Since love is the theme today and the coming week…..I came across a “very repentant Dear John” letter….. it went like this, “Dear John, I have been unable to sleep since I broke off our engagement. It is my constant prayer that you will be able to forgive and forget? Your absence just is breaking my heart in two. I was a fool to do that to you. I now know that nobody can take your place. I love you….. All my love, with hundreds ofhugs and kisses, Belinda.
P.S. I want to Congratulate you on winning this week's lottery…… (money just made old John irresistible)
message today is “This Is Love”… (So, Happy Valentine’s Day, a little bit early…)
Jesus is heaven’s Valentine to all of us……another John, John the beloved, wrote to the church, 2 John 1:5 “And now I beseech you, it is not as though I am writing a new commandment unto you, but this is what we have received from the beginning, that we love one another. v6 And this is love, that we walk according to His words”.
For the Jewish people, the She-ma, is their most basic confession of faith. Every devout Jew repeats the She-ma twice each day.
The She-ma is Deuteronomy 6:4-5 "Listen, Oh Israel, The Lord our God, is One God. You shall Love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."
God begins where man finds his farthest limits, and this is certainly true of the exceeding, abundant, incomprehensible, overwhelming, unexplainable Love of God in Christ which He isalways freely giving to us.
The Greek word "Pathos", means to feel or experience emotions, and If we could total up all the deepest feelings of love which we have ever experienced in our entire lives, it would fall so far short of the infinite love which God has for us. It would be like comparing a speck of dust to the entire volume of the universe. Last week we talked about the whosoevers in John 3:16: ”ForGod so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” This verse is a tiny window which peeks into a love that is infinite, indescribable, indefinable and uncontainable.
In Leviticus 19:18, God instructed His people, " . . . love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord your God”. This commandment was not something new to them. It was as old as Judaism itself. God was laying the foundation which was to be the glue of a new society of people. The adhesive for a new culture which would touch the world.
This is foundation building and it is what God was doing in Ephesians. This God kind of love was to be the foundation of the Christian community world wide…. We are told in Ephesians 3:16 That Christ would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. v17 That He may dwell in your hearts by faith and that you might be rooted and grounded in love, v18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; v19 Of the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God”.
Transformation always comes before implementation. Godwants to change us before He uses us. Love is a commandmentto be not just a commandment to do. You cannot manipulate anyone into loving someone else. Love must emanate from who we are, and who Christ has made us to be. If we love as He loves us, it will manifest itself through all we say and do. That's why love is an undeniable mark of God’s imprint upon us, it is authentic Christianity.
People tell me, “Pastor, I am praying for God’s will for my life” Well, I’ve got your answer…. He says, Love one another as I have loved you!!!
God gave His one and only Son (which actually was God giving Himself) in exchange for us. Imagine giving up one of your children to die for someone you loved…it would be hard right? most of us couldn’t do it. But imagine giving up your child to die for someone who has wronged you in every possible way, who is contrary to your very nature. We could certainly never let our child go through all that pain and suffering for someone like that. Someone who isn’t even close to deserving this sacrifice. And yet God did it. Why?…because God is love. It had nothing to do with what we could do, but what HE has already done in Himself.
We are told in scripture that this love never fails because God cannot fail.
1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails, but where there areprophecies, they shall fail; where there are tongues, they shall cease; where there is knowledge, it shall vanish away. v9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. v10 But when that which is perfect is come, (that’s His perfect love) then that which is in part (that’s carnal love) shall be done away with”.
Bill and Steve were discussing their experiences with love. Bill says. "I thought I was in love three times," Steve asks. "What do you mean?"
"Well, Three years ago, I cared very deeply for a woman who wanted nothing to do with me," Bill says. "Wasn't that love?" Steve asks.
"No, that was obsession,"……"Then two years ago, I cared very deeply for an attractive woman who didn't understand me." "Wasn't that love?" Steve asked.
