. And this is, therefore, where doctrines come from that say God “allows’ certain things to happen because of His higher purpose—because after all, His ways are above our ways and His thoughts are above our thoughts. These belief systems say things like God is in control and that everything that enters our life has passed through the hands of God and happened because of either His perfect will or His permissive will. Now, church, before I go any further, I need to go ahead and tell you that the things I am going to tell you today, you might have never heard before. In fact, some of these truths might be a shock to your religious nervous system because these sacred cows of Christianity are ones that many hold near and dear. But its high time that we BBQ these sacred cows so that we can understand the truth about God’s nature and His love for us. Amen? So turn to your neighbor and ask them, “Are you ready for some BBQ?” You might be wondering what does this have to do with receiving God’s love for us? I believe it has a lot to do with it. In fact, I believe one of the greatest obstacles to understanding God’s love for us is the misunderstanding of who He is and how He operates. Let me share with you a couple of examples: Say there is a young boy who had a father who was diagnosed with cancer. The boy is deathly afraid of losing his dad that he loves so dearly, so he, being brought up in church, starts praying every night for God to please heal his dad. Well, after a long fight with the cancer, his father passes away. The boy, already dealing with so many emotions from losing his dad, begins to question God with things like “Why didn’t You heal my dad?” Then at his father’s funeral, their pastor makes comments like— “Well, I guess God needed him in heaven more than we needed him here” and so “God decided to take him.” The boy then becomes very confused and angry thinking, “How could God possibly need him in heaven more than I need him here? Why would God take my father away from me?” Or how about this example … There is a young girl who goes over to her cousin’s house for the weekend, and while she is there she is abused by an extended family member. She, believing in God, wonders why He would let that happen to her. Why didn’t He intervene, she asks herself? She then becomes very bitter with God for what she believed was Him letting her be violated like that because in her heart she believed that God could have done something so He must have let that happen to her. Church, these two examples I’ve just given you are things that have actually happened, and there are countless other examples out there like this that have wounded people. They are also things that make it confusing to people who have gone through situations like this when they are told that God “loves” them—because, in their mind, if God loved them, then He wouldn’t have let situations like this happen to them. So it’s hard for people to receive God’s love when they think that He allows all of the evil that happens to them. So, this is why I see one of the main reasons people struggle with receiving God’s love is their misguided belief in His sovereignty. Yes, in their believing He is responsible for all the bad things that happen in the world, they cannot understand how He can love us if He causes/allows all of these bad things. And you know what? If God truly is the One responsible for all of the evil and bad that happens in our lives, then it would be hard to accept that He is love because, after all, why would love do that? I mean, you don’t do things to hurt & harm people you love, do you? In fact, why don’t you go and purposely share your cold/flu with your friends that you love and get them sick and then see if they “felt the love”? No, they would actually question your love for them by asking, “Why would you do that? I thought you loved me?” But, church, that’s exactly what the majority of Christianity accuse God of, even though the Bible explicitly declares to us that GOD IS LOVE. No, love does not do things to subtract life; Love is always willing to give abundant life! But the question that needs to be answered then is— If God is love, then why do these bad things happen and why doesn’t God stop them? Well, first of all, there are multiple reasons why bad things happen—for one, we have an enemy out there who has come to steal, kill, and destroy. This might be obvious to some of us, but to much of the church, there is a lot of ignorance over the fact that the devil is real and is responsible for a lot that goes on in this world. Again, they believe that God is the One bringing everything into their life, but that’s not true! You see, in the example of Job, there was an unseen & unknown culprit behind all of Job’s afflictions, satan. From his perspective, it was the Lord who took his children, his possessions, and his health from him. But from our perspective, we see in Job chapter one that it was the devil who brought all these calamities on him. I wonder how many Christians have been in Job’s shoes. No, not in his shoes from the standpoint of what he went through, but in his shoes in how he was ignorant concerning the source of his problems. You see, you’d have to add to the Bible to say Job knew it was Satan who brought all this suffering on him. Likewise, I don’t think the majority of the church knows this either. I believe most attribute everything to God, but the truth of the matter is that the devil is responsible for some things, and its not rocket science to figure out what those things are. It’s things that are NOT GOOD, things that steal from us, attempt to kill us, and are aimed at destroying us. Amen? This is how James was able to say that we are to submit ourselves unto God and resist the devil (See James 4:7). We are only able to know what to submit to and what to resist IF we know what comes from God and what comes from the devil. So, yes, the devil is largely responsible for a lot of the evil we see happening in the world, but contrary to that statement you might have heard—"the devil made me do it”—the devil CANNOT just do whatever he wants to do. He has to have a person who will cooperate with him (and we will learn why here shortly). So a lot of what happens in the world around us is due to flesh—that is, that fallen, sinful nature in people who yield to the enemy’s will and choose the curse & death. Which is exactly what happened in the beginning, and that’s why we have the curse present on this earth, which creates so many of the bad things we have in the world around us. So there are several reasons why bad things happen that show that it’s not all up to God and prove that He is the not the source of them. Yet there are books trying to explain this very thing. One popular title is “Why do bad things happen to good people.” Well, the truth is that bad things don’t happen to good people. Why? Because the Bible teaches us that there is none good! If you recall, when Jesus was called “Good” by the rich young ruler, He responded by saying, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.” (See Matthew 19:17). In Romans 3:12, the apostle Paul said, “There is none who does good, no, not one.” So I think it’s crystal clear that God doesn’t consider any human being “good” when being compared to Him. Now if we compare ourselves among other people, we might be relatively good. But others are not our standard. God is the standard! So standing next to Him, no, there is certainly no one who should be put in the same category as His goodness. How many of you know that was another mistake that Job made? It was when he didn’t understand why all of those bad things were happening to him, his self-righteousness started accusing God of wrong doing – basically exalting his own character above God’s character. And church, that’s bad. But we do this same thing all the time – saying that so and so was a good person, why did this happen to them. The truth is, we ALL deserve bad things to happen to us when it comes to who we are in the flesh. We all make poor choices, fall short of the glory of God, and are inherently “evil.” Matthew 7:9-11 says, “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” Now Jesus was not calling us “evil” here from the standpoint of who we are compared to other evil people on this planet. He is obviously comparing us to the goodness of God. In comparison to God’s goodness, I am, in fact, evil (that is, in my flesh). But His point was, if I am evil in comparison to God’s goodness, and I know how to give good gifts to my children, then how much more will my Heavenly Father give good gifts to me when I ask Him? You see, I am not going to give my son a stone or scorpion when he is hungry. No, I will meet His needs and give him the desires of his heart, not give him something that’s harsh and harmful. But again, God’s people have accused Him of this, haven’t they? We’ve said things like – “God gave me this cancer to teach me something” or “God took so and so to heaven because He needed them there more I needed them here.” All kinds of stuff people believe about God and it’s just not true. I said, God is not the source of our tragedies, suffering, etc. And the reason I can say this so matter of “factly” is because GOD IS LOVE, and love doesn’t do that to the objects of its love. Amen? So the answer to that proverbial question—why do bad things happen and why doesn’t God stop them—is simple. It’s because we live in a sin cursed and fallen world—a world that is under the sway of Satan—and this is due to the fact that because God, in His sovereignty, gave the earth to mankind. THE EARTH IS OURS You see, Psalm 115:16 says, “The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men.” What this verse is saying is that “heaven”—where God dwells—is His domain and where He rules. And this is the reason that heaven is perfect, to where there’s no death, suffering, or imperfection of any kind. It’s because this is God’s sphere of authority and His domain. Yes, heaven is where God has control. However, here