Now whatever you, don’t put me in a box. What we’re going to look at is
more than just a trite religious saying, more than just,’Yeah, I know
God loves me.’ You don’t have a faith problem, you have a LOVE problem.
You don’t have a money problem, you have a LOVE problem. When you
understand just how much your Daddy loves you, getting prayers answered
will be a piece of cake, as our faith works by love. (Gal 5:6) This love
isn’t something we can work toward, earn or achieve. How many times have
you heard someone say, “I’m just a poor old sinner, saved by grace” or
similar? If you are Born Again through the Blood of Jesus, God said you
are holy and without blame before Him in love! Eph.1:4!
Here’s another thought: John 3:16. We all know it, “For God so
loved the world…”. Note “…SO loved the world…”That’s good right
there, He didn’t just love us, he *SO* loved us; so much that He gave His
Son. Now here’s something that’ll help you get hold of this deep
understanding of God’s love for you: Take Jn 3:16, and
where it says “…the world…” put your name in right there. For me, it
would be “For God SO LOVED David that He gave…” Say it out loud right
now, ‘For God so loved (your name here) that He gave…”. We’ll look at
more along this line in a minute.
We do God a disservice by painting Him as a mean old grandfather
waiting to hit us over the head with a frying pan every time we sin.
Consider:
Every GOOD and PERFECT gift cometh from above, from the Father of lights
in Whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning.
Jas 1:17, KJV
Also, we see the Father’s heart in Mt 7:11, “…HOW MUCH MORE THEN will
your Father which is in Heaven give GOOD things to them that ask Him?”
You know, if a natural father did half what is attributed to God, he’d
be in the prison in a minute. Have you ever heard someone say ‘God just
loves me to death’? No, He doesn’t! He loves you to LIFE! Rm 6:23, the
gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord! Another great
illustration of God’s love for you is Jn 10:10, “I am come that they
might have life, and that more abundantly.” The Greek there for “life”
is the word ‘zoe’, and this is the same idea expressed in the Hebrew by
‘shalom’, good well-prosperous life. Now, this isn’t a prosperity
message by any stretch. I thank God for folks that can break down faith
principles, but what we’re talking about is the cornerstone, the
underpinning of the whole deal; a deep understanding of God’s love for
you PERSONALLY. Here’s another idea to help you get this in your spirit:
Get up in the morning, and dance before the Lord, and sing something
like, “you love me, you love me, you absolutely love me yes indeed”. You
might be sitting there, thinking, ‘Well, that sounds undignified to
me.’. You’re absolutely right! Look at II Sam 5:20-23. David was
rejoicing before the Lord, and someone hardened their heart against such
‘fanaticism’. I find it incredible the same people who will shout
themselves hoarse at a sporting event will adamantly refuse to even so
much as ‘Amen’ at church. Think about what God (through Jesus) redeemed
you from, Eph 2:1-3. Walking on a endless nowhere course, lost ,without
hope and undone. and praise the Lord, He didn’t leave us there. Eph
2:4-7 says God, Who is filthy rich (Gk rendered ‘rich’ at 2:4 is the
root of plutocrat; filthy rich person) in His GREAT love, not just His
love but His GREAT love that He loved us with while we were still on
that nowhere track raised us up together with Jesus and seated us
together with Him in heavenly places just so He could crack open a new
vault of the riches of His grace toward us in each of the new ages in
eternity. Now as we close, we’ll look at another example of someone who
had this understanding: John. Now I want you to get this: John was so
over ‘him’ that he never referred to himself in his epistles as an
apostle. He was with Jesus the whole way, and was so close to Jesus he
could have easily went on about being entrusted with Mary, etc. But none
of this for the disciple that Jesus loved. As close as he got was
‘…his servant John…’ in Revelation, and he was over 90 at that time.
I’m not much on ‘tradition’ but this is good; All the 12, except John,
were martyred. The Romans tried to kill John, but they couldn’t. They
tried to boil him in oil, but that didn’t work, so they stuck him on
Patmos. I submit his deep understanding of how much his Daddy loved him
put him in a position where he could receive that miraculous
deliverance. I’m not putting any other New Testament writer down, Paul
had doctrine right on the mark. Peter had holiness on the money. All of
them are
great, but as Paul so aptly put it, “Without love, I am nothing.” I’ll
leave you with another idea: Take your Bible, and
circle/underline/highlight/whatever every time any tense of the word
‘love’ appears in I John. Next time, we’ll look at how we can put this
deep understanding of God’s love for us to use in sharing the Gospel
with the lost. Using what I’ll give you next time, I only had one person
I personally shared the Gospel with not decide for Jesus on the spot on
the mission field (Rm 2:4).
