The Love Of God, Part 1

I don’t think I could make the statement: What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s what everyone needs, what everyone wants.
I don’t think I could get hardly a person in the world to raise their hand and say, “Excuse me, I disagree. We don’t need any more love. People being kind to one another, forgiving one another, taking care of each other, families staying together, people being sensitive. I’ll tell you what, we’ve got enough of that as there is.”

Now, think this through, though. If universally we agree that the world needs love and we all need to be loved, why is there such little love? It’s kind of amazing, isn’t it?

I put a little statement of three facts about love. Fact number one: It’s a universal need. We are all looking for love.

Fact number two is there is a universal solution to the universal need. God loves all people everywhere and longs to meet the deepest needs of their heart for love.

Fact number three: We have a universal disconnect. There is a tragic disconnection. You have this unbelievable need and this supernatural, unlimited, boundless availability, and nevertheless, most people remain starved for love. They are starved for love.

And there are three reasons. Some people have no idea that God cares for them and loves them. Some of those people have tasted and they know about God’s love, but they have not received it.

And then there is a whole other set of people that, at least once or twice, they have this experience and for the life of them, they don’t know how to touch it or taste it again.

I would say that is at least a decent picture of a universal need, a universal solution, and a very tragic disconnect, among both believers and unbelievers.

Brennan Manning, in his little book called, Abba’s Child, quotes Henri Nouwen and talks about, What is the root cause behind Christians not experiencing the love of God? I think his words are instructive. Nouwen writes, “Over the years I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection.”

Follow his logic closely. “Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are a part of a much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless, unlovable,” when we have