on the earth, we are living in a world that is far from perfection, right? We have all kinds of injustices and so much suffering present on the earth including sickness & disease, and poverty & lack. And do you know why these things exist on the earth. It’s not because God is in control of the earth; it’s because man is in control of it. This should be easily understood because look at the mess that has been created since the beginning of time. God doesn’t create messes. He creates things in perfection & beauty. No, all of the death, destruction, suffering, etc. that we experience on this earth is not because God willed it. Ultimately, it’s because we willed it. Perhaps not you and I, but mankind as a whole is who has allowed the imperfections that we see in this world we live in. It’s tight but it’s right. This is what the psalmist said in the second half of this verse—that the earth He has given to the sons of men. That means that the authority over the things that happen on this planet are in mankind’s control. Now this planet does still have plenty of beauty left in it. But compared to the way God created it in the beginning, the earth is not in the same condition. And that is because of the sin we allowed in it in the Garden of Eden. That’s where this downward spiral began to where the earth was corrupted and lost much of its luster. Might we use the comparison of a new car: You know, when we get a new vehicle, the paint is perfect, the interior is flawless, and the new car smell is awesome! But the longer we own it, the less “perfect” it becomes. That new car smell eventually goes away. The exterior & interior doesn’t look the way it did when we drove it off the lot. That’s simply because we now own it and it’s now being driven in this world we live in where everything is corruptible, defiled, and fading away. So, the truth is, the reason why our new car lost that new car smell was because we stunk it up. However, the apostle Peter speaks of an inheritance awaiting us that is “incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven” for us (see First Peter 1:4). And the reason things are that way in heaven is because of this truth—that the heavens are the Lord’s domain. We see this in the ministry of Jesus—how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil (see Acts 10:38)—and when He sent His disciples out to do the same, He had them tell the people that the kingdom of God had come near to them. Why? It was because when people get healed, delivered, blessed, etc. by the Lord, that is a manifestation of God’s kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. In other words, that’s how things are there! Amen! So, my point is that the reason things here on the earth don’t completely mirror the way things are in heaven is because God is not the One in control of the earth. Now that might run completely contrary to some people’s belief system, but I challenge you to look at it from this perspective of the psalmist—that the heavens are the Lord’s but the earth He has given to the sons of men. Therefore, the earth has become what mankind has allowed it to become. This is through our choices that we’ve made, both in the natural and in the spiritual. For example, if we choose to pollute our planet, we can destroy it from the outside in. If we choose sin and it abounds, that can even destroy earth from the inside out. WHO HAS THE CONTROL? Friends, so many Christians believe that if someone gets blessed, it was the Lord’s prerogative to bless them. On the other hand, if someone experiences a tragedy in their life, it was part of God’s purpose for them as well. These also believe that if someone dies prematurely, then the Lord took them. All of these things that the church believes and says indicate something that I firmly believe is a lie from the pit of hell. You see, all of these Christian clichés that say things like “God is in control” basically are saying that everything that happens in our lives—whether good or bad—is all a part of God’s plan for us. They indicate that the mindset is present that everything that we experience in life has somehow passed through the hands of God. And this is simply not true. Now please do not take this the wrong way: With the things I am saying here, I am not trying to make anyone feel guilty or condemned who has had any of these negative experiences and has incurred loss in their life. My heart goes out to those who have experienced hurts like these. But in spite of our experiences, we need to learn what the Bible has to say about these things so that we will not believe a lie and can be equipped to change the things we experience in the future. Amen? Take a child for example: We like to say that children are gifts from God, that He has blessed us with these children. Well, how many of you know that the parents had something to do with that little blessing? Yeah, that’s right! They cooperated with a little law in nature about how children are conceived, didn’t they? And I know there are people out there that do not practice the various methods of “not trying to get pregnant,” just believing that God will give them as many children as He wants to. Well, I think it is interesting that all of those people have more children than the average family, don’t they? So, unless the husband and wife have something preventing them from having children, they are going to have a bunch of children unless they do something to lessen those odds. So, my point is—there are laws and principles that God has set up in this natural world that if you do not abide by them, you will reap the fruit from the seeds sown. Well, if it is this way in the natural (and it is), then we would be foolish to think that it is not that way in the spiritual things as well - for God has set this natural realm to mirror the spiritual realm. Saints, we need to understand that there are spiritual laws and principles that God has set up, and He is not in the business of superseding these laws and being the great puppeteer in the sky—controlling and manipulating everything that happens here. Sure, there are times that He does suspend natural laws and performs what we call “miracles,” but this is the exception and not the rule. And the truth that I want us to begin to see this week is the truth of our authority in Christ—because I am here to tell you, church, God is not the one who is in control of everything that happens on this earth. He is not picking and choosing people to bless, heal, deliver, etc. any more than He is picking and choosing the people who will be saved. No, just like it is in salvation where we must call on the name of the Lord and confess Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior in order to be saved, we must operate according to the other principles of God’s kingdom in order to experience the fruit of God’s kingdom. So if this planet is given to us and we are the ones who are in control of it, then this should answer all of those questions like “why is there so much death & suffering?” It’s because we allowed it, not God. Now of course this all started in the Garden, didn’t it? God gave the authority over the earth to Adam in the beginning let him have dominion over the rest of creation and to subdue Eden. But of course, we know what happened. Eve was deceived, Adam partook of the fruit with her, and sin, death, and the curse entered into this world. But have you ever wondered why God didn’t stop this from happening—because if there was ever a situation the Lord would intervene in and stop, it would be this one, right? Undoubtedly, this was the worst thing any person ever did to another in the history of mankind, right, because Adam’s sin caused every sickness, disease, death, tragedy, etc. So I believe we can see that if God is not going to Personally stop that from happening, then He’s not going to Personally stop other things from happening. Now He does make efforts to stop these tragedies. He does this by speaking to our hearts, leading us by His Spirit, etc., but unfortunately, we don’t always listen, obey, or pick up on what He is leading us to do. This is oftentimes when these bad things do happen. But on the other hand, there are times where God does get through to us and helps us avoid these tragedies. One example I can’t help but think about is the 9/11 tragedy of the world trade center. We are told that the world trade center was a lot emptier on 9/11 on that day than usual, and people who didn’t show up that day that normally would have been there said things like their alarm never went off in the morning or they just didn’t feel good about going in on that day. Additionally, we learned that there were a lot of people all over the world who were awakened the evening before and felt led to pray, not knowing why or what for. So that’s an example of how God works to try and prevent certain tragedies, and the answer to the question of why does He do it that way is because that’s the way He has set things up. Again, the earth is ours. We have a free will. And if we will work together with Him, we can experience His protection, blessing, and providence. But the fact is, most don’t do this, and we become much more susceptible to the bad things that surround us on this planet. Amen? EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT So, I am here to tell you that everything that comes into your life is not necessarily God’s will for you! No, LOVE’S will for you is life and life more abundantly! He only desires your good, and that’s because He is good. James 1:13 says, “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.” What James was saying is that we should never say God is the direct or indirect source of our afflictions. So to say that God took a life in order to bring some good into others lives is a direct contradiction to this verse. James goes on to say in verse 17 what God is responsible for. He says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” God is the One who gives all the good and perfect things in our lives! God is the Father of lights! That means that there is no darkness in Him. He has no darkness to give! That is why He does not tempt anyone. It is because He does not have darkness to tempt with! And the great news is that the Father of lights does not change. He does not give good and perfect gifts one day and then the next He pours calamity on us. No! He has no variation or shadow of turning. He is constantly and consistently pouring out His life on us. This is the God that we serve under the New Covenant! But the truth of the matter is this – love always gives a choice. This is why the opportunity to sin was even given in the Garden. This is why when man took that opportunity, God didn’t stop him. This is because Love isn’t looking for robots that cannot choose right and wrong for themselves. Love desires the objects of its love to freely will to love and honor it back. But while love gives free will, it’s perfect will is for the ones that it loves to live a happy & blessed life! It does no harm! It is not evil! Sure, there are things that happen to us in life that are painful, but God is not the source of that pain. He is love and love is not complicated. It follows suit with what you desire to do for your children & grandchildren. It seeks to honor & serve you like you seek to honor & serve your spouse. This is who God is and how He has chosen to do things here on the earth. Amen? Happy Resurrection Day, church—a day that is so critical to our faith!
