God Loves YOu - Part 2: Faith in His Love (Easter)

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?