"No, that was lust,"…… "And just last year, I met a woman while I was on a to cruise to Italy. She was gorgeous, intelligent, a great conversationalist and had a great sense of humor. Everywhere I followed her on that ship, I would get this very strange sensation in the pit of my stomach." So Steve said "Well, it sounds like you finally found love?" …."No, It turned out to bemotion sickness!" (You better be able to tell love from motion sickness)……And the hunt goes on!
The love of God is multi-dimensional. Because of the Eternal dimension of God’s love, it can never be identified or summed up by any one moment of time and space in our limited experiences. It goes far beyond any moment and experience of time. It’s the ultimate, all-purpose, universal love. (one size fits all)
This is exactly what Ephesians 3:20 describes when it says… “that He is able to do exceeding abundantly above and beyond all that we ask or think, according to His power that is now working in us”. Whatever we ask, it is beyond that…whatever we can think or imagine, it is beyond that. It’s the love you always dreamed of!
1 Peter 4:8 “Love covers a multitude of sins”….
In computer language, that’s called “history restore”. There is a program in my computer that will allow me to go back in my history and restore it to a point when everything was working right. This means that by using this feature, you can reset life issues, to a time when everything was working at it’s very best, without the mistakes, or errors and flaws of the present. God’s love is a “History Restore” love, His love can redeem and restorewhat the process of time has messed up! He also promises us an ultimate History Restore which is explained as a time when limits will be removed, and God’s unrestrained love will be seen in it’sutimate redemptive nature. We get a glimpse of what the next level of redemption looks like….
Revelation 21:1-7 “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Then He who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new."
God’s Love is like throwing a stone in a pond, it has a small point of entry, just a seed planted in Mary’s womb, but it’s effects are huge!!!
Love isn’t love until it is love in action… God’s love acted before there was any return or any reciprocation on that love. When love acts, it’s ripples go out further and further….until it touches everything in your life and everyone in your life….The tragedy is that so many live their entire life without experiencing personally, this amazing love of God...
A young lady visited a computer dating service and told them, "I'm looking for a spouse. Can you please help me to find a suitable one?"
The matchmaker said, “Just input exactly who you are you looking for" So she described that person, “He needs to be good looking, polite, humorous, sporty, knowledgeable, good at singing and dancing. Willing to accompany me the whole day at home if I don't go out. Be able to tell me interesting stories when I need a companion for conversation and be silent when I want to rest." The computer processed the information computer and, in a matter of moments, gave the results to the woman. The results read, "Buy a television set, it’s everything you described." (The bible is better than a dating service)
Jeremiah 31:3 "The Lord appeared of old unto me, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting (“neh'-tsakh") love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you" I found out that You can never translate that Hebrew word “neh'-tsakh" or everlasting, into English. It means that you have come into the spaceless, boundless mysterious realm….. you have left the realm of time to where time is no more in order to measure the unmeasurable.
You have gone out into that mysterious place, so profound thatnothing can be taken hold of as we have always known it, it is all beyond you, beyond your grasp, beyond your calculation, beyond your power to cope with it and bring it into some kind of manageable, understandable dimensions.
It is beyond you, beyond your time, beyond your world, beyond all your ways of thinking and working. "I have loved you with an everlasting, timeless, inexpressible love." The phrase “Jehovah appeared of old unto me"? is actually, "from afar, He hasappeared unto me" - outside of our world altogether. He says, "I have loved you with a love altogether outside your dimensions of time and space."
Strangely, the double use of the word "love" here adds an extra feature or factor. “I have loved you with an everlasting love”….
The second time love is used here, is in the feminine, and it means mother-love. Or,"I have loved you with an everlasting mother-love." Now, mother-love is one of the most mysterious things which we can know in ordinary human life. You cannot always understand the scope of mother-love. A mother literally feels she is part of that child because that child was part of her and came out of her. A father may hold a child but a mother has held the child within herself. *…..Jesus said, John 17:21 “That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that You have sent me. v22 And the glory which You have given Me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one. v23 I in them, and You in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have loved them, as You have loved Me.
You may look at a baby and you may not see much that is lovely about the child, but the mother of that child simply adores it, thinks it’s beautiful and sees it’s full potential. That is mother-love. That is the word the Lord is using here. The world would look at us and see everything to the contrary - but the Lord says, "I have loved you with an everlasting mother-love." God’s mother-love can bring you to your full potential and bring you to your destiny.
Listen, If God had a Frig, our picture would be on it….When God tells us that He has loved us with an everlasting love, He is saying that He cannot imagine eternity without us. This same holy, majestic, God, whose love is so vast that the world cannot contain it all, can’t see Himself without us !” He’s counting down the days and has it marked on His calendar to the very hour and minute when He gets to hold us in His arms. That’s why God desires so, so much, to be in a personal relationship with us now. It is an incredible adventure to be the object and the recipient of the majesty of a divine lover’s heart.
Christianity is not what you know, it is Who you know and when you know Him it revolutionizes everything you thought you knew.There is nothing we can do that would make Him love us more. There is also nothing we can do that would make Him love us less. He loves us, because He loves us, because He loves us, because He loves us, because He loves us because that is what He is like, it is who He is. Know, that He will love us outrageously all the days of our life with His crazy love that sometimes doesn’t even make sense!…
God will take us only as far as we are willing to go! Strangely enough, with all this love so available at all times in every way, many have only been able to find the love of God through the dark path of suffering – it is there, that they discover that God was not their enemy but their friend. Scripture tells us that he makes the darkness light for us.
Behind, underneath and throughout the universe, behind the reason, the plan, the design….. they find God’s heart and everything else exists as an answer to that heart.
May God Himself bring that home to us with something of its glory and its wonder….. As He does, we will be worshippers for the rest of our lives; there will be something about us that is in a constant state of awe and amazement and we wll go forward,treading softly on this holy ground. The realization of it will smite all our pride to the dust. There is no room for bitterness, covetousness, self-interest, or worldly ambition - and we shall be very humble, very grateful people, full of a great longing somehow to return that love. This has been the motive and passion of many who have experienced His love, A deep yearning to return and spread this Love - with which He has freely loved us.
When you’re right with God You’re more likely to be right withlove….
A college senior took his girlfriend to a football game. She had been hoping and praying that he would pop the question…They found some good seats in the crowded stadium and were watching the action. A substitute was put into the game, and as he was running onto the field to take his position, the guy said to his girlfriend, "Take a good look at that fellow. I expect him to be our best man next year." His girlfriend snuggled up closer to him and said, "That's the strangest way I have ever heard for a fellow to propose to a girl. But regardless of how you said it, I accept."(whether he meant it or not, he is now engaged)
When we are right with God we will Love verbally (We’ll say it, and show it)…..We will love physically (touching, hugging, and assuring) …..We will love patiently, (because love takes time and love puts a demand upon the heart to respond and sometimes it takes time)…..We will Love attentively (when you give someone your attention, it translates into “ you’re important, I care about you, I love you")…. We will Love gratefully (I have a debt of love, and the God kind of love can never be repaid because I can never love at the level of God’s love )….. We will Love generously (love multiplies by the degree that you love) When we love correctly, then the Lord causes it to be full measure, pressed down, shaken down and running over shall others give unto you…..
The power of God’s love is transformative. God’s love will never leave you like He found you, He knows the blueprint for your life when He made you, and He knows you better than you know yourself!!
Isaiah 43:19 “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” God wants us to receive and then reflect His love until He can see Himself looking through our eyes. Then it’s time…. time to go back and reach out to the very people that hurt us the most. Love sees them as the victims, not the villains. It’s Time to live life on the offensive. Time to go back and pray forthem like we’ve never prayed before. Time to believe for those who perhaps can’t believe for themselves. Time to hope for those who have no hope. And time to love those who can seem unlovable or even incapable of loving themselves or others.
God forgives, so we’ve forgiven them. There is no more hate or ill will. No more anger. The unhealthy, toxic cord has been severed, and we have placed them in God’s hands and let go, Our greatest desire is that they would find the same hope that we have found. We have prayed for restoration, but we also know, in many cases, it will take time and we know, that the clock of restoration and transformation is ticking!!!
There was a man who didn’t believe in God, and it was on a snowy Christmas Eve, that his wife was taking their children to a Christmas Eve service and she asked him to come, but he refused. “That story is nonsense!” he said. “Why would God lower Himself to come to Earth as a man? That’s ridiculous!” So she and the children left, and he stayed home. It began to snow and the winds grew stronger and the snow turned into a blizzard. Then he heard a loud thump. Something had hit the window. Then another thump. He looked out, but couldn’t see more than a few feet. When the snow let up a little, he ventured outside…
In the field next to his house he saw a flock of wild geese. He felt sorry for the geese and wanted to help them. The barn would be a great place for them to stay, he thought. It’s warm and safe, they could spend the night and wait out the storm.
So he walked over to the barn and opened the doors wide, then watched and waited, hoping they would notice the open barn and go inside. The man tried to herd them in, but that just seemed toscare them and they moved further away. He realized that they just to follow a human. He thought, “If only I were a goose, then I could save them,”.
He went into barn, got one of his own geese, and carried it in his arms as he circled around until he was behind the flock of wild geese.
He then released it. His goose flew through the flock and straight into the barn–and one by one the other geese followed it to safety. Suddenly everything his wife had been telling him made sense. That is what God had done. We were like the geese….blind, lost, perishing. God had His Son to become like one of us so He could show us the way and save us. That was the meaning of the birth of Christ, he saw it now!
He fell to his knees in the snow, and prayed his first prayer: As God’s great love embraced him….“Thank You, God, for coming in human form to get me out of the storm I have been in! As the winds and blinding snow died down, his soul became quiet.Suddenly he understood why Christ came as a man. Years of doubt and disbelief vanished like the passing storm.
Perhaps, God’s love could be compared to the air we breathe, without it, there could not be life. Just as we take air for granted, so likewise, we so often take God’s love for granted, because it is always there, always reaching, always touching our lives. If we could hear His audible voice, perhaps He would be saying….”Iam always available and accessible to you. I love you. I always want to talk with you. You are My delight, My creation, the desire of My heart. You bring such pleasure and delight to My soul. I want you to walk in My love all the time, not just for a few minutes every day or when you think you can find some time or when you are desperate because of some challenges you are facing.
I know the bible is God’s letter to us but If we got a Valentine’s letter from the Lord, I think He would be saying something like this……
“I have told you before that I will never leave you or forsake you. You are never out of My mind, you are never out of My sight. No matter where you go, how you act, what you do, I still love you. Even though you are not able or ready to comprehend My love, I yearn for you to connect with Me. I wait patiently every day, throughout the day, every moment for you to sense My presence. I yearn for the time when you shall truly know as you are known of Me. I am more excited than you could ever be, whenever you get even a fleeting glimpse of the depth of my love for you”.
”I will never withhold Myself from you. The more you come to Me, in sincerity, trying to connect with Me, the more I will open Myself to you. So I am looking forward to the eternity we are going to spend together, when we can indeed “walk and talk as good friends should and can do.” I desire to fill up your whole being with a sense of who I am. As you know Me more, you will come to terms with the life I have let unfold for you, and discover My strength in your weaknesses.
”As you reflect my presence more and more, You will come into a greater wholeness and completeness which I designed for you.You have not begun to imagine, what could be and what will be if you allow Me to live My life through you. So just breathe in Mylove, and know that you are immersed and surrounded in Mylove, even when you don’t feel it. My love is right there surrounding and embracing you…..You are an expression of that love, with skin on, to touch, to care, to show and to tell it, everywhere at all times”!
Would you find someone and tell them, I am a physical expression of God’s love to you….. He loves you and I love you…..
The Scripture tells us that we have received a commandment to bless, so would you turn to someone as we speak together the blessing……
May the Lord bless you and keep you, in safety and in health and sufficiency.
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and bring contentment and fulfillment.
May the Lord be gracious unto you, in your going out and your coming in. In your rising up and your lying down.
In all that you put forth your hand to do. In your savings and your investments. In your planning and carrying forth your plans.
May the Lord cause His presence to make a difference, in your home, on your job, in your labor and your leisure.
May He give you peace, joy and love that has no end.