You know, one of the most important parts of Christianity is found in this one word—faith! Shoot, even it is described as “the faith.” So that means that faith is a big part of God’s kingdom—one even calling faith the currency of the kingdom of God. That means that believing God is how things are obtained from Him—which obviously includes salvation itself (or rather, Himself). Well, the resurrection of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ is something that we ALL must believe in order to experience salvation from the Lord. No, it’s not something we have to have personally witnessed or seen with our own eyes. It simply requires faith—the belief that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and that He did this so that we can be raised up together with Him. Amen? I’m reminded now of the example of Doubting Thomas & Jesus’ Resurrection in John chapter 20. We know the story: Thomas wanted proof of His resurrection, and Jesus said to him— “Blessed are those who believe who have not seen!” (John 20:29). Just as it is with Jesus’ resurrection, you don’t need a sign; you only need to believe in what is written! Likewise, we don’t need manifestations and signs to believe; we just need to truly hear the Word and let it spawn faith in our hearts. And this certainly applies to the subject at hand—God’s amazing love for us. We don’t have to have any evidence of it in the natural; we just need to believe the good report that was given to us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son …” (See John 3:16). Which is what you will learn more of this Easter Sunday as we continue our study entitled— “God Loves You!” REVIEW We started this new series last week, where we are striving to get the single greatest revelation that one can receive—God’s great love for His creation! Church, when we come to truly know His love for us, it will transform our lives. Like we saw last week, we will love both God and our neighbors more—for we love because He first loved us. When we experience His love in our hearts, our joy & peace level will go through the roof. Not to mention, our ability to believe God will skyrocket as well. So there are a myriad of benefits to knowing God’s love. But like I said last week, by virtue of the fact that so many Christians seem to struggle with loving God and others, with walking in joy & peace, and with believing and trusting God, this is proof positive that they are failing to taste & see His great love for them. Amen? Now like we made the point of – these Christians that struggle in these areas would not admit to not knowing God loves them, and the reason for this is because they simply have mentally assented to the fact God loves us. But there’s a big difference between knowing something in our heads and experiencing it in our hearts. Like I used the illustration of three kinds of knowing last week—there’s the knowing of someone like we know maybe a certain famous person, but that certainly doesn’t mean that we know them. Then there’s someone who is a friend that we have spent time with and have come to know. We definitely know that person much more than we know someone whom we’ve never even met. But then there’s the knowing someone like spouses know one another, where they share the same roof, the same bed, and so many other things. That is the intimate kind of “knowing” that is available to you and me when it comes to knowing Love Himself. So we looked at a few passages of Scripture that talk about this intimate, experiential kind of knowing of His love and saw how this kind of knowledge of His love is not taught; rather, it is caught. This is what the apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians chapter 3—that they would come to “take” or “lay hold” of it. So Paul also thought that it’s not good enough to “comprehend” His love; we need to “apprehend” it. This was what he called “knowing the love of Christ that passes knowledge”—that is, experiencing the love that you would never be able to fully understand. And we learned that this is why this prayer Paul prayed is so valuable—because it proves that this experiencing God’s love is God’s will for each us. How can I say this? It’s because we know all Scripture is inspired by God, and therefore, is the will of God. So if there is a prayer that the Holy Spirit breathed, then it must be God’s desire for all of us to see manifested in our lives. Therefore, these Pauline prayers are “cheat codes” for praying & receiving God’s will in our lives! Amen! BELIEVING THE LOVE GOD HAS FOR US So let’s go back over to First John chapter 4 and look at a verse that we looked at last week—because we only looked at half of what the apostle John said in this verse. Again, First John 4:16 says, “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” Notice that the apostle John did not stop with knowing God’s love in this verse: He also said that we are to believe the love God has for us. Church, next to the “knowing” of God’s love, this is a huge issue in the body of Christ. People do not truly believe that God loves them. Again, they might say they believe that He loves them, but look at their fruit. There is a big difference between believing that He loves us in our head and believing He loves us in our heart. Faith of the heart produces a change in our life. This is the place we all need to desire to get to concerning the love of God—knowing and believing the love God has for us. So what this means is that it is great that we come to experience the love that God has for us, but there is also the place where we believe 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. There is only one manifestation of His love that we need … THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD’S LOVE Back in First John 4:9, we are told— “In this the love of God was manifested towards us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” In this verse, John says that this example of God sending His only begotten Son into the world is the manifestation of God’s love for us. In other words, the giving of Jesus is how God has purposed to manifest His love for us. Now this word “manifestation” is a popular word in our “Christianeese” language, isn’t it? We like to use this word like so— “I believe Jesus Christ paid for my healing; I’m just waiting on the manifestation.” What we mean when we say this is— We believe that Jesus provided healing for our bodies, but we are looking for it to actually come to pass in our lives. Well, did you know that you don’t have to wait for the manifestation of God’s love for us? That’s because the manifestation of His love occurred on this earth 2,000 years ago when He sent Jesus to pay the price for our sins. Amen? Now it is important for us to get this, so I’ll say it again: It was in the giving of Jesus—from the manger to the Cross—that God has manifested His love towards us and proven to us that He loves us. 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. Again, this is how God chose to manifest how much He loves us. Another reason why I feel this is important for us to realize is because the devil likes to tempt us to doubt God’s love for us when our circumstances are not favorable. And too many believers take this bait by basing God’s love for them on the situations and circumstances that occur in their lives. For instance, if a tragedy or disaster occurs in certain Christian’s lives, they begin to question whether God really loves them or not. But what they need to understand is that our circumstances are not in any way a reflection of God’s love for us! The apostle Paul dealt with this issue in Romans chapter 8 when he asked the questions— “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (See Romans 8:35) Why did he refer to Christ’s love in the midst of all of these hardships? It is because life’s difficulties oftentimes can tempt one to question whether God really loves them! How many times have we heard—when someone has suffered a tragedy or something that they needed did not come to pass in their life—that they do not feel God loves them? This is one of the greatest devices Satan uses in our hardships—bringing into question God’s love. This should not be so, saints! But the reason why he has been so effective with this is because there is a misconception about God in general … SOVEREIGN LOVE You see, the main reason that most Christians doubt God’s love for them is because they believe wrong. They believe God is in control of everything that happens on the earth, and this is simply untrue. They say things like- “If God really loved me, He would have stopped this from happening.” But what they need to understand is that God has bound Himself to His Word. Therefore, He cannot just stop things from happening. He can only intervene if He has a man or woman who invites Him to intervene through their faith and prayers—whether that is the person who needs the intervention or an outside intercessor. But the truth is that God has already done His part to show us how much He loves us—and He did that through the Cross. He provided everything for us that pertains to life and godliness through Jesus and now the ball is in our court. The Father sent Jesus to the earth as a man so that He could regain what we lost in the Fall. Then Jesus, in all of His perfection and righteousness, gave all of it up on the Cross so that we could be perfectly redeemed. Then, after He was raised from the dead on the third day, He delegated that authority that He had rightfully regained over to us. Praise, Jesus! So now we have the keys to the kingdom! We have the authority! And God is not sitting up in heaven deciding to intervene whenever He so desires. He has, in all of His sovereignty, limited Himself to His plan for the earth—which is the giving of the earth to the sons of men. The truth of the matter is this – love always gives a choice. This is why the opportunity to sin was even given in the Garden. This is why when man took that opportunity, God didn’t stop him. This is because Love isn’t looking for robots that cannot choose right and wrong for themselves. Love desires the objects of its love to freely will to love and honor it back. But it is because so many fail to understand this very important truth that so many Christians blame God for the problems in their life and, therefore, question His love for them. But again, God is not failing to manifest His love for us during the hardships of life; He has already manifested His love for us through the giving of His only begotten Son. The cross was God’s perfect expression of love! You know, God has already done everything that He ever needs to do to prove that He loves us through Jesus! This is something that every Christian needs to hear and understand! I have dealt with a number of Christians during my walk that have been confused about God’s love for them because of the negative circumstances in their life. They wonder if God really loves them because their lives are in a mess, and they are facing life’s difficulties. But what I have had to remind them of is the truth that in the world we will have tribulation (John 16:33) and those who are living godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (Second Timothy 3:12). I have to remind them that even their mistakes and shortcomings do not affect God’s love for them. You see, we will encounter struggles and difficulties in life that the enemy will try and use to remove us from God’s perfect will for our lives, but we should never base God’s love for us on our circumstances or even on our sins; we should always base His love for us on the Cross! The fact that He sent His Son to die for us proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that He loves us unconditionally. He need do nothing more to prove to us that He loves us than the Cross of Christ! If this was all that He ever did for us, we should still be fully persuaded that He loves us. Never forget that! HOW MUCH MORE? But the awesome truth that I want to end this message with is that the giving of Jesus is not all that the Lord does for us through His love! The truth is that if He loved us enough to give us Jesus; He loves us enough to freely give us all things! In Romans 8:32, the apostle Paul makes this very elementary yet profound point: In it, he says that if God did not spare His only Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things!?! You see, this is a truth that is just plain common sense: If God gave us His very best—manifesting His love for us through the giving of His only begotten Son—then how will He not give us all things that are much less costly and precious? For one to believe that He won’t, say, provide them with the finances to pay their bills when He already paid the price of putting Jesus on the Cross is absolutely ridiculous! And I will add this: It is actually downright insulting to God for us to think this way. But this leads me to what I want to conclude this Resurrection Day message with: We actually have an example of what I have been referring to this month in the story of Abraham’s offering up of Isaac … In Genesis chapter 22, we see how Abraham was told by the Lord to offer his son—his only begotten son, Isaac—as a sacrifice to Him. And in verse 12, the Lord said something so powerful that echoes what we are talking about this week … When Abraham had Isaac on that altar and was just about to offer him up to the Lord, we are told how the Angel of the Lord (many believe this to be Jesus) called to him from heaven and said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; (Now get this part) for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from Me.” This is such a powerful truth, church! You see, what the Lord was saying here was that this proved to the Lord that Abraham feared Him (i.e. that he revered, respected, and was completely sold out to Him) because he was willing to sacrifice his one and only son to Him. So just as it was said that the Lord knew that Abraham feared God because He did not withhold His son, His only son, from Him, likewise we should know that God loves us since He did not withhold His Son, His only begotten Son, from us! In other words, we should know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loves us and will provide us with everything we need—spirit, soul, and body—simply because He gave us Jesus! Hallelujah! That is good stuff right there! You see, what the Holy Spirit wants us to understand today is that the giving of Jesus is God’s manifestation of love. We need look no further than Jesus to know and believe that He loves us unconditionally. We need not base God’s love for us on our circumstances. Just as we should not be moved by what we see, hear, or feel but only by what we believe—likewise, we should not let ourselves be moved off our faith in God’s love by what we see, hear, or feel. We must simply believe He loves us because the Bible tells us so! Just like this simple childlike faith in the rest of God’s promises is what brings their manifestation to pass in our life, faith in His love is what yields a greater manifestation of that love in our lives. First by faith, and then followed by feelings! For example, 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. Likewise, the only proof we need that God will work a miracle for us and that we can receive our resurrection is the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. Amen? What a simple title, huh? A simple title for a simple truth. However, while the truth that God loves us is so simple, most do not know it. Now they might claim to know it, but the truth is that the vast majority of God’s children truly don’t.
But this is just human nature to think we “know” something just because we have gathered the knowledge of that truth in our intellectual faculties. In fact, you will hear people moan and groan when you tell them to turn to a particular Scripture that they have heard many messages about. Why? It is because they think they understand all there is to know in that verse and because they want to hear something new and exciting. But if we ever get to the point where we are not excited or at least anticipating something that we maybe have heard before, then that is proof positive that we do not really “know” that Scripture the way the Bible speaks of knowing something. Have you ever noticed that when a particular subject or truth is alive to you- that is, it has impacted your heart to where you have seen its light- that you get excited when you are about to hear another message on it? And why is that? It is because when you have come to truly know a truth, you do not want to hear it less; you want to hear it more! So, if your response was- “Aw, man! I don’t want to hear such a simple message of God’s love for me! I already know He loves me!”- then you are exactly the person who needs to hear this. You need to open your heart and let the revelation come so that you too can become excited and full of joy at the wonder of God’s love. So, I know most Christians will say, “Oh, I understand God loves us!” or “Sure, I know God loves me!” but just because one has mentally accented to this—meaning, they can acknowledge in their head that this is true—that doesn’t mean that they know it the way they should. And here’s the honest truth—there is no one reading this who cannot stand to grow in their knowledge & understanding of God’s love for them. That’s the fact, Jack! No, what these Christians mean when they say that they already know God loves them is that they have just acknowledged that this is true in their head. In other words, they have the head knowledge of Scriptures that say that God loves us such as John 3:16, but the truths of those Scriptures have not truly impacted their hearts! This is what I am talking about—knowing something in your heart! This is when it impacts you. And the Gospel in all of this is that when His love truly does impact your heart, it holds so many awesome benefits for you! In fact, in the time that I have been a born-again Christian, I have come to the conclusion that this one truth is the single greatest revelation that we could ever receive of and about God. The reason I can say that is because knowing in our hearts God’s great love for us will produce in us several other virtues. Perhaps the most important is the ability to fulfill the Great Commandment. Let me explain … You see, through understanding that God loves us, we will be drawn into a more intimate communion with Him—thus fulfilling God’s primary purpose for our lives of knowing God and having a personal relationship with Him. And what this does is it propels us into fulfilling the Great Commandment which is to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. How does this work, you ask? When we realize who He really is and that truth abides in our heart, it will make us want to love Him more in return. On top of that, knowing His love will not only produce more of a love for Him, but it will also produce more of a love for others—thus fulfilling the second great commandment, which is to love our neighbor as ourselves. You see, you cannot give away what you have not first received, and this applies to love as well. If you have not first received love, then you will have no love to give—not to God nor to God’s children. You must be filled with His love in order to pour that love out on others. This is what First John 4:19 was saying when it said, “We love because He first loved us.” We are enabled to love when we are loved first. In other words, we can love (God and our neighbor) because (or, when we know) He first loved us.” But simply fulfilling the Great Commandment is not all that knowing His love does to us! You see, when a person truly sees how much God loves them, there will be some profound changes in them. For one, it will be hard to wipe the smile off their face—for there will be joy unspeakable and full of glory in their life! Knowing God’s love will result in the ability to trust, believe, and receive from God better—because when you believe in your heart that He truly does love you, it’s difficult to not believe that He will do all that He said. So in light of all these changes God’s love makes in our lives, it should be obvious then that most born again, Spirit-filled believers do not truly know God loves them much at all because look at their fruit! There is a lack of the fruit of the Spirit in most Christians, which is essentially the fruit of God’s love - love, joy, peace, faith, etc. There is also a lack of fulfilling the Great Commandment in most Christians because the majority don’t really love God the way He ought to be loved and they certainly don’t love their neighbors as themselves. Church, I don’t say any of this to condemn, but simply to shed light on our need to know God’s love in a greater way—for it is absolutely the solution to this dilemma. However, like I said earlier, although God’s love for us is such a simple & powerful truth, there is the false notion in so many that they already know it. And again, that’s because we tend to equate knowing something with simply agreeing with something in our brains. Church, that is not exactly what the Bible means when it speaks of us “knowing” something—and this certainly applies to knowing God’s love. So let’s look at a few verses today that talk about knowing God’s love so that we can learn what it means to truly know it the way God intends for us to. Let’s start in First John 4:16 where the apostle John uses this terminology. In this verse, the apostle John says, “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and the who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” The word John used for “known” here comes from the Greek word ginosko which means more than just mentally acknowledging something is true. No, this word for “known” describes knowing something experientially and intimately. Church, we need to know God’s love for us like this—experientially and intimately. In fact, this word is used in the Gospels of Matthew & Luke to describe something a little bit more “intimate” than the way we think of knowing something: In Matthew 1:25, which just happens to be the first time ginosko is used in the New Testament, it was used to describe how Joseph did not “know” Mary until she had brought forth her firstborn Son, Jesus. (See Matthew 1:18-25). Now we know that this does not mean that Joseph didn’t know of her or did not get to know her during this time. No, I’m sure Joseph knew Mary very well, but this is obviously talking about having intimacy with her—thus the fact that she was a virgin. We see the same thing said by Mary in Luke 1:34 when Gabriel visited her and told her about how God had chosen her to conceive & carry the Messiah. Her response to this news was “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” Now how many of you know that the way we use the word “know” today, she “knew” plenty of guys. But by using the word ginosko, we know she meant something entirely different. She was obviously talking about having physical relations with a man. But do you see the point I’m making? Knowing God’s love is not just about knowing of something or even knowing it in some intellectual way. This “knowing” God’s love is intimately experiencing it. Let me illustrate it like this: I see it like how we can know people on three different levels. If I were to ask you if you knew Andrew Wommack, you know a lot of people would respond, yes. That’s because a lot of us have listened to his teachings, have seen him on television, been to his conferences, and some of us even have met him. But does that really mean that you know him? No, not really. It just means that you know of him—meaning, you’ve heard him speak, you know he lives in Colorado, and you know he loves to talk about God’s unconditional love. So what are we saying when we say we “know” someone like that? We are saying that we know of them—that is, we know that they exist and who they are on a surface level. But how many of you know that there are others who actually do know him? In fact, someone like myself or Pastor Robert who have actually talked with him and spent some time with him might actually “know” him. On top of that, he has some really close friends whom he’s known for years and spent a lot of time with who truly know him in a way that few do. But guess who knows Andrew in a way that no one else does? His wife, Jamie! Jamie knows Andrew in a way that others do not and will not, because they enjoy a happy marriage together. Therefore, they have spent countless more hours together than even Andrew’s closest friends have, not to mention the intimacy they have shared through their union together. Let me give another example of what I’m talking about that’s a little closer to home … How many of you know that a lot of you would say, “I know Shannon,” but there’s a difference between how you know her and how I know her. And I am not just talking about the intimacy in our relationship; I’m also talking about how my “knowledge” of her even results in me knowing what she’s thinking a lot of times. You see, because of the time I’ve spent with her, I “know” her at a much deeper, thorough, and intimate level than anyone else in here knows her, while you might say that you “know” her. However, most of you in here know Shannon much more than you know Andrew Wommack because you’ve probably had multiple conversations with her and/or spent some time with her. But again, that’s different than the level of knowledge I have of Shannon. This just illustrates how our knowledge of God’s love has levels. So just because you might know of the love of God (like you know of Andrew), that doesn’t mean you really know it. And just because you might know Shannon—having spent some time with her and have gotten to know her through your conversations with her—that doesn’t mean you know her like I do. You see, when it comes to God’s love, He wants us to move beyond the simple “Oh, I know that” kind of mentality to the “Yeah, I know that fairly well.” But His best is for us to move on to the level of knowledge, understanding, and intimacy that a husband & wife share. That’s what’s available to us with God’s love! Now let’s look over at Ephesians chapter 3 and see what the apostle Paul had to say about knowing His love. In this chapter, we have a prayer that Paul prayed for this body of believers, and in this prayer we see how he focuses on them knowing God’s love for them. In Ephesians 3:14-19, he prays, “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.” So after focusing on the strengthening of their inward man and Christ being at home in their hearts, Paul turns his attention to what he says is them “being rooted and grounded in love.” What this speaks of is how important it is that our roots go deep into, and our foundation is laid on, the love of God. Church, it is so important that our life is founded on God’s love. So many base their lives on other things such as their works, obedience, and behavior, but that is a shoddy foundation. As the old hymn says, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking stand …” But then the apostle goes on to say that when we are founded on His great love we “may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height (of the love of Christ).” That means building our lives on His love “enables” us to comprehend all the dimensions of it. Now the word “comprehend” literally describes “taking” something or “laying hold” of it. A better translation of this word might be “apprehend,” which is exactly what we are talking about—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! This is why the apostle Paul said in Romans 8:35-39— “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” You see, nothing can separate us from the love of God because of its immense dimensions. It’s higher, wider, longer, and deeper than anything! Amen! So, while we will never be able to exhaust it, what we can do is apprehend it little by little, ever increasing in Christ’s awesome love! This is why Paul continued to pray for the church of Ephesus that they would know the love of Christ that passed knowledge (Ephesians 3:19). On the surface, that seems to be an impossible statement because how can you know something that passes knowledge? Well, the key to understanding this is to know the difference between these two words—“know” and “knowledge.” The word Paul used for “knowledge” is the word gnosis, and this word describes knowing something generally. It actually means to know something thoroughly and have a good, overall understanding of it. So when Paul said that the love of Christ “passes knowledge,” he was simply saying that you’re never going to know it in and out. No, you won’t ever master it. You won’t ever exhaust all the knowledge there is of it. However, Paul prayed that we still can come to “know” it. And this word for “know” describes what we talked about earlier – an experiential, intimate kind of knowing. And that’s what the Lord desires from us—that while we can never come to fully know His love, He invites us to experience it one bite at a time. This is why the Scriptures teach us to taste and see that the Lord is good! Amen! You see, Paul understood that the love of God can only be truly known by revelation so that is why he prayed this for the Ephesian saints. And church, here is the good news for any of us who “know” we need to “know” God’s love more—we have a Holy Spirit inspired prayer right here in Ephesians chapter 3 that is God’s perfect will for us. Amen? You see, in all of Paul’s prayers (Eph. 1:15-23, 3:14-21, Phil. 1:9-11, Col. 1:9-12, 1 Thess. 3:10-13, 2 Thess. 2:16-17, etc.) we discover God’s will for us because each prayer was inspired by God (Second Timothy 3:16). So when First John 5:14-15 states that we know if we pray anything according to His will that we know we have the answers to those prayers, then we can pray these prayers for others and for ourselves and expect God to perform them! Therefore, these Pauline prayers are “cheat codes” for praying & receiving God’s will in our lives! Amen! So, as we go through this series entitled “God loves you!” I want us to pray this prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21 over ourselves and expect God to bring us to “know” more and more of His great love for us. Yes, let’s embark on a journey to turn this head knowledge into revelation knowledge so that this truth of God’s love for us impacts our hearts the way it should. Amen? Church, I want to begin talking to you about love today, but not just this world’s cheap, generic idea of love. I want us to look at God’s perfect love!
How many of you know that God’s love is perfect? There is nothing missing in it. It is perfect, complete, and lacking nothing! And this is the love that you and I should aspire to both receive from Love Himself and to walk in ourselves. Now before we move any further, I want you to know that this is a message for the mature. In God’s sight, this love for others that we will begin emphasizing today is the mark of true spirituality and maturity. So, I say that to say if one is spiritually immature and/or does not aspire to be spiritually mature, this message will not be for them. This message is for those who desire to grow up in the things of God and walk as He walked when He dwelt among us 2,000 years ago. Now in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7), we have the Lord teaching a new standard to His original covenant people. In it, he addresses the heart and points away from the simple outward observance of God’s law. And one of the main things that the Lord teaches us in His Sermon on the Mount is the importance of true, genuine love in our hearts. So, let’s look at a passage of Scripture that clearly reflects what God aspires for all of us to walk in: In Matthew 5:48 we have one of those Scriptures that we have the tendency to just glance over when we are reading the Word. It says, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Now why do people tend to ignore this particular verse? It is because people see it as truly impossible. They believe that it is unattainable because they feel that they are miles away from ever getting close to God’s standard of perfection. But I want you to know that this is not referring to our idea of being “perfect.” When we hear this word, we think of perfection regarding never making a mistake. In other words, us being perfect is not having any faults, no failures and being completely flawless in our lives. But that is not what this word meant in their day. You see, the word Jesus used for “perfect” in this verse literally described something that is “brought to an end.” In other words, it is finished or completed. In most of the instances that this word was used in the New Testament, it was used to describe maturity and being fully grown. But the gist of the word is to be wanting nothing necessary to completeness. Therefore, when we look at this word, it doesn’t describe the same thing as “perfect” does in our culture today. In Jesus’ time, “perfect” described something or someone that had come to “completion” and “maturity.” Now as it is with “maturity,” we really don’t ever arrive at a place of true maturity. Sure, we might be more mature today than we were in yester years, but that doesn’t mean we won’t ever behave immaturely in our lives again. The fact is, you and I can be very spiritual one day and then the next, act very unspiritual. I just say this because I think we can have the mentality that there are those who are spiritually mature and those who are not—and that is just the way it is. But the truth is, while there are certain people who generally walk in spiritual maturity more than others, that doesn’t mean they cannot be less spiritual than others on other days. As my father in the faith, Andrew Wommack, likes to say, “I haven’t arrived, but I’ve left”—meaning, he hasn’t arrived at that pinnacle of perfection, but he makes it his aim to strive towards that place of perfect maturity every day. We ought to make this our goal as well. Yes, this means that Jesus was telling us in this verse that we should strive towards God’s level of maturity. It should be our aim and aspiration in life—to live in His “perfection” every day. But what is God’s idea of maturity? What makes Him perfect, and what does this “completeness and maturity” look like according to God’s perspective? Well, in order to answer this question, what needs to be understood is the context of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:48. Yes, understanding the context will help us to see what the Lord was specifically referring to when He said this. After all, Jesus did say at the beginning of this verse “therefore”, and we know that when we see the word “therefore”, we need to find out what it is “there-for.” So, let’s back up and read these verses beginning in verse 43… Matthew 5:43-47 says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?” So, we can see that the context of Jesus’ sayings here is the unconditional and “perfect” love of God. More specifically, this is referring to the impartial love of God that is extended towards even our enemies—those who curse, hate, and persecute us. He begins by addressing a saying that apparently the Jews were being taught by their religious leaders, which was not a completely accurate statute from the law. You see, while the law did say to love our neighbor, it did not add the “and hate your enemy” part. Sure, there were other things that might have alluded to like those “eye for an eye” and “tooth for a tooth” statements, but the Lord never told them to hate anyone, including their own enemies. So, this was a perversion of the Scriptures by the Pharisees that Jesus was correcting. But Jesus did not just say that we shouldn’t hate our enemies, He went the extra mile by saying, “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” Now that is the polar opposite of what the religious leaders were teaching the people. They were condoning and excusing ill-will towards their enemies, while encouraging love towards those who were like them. But Jesus set a new standard—a standard of love that blesses, does good, and prays for our enemies. Of course, this is not easy, but if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. This takes a level of spiritual maturity to walk in this kind of love. And the truth is—unless someone is walking in this kind of love, they are spiritually immature. There is just not a way to candy coat it. If we are spiritually mature, we will love our enemies through these specific actions. But let me say that we need to understand that love is an action. It is not a feeling. It is not an emotion. It is a deliberate action because we have been ordered to do it. Many fail to understand this, which results in them throwing their hands in the air and not doing these things because they don’t feel like loving their enemies this way. But Jesus was not telling us to feel like loving our enemies. He simply tells us to love them, not to have warm feelings in our heart towards them. And this is key, church, because it is by doing what He told us to do here that we can experience good feelings towards them. You see, the Lord showed me before that when there is someone who has done us wrong, if we will do these things that Jesus said to do in verse 44, it actually releases a grace in our lives to forgive and love those who have hurt us. So, let’s look at these three things Jesus told us to do so that we can learn how we are to love our enemies … The first thing Jesus explained in verse 44 is that we are to bless those who have cursed us: That doesn’t mean they have placed a curse on you or have called you a four-letter word. The word “curse” here literally means to speak negatively of something or someone. So, this would describe someone who said some bad things about you. They might have said them to behind your back or they might have said them to your face. I’m sure we’ve all had people “curse” us like this before. Well, what does Jesus teach us to do to those who speak negative things about us? To “bless” them! Now to “bless” them does not necessarily mean to do something that blesses them (Jesus will address that in the next statement). No, the word “bless” here literally means to speak well of someone or something. So, what Jesus was saying to do here is that when we have people who speak negative things about us, we are to speak positive things about them. Now what most people do—thinking they are doing the right thing—is they do not speak anything about the person who is slandering them. In other words, they do not even go there. They keep their mouth off of the person who is putting their mouth on them. But that is not what Jesus commanded us to do! He said that we are actually supposed to speak well of this person. Now it might seem like we are being disingenuous if we do this, but I believe we can always find something positive to say about anyone if we look hard enough. For example, I can take a leader that I disagree with just about everything they say and do and find positive things to say about them. I can either magnify their heart, saying that they have good intentions and that they really want what’s best for the people they are leading. I could also choose to magnify that they might know something that I don’t yet understand. But if I am just certain that there is nothing good I can say about this person, at the least, I can call those things that be not as though they were—meaning, I can declare blessings over them and use the power that is in my tongue to see things changed in their life. My point is that we can always find something positive to say about someone else, and that is our responsibility to do so. The second thing Jesus said to do good to those who hate us: Now we’ve all had people hate us before—sometimes they hate us for something we’ve done and sometimes they hate us for no reason at all. And it is usually pretty obvious when someone hates us. Well, according to Jesus, what are we supposed to do with those who hate us? Just have the attitude that it’s their problem, they’ll just need to get over it, and stay away from them? No! Jesus said we are to “do good” to them. Now there are a lot of ways that we can do good to someone, but the idea here is not to just leave them alone. And do you know why the Lord wants us to do these things? It is because if a person has allowed hate in their heart, they are in trouble. The are allowing sin and Satan to have access in their lives and unless they repent and resolve that, they are going to experience some sort of death in their life. Therefore, a truly spiritual person will understand that, and then will have compassion on them by doing good to them somehow. Now this can take on many different shapes and sizes. It could be us giving them a gift. It could be us sending them a kind message. It could be us praying for them. Each individual situation must be dealt with uniquely. But the point is that love will do good to them somehow and will certainly not hate them in return. It will be merciful, compassionate, forgiving, and kind—because that is what Love does. But the Lord does not stop there. He goes on to tell us to pray for those who spitefully use us and persecute us. These words “spitefully use” describe someone who accuses and abuses someone else. The word “persecute” literally describes someone who pursues someone else—obviously to do them harm. Have you ever felt like someone was just pursuing you? And, no, not in a good way, but in the manner like they are on a mission to hurt you. This could be manifested in someone simply trying to find fault in you or someone actually trying to sabotage you or abuse you in some other way. I’m sure we’ve all had this happen to us before as well. Well, what did Jesus say we are to do with these people who are hunting us down to hurt us? Pray! We are to pray for them. Which is different than praying about them. Praying for them indicates that we are sincerely praying that God would be merciful, gracious, and good to them. Church, the truth is this—if we are truly loving our enemies, then we would pray for them. In fact, we would pray for them like those we genuinely love that are a part of our lives like friends and family members. And I believe that is how God desires that His children love the world—like they love their own flesh and blood. So, these three ways that the Lord taught us to love our enemies are keys to releasing the grace & power to not only forgive them but also to have compassion on them. Then the Lord goes on to say, “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” In other words, loving our enemies in this manner proves that we are sons of our Heavenly Father. And why? Because, as the Lord went on to say in this verse, this is what He does! He makes His sun rise on both the evil and the good. He sends rain on both the just and the unjust. He is completely impartial and is no respecter of persons regarding His love for His creation. He is love and loves everyone perfectly! In other words, He treats his enemies the same as He does His children. He treats the poor like the rich. And He does this because His love is perfect. Then, in verses 46-47, Jesus went on to use the argument of how even sinners can love those who love them. That is easy. What makes God and His children different is we love those who will not do anything in return to us (i.e. enemies) and cannot do anything in return to us (i.e. the poor). Church, we are supposed to be living at this higher model of God’s standard of complete & perfect love! So, when we look at “perfection” from this perspective, we see that Jesus is referring to a love that has come to maturity and is full grown—you could say this is a “perfect love.” So, with that being the case, Jesus was likely referring to the same thing that the apostle John was referring to in First John chapter 4:17-18 when He referred to PERFECT LOVE! Let’s look at these verses: “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” The words used for “perfected & perfect” in these verses, come from the same root as Jesus used in Matthew chapter 5. So, a mature, complete, and grown up love is what John is referring to—and that is a love that expels fear of the day of judgment. A Scripture we all are familiar with and one that would likely be considered the most popular verse in the entire Bible, John 3:16, teaches us about God’s perfect love. It 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.” Notice that this verse did not say that He so loved His children, His servants, or those loved Him in return. No, it was not the holy people that He loved here, nor was it those who reciprocated that love. Here, Jesus said that God so loved the world. And the “world” here does not just describe this physical world we live in. This is referring to all of His creation that is contained on this physical planet. So, this would include all of those who are of the world as well—which is obviously the lost, the sinners, and those who are under the sway of the god of this world. This means that God so loved even His enemies and those who have hated Him that He gave His only begotten son. And notice that Jesus did not just say that He loved the world; He said that God so loved it. That is much more emphatic—for to “so love” something or someone is to love it passionately and intensely. So, I would translate this verse like so—for God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son…” Say, for instance, I were to eulogize your life, what would I be able to say that you “so loved”? Hopefully, we would all be able to have it said of us that we loved the world so much just like our Heavenly Father does. So, again, what is this perfect love? It is God’s love—a love that is extended “completely” to everyone. It is a love that does not respect the face of any man—a love that will give as fully to its enemy as it will its family, a love that will give as completely to someone who has nothing to give as it will to someone who has everything to give. Just imagine that there is a pie-grid that is divided into 4 parts… In one part there is the category of those who we just naturally love—our family and friends. In another there are those who it might benefit us to love—the rich and influential. Then in the other two grids you have two categories of people that come a little harder to love… In one you have those who cannot give you much back—he poor and undesirable. In the other you have those who probably will not love you back—our enemies. When we love these other two just as much as we love the previous two then we have the perfect, complete, and total pie which in this case represents the perfect, complete, and total love of God Himself. Let me give you a couple of good examples: THE RICH YOUNG RULER (Matthew 19:16-22) Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” 17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” 20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. In one account of this story of the rich young ruler, we are told that Jesus looked at him and loved him. THE PARABLE OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN (Luke 10:25-37) In Luke chapter 10 we have a wonderful parable that Jesus gave illustrating this perfect love we are talking about today. It is called “The Parable of the Good Samaritan.” In this familiar parable, Jesus was answering a question that was asked Him by a certain lawyer. Verse 25 says, “And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So, this is the question of the hour—What does one do to inherit eternal life? And “He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?’” Notice that last question Jesus asked—“What is your reading of it?” There is oftentimes a big difference between what is actually written in the Word of God and how people “read” it (i.e. interpret it or hear it). Church, we need to commit ourselves to believing what we read and not reading what we believe. You see, so many times professing believers have molded and shaped the Word to fit their experiences. Like this lawyer here: he was only wanting to justify himself (i.e. make the Scriptures convenient to how he was conducting himself). On the other hand, what he ought to have done is let the Word mold and shape his theology. Verse 27 goes on to say, “So he answered and said, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” Now the fact that this lawyer mentioned these particular passages of Scripture shows that he had rightly divided the Word of Truth and captured the spirit of the law. Therefore, this man truly understood the law, but as we will find out, he sought a way around doing the things that He knew to be true. So, Jesus responded in verse 28 by saying, “And He said to him, ‘You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.’” But in verse 29, this man was trying to find a way around the Way: “But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” So, how was this man trying to justify himself? By trying to disqualify certain people from being his “neighbor.” In other words, he was probably hoping his neighbor would be those whom he liked, agreed with, and was convenient for him to love. This is what provoked this parable that we are familiar with. So, let’s look at in detail, but what I want you to see is that this parable is also about the One who shared it … Jesus begins in verse 30 by saying, “Then Jesus answered and said: ‘A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.’” Now notice that this story was of a certain man who was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. What nationality do you suppose this guy was? That’s right—it is obvious he was a Jew. And Jesus told us that this Jewish man “fell among thieves.” Now, again, I don’t want us just to look at this from the natural perspective, but also from a spiritual perspective because I believe that while Jesus was teaching this lawyer (and us) who our neighbor is in a very practical story, He is also speaking of what He had come to do for us. You see, this certain Jewish man in this story was a type of mankind in general who all have fallen among the “thief.” Isn’t Satan himself called the thief in John 10:10? Now I know that there are those who don’t think that Jesus was referring to the devil in John chapter 10 because the context does refer otherwise. But there are many times in the Scriptures where the context seems to be referring to a physical man who lived in those times (For example, the prince of Persia), but we can see in hindsight that this king was also typified as the devil. Well, I believe that while the thief Jesus referred to here was the abusive religious leaders of His time, they received their nature to steal, kill and destroy from their father, the devil. So, it is for that reason that the devil is the original and ultimate “thief.” So, with that in mind, notice how Jesus is teaching us here how we all (i.e. all of mankind) have fallen among the thief. In other words, this is all of our plight before we came to Christ (or in this case, before Christ came to us). Through Adam’s “fall”, the thief was able to overtake all of those who have come from Adam. Then notice what Jesus said was the three things that the “thief” did to this certain man: 1. He stripped him of his clothing 2. He wounded him 3. And he departed, leaving him half-dead. First of all, the stripping him of his clothing can symbolize several things: It can refer to stripping man of his robe of righteousness and garments of salvation which he lost when he transgressed in the garden. It can also refer to the same instance when he was stripped of his authority over the earth. And, last but not least, his “clothing” can refer to his prosperity thereby leaving him in poverty (which was 1/3 of the curse of the law). Now the “wounding” of this man describes his physical affliction. This symbolizes our physical afflictions as well as all of our sicknesses, diseases, and infirmities. Again, this is another third of what was contained in the curse of the law. Then with the last effect of the thieves, we see that they departed him, leaving him “half dead.” You see, this is always what these “thieves”—Satan, sin and his cohorts—will do to us: They will entice you, and then when they are through destroying your life, they will forsake you. But, again, notice that these thieves left this man “half-dead.” This symbolizes the state that man was left in after his transgression—half dead—that is, left alive physically, but dead spiritually. You see, these three things: being stripped of his clothing, being wounded, and being left half-dead can symbolize the three-fold curse of the law—poverty, sickness, and death. Yes, our run-in with sin left us cursed, but our rescue by our “good neighbor” left us blessed! Yes, this “Good Samaritan” Jesus is about to tell us about is a type of our Lord and Savior. We will get into that momentarily. But first, let’s look at verses 31-32: “Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.” So, what we are seeing here is that this certain Jewish man who fell among the thieves had both a priest and a Levite of his own blood come across him, but they chose to pass him by on the other side of the road. So, the point Jesus was obviously making here is that the person everyone would consider this man’s neighbor being would be his own countrymen and the religious leaders of his own blood to boot. So, for these guys to turn away from him and not take care of him in his predicament is an obvious transgression of loving one’s neighbor as themselves—for if anyone should be living in this commandment it would be the religious leaders, right? But as Jesus goes on to say, we see who it was that truly loved his neighbor. Notice what Jesus begins to say in verse 33: “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’” Now, first of all, who were the Samaritans? The Samaritans in Jesus’ day began as a race of people in the Old Testament, formed after the Assyrian King took most of the nation of Israel into exile. He repopulated what was then Israel’s capital city, Samaria, with foreigners who eventually intermarried with the Jews who remained in the land. As a result, their offspring was only half Jewish. These half-Jews became known as Samaritans. The Samaritans were still in the land when the Jews returned from captivity. So, the Jews shunned them because the Samaritans were not "true" Jews. The Samaritans wanted to help rebuild the temple in Jerusalem, but the Jews didn’t want their help. The Samaritans then tried to stop the Jews from rebuilding the temple. When they were unsuccessful, they built their own temple on Mount Gerazim. This was the beginning of animosity between the two groups, which continued until the time of Jesus. Now like the Jews, the Samaritans believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. However, they believed Mount Gerazim was the only place for sacrifice and worship, as opposed to the temple in Jerusalem. They didn’t believe in the entire Old Testament, only the first five books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. These beliefs further separated the Samaritans from their Jewish neighbors. But Jesus had a different attitude toward Samaritans than most Jews. He didn’t hold them in contempt; instead, he reached out to them. He healed a Samaritan leper. When a Samaritan village refused to welcome him, Jesus didn’t allow his disciples to order its destruction. Jesus also once went out of his way to travel through Samaria so he could speak with the woman at the well. As a result, she and many people in the town believed in him as the Messiah. So, this Samaritan was the one who did all of these things for this Jewish man. And notice what all he did for him. I would say he went above and beyond. So when Jesus asked the question in verse 36— “So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?”—the obvious answer was what the lawyer responded with in verse 37— “He who showed mercy on him.” But again, this mercy that this good Samaritan showed this Jewish man is what our Good Lord has done for us! Notice that He “journeyed” and came where the man was. This symbolizes Jesus journeying from heaven to earth, where we are (vs.33). And that is what love does: it goes where others are at and doesn’t expect others to become like them. And when Jesus saw us, like this good Samaritan, He was moved with compassion. Then in verses 34-35, we see what Jesus did for us: Number one, He bandaged our spiritual and natural wounds! How? By pouring on oil and wine! The oil represents the indwelling of the Holy Spirit upon salvation. The wine represents the infilling of the Holy Spirit after salvation. Glory! He then put us on his animal which describes us taking His yoke upon ourselves which is easy and light. Then in verse 35 after doing so much to take care of us, departed but promised to come again! Jesus perfectly illustrated how to love your neighbor as yourself by what He did for us! Amen? So, again, the Parable of the Good Samaritan was told by Jesus in response to the lawyer’s question—“And who is my neighbor?” (vs.29) So Jesus’ intent was to show this lawyer (and us) that our “neighbor” is not limited to our religious or social affiliations. You see, human nature is to look for a shortcut and to make excuses. This lawyer wanted Jesus to verify that his neighbors were those that were living in a manner or location that was simply close to him. He wanted Jesus to say, “Well, your neighbor is your fellow Jewish brothers and sisters—but not just any Jew… I’m talking about those like you—religious and socially acceptable. But Jesus didn’t give him any shortcuts! No, Jesus used a Samaritan—a religiously and socially unacceptable person—to represent the one who loved their neighbor. He did this to show that your “neighbor” is not just your friends and affiliates; Your neighbor is also someone totally different from you. Jesus’ point was that your neighbor is anyone you come across on your way regardless of the color of their skin, their religious beliefs, etc. Your “neighbor” is whoever is close to you at the time—not necessarily geographically, but also those whom you are aware of. And as Jesus told this lawyer in verse 37, “Go and do likewise,” we ought to go and do likewise too. Church, loving those who are not like us is the mark of a truly spiritual man or woman. It is what the Lord has done with us, and He expects His children to do through Him. Amen. |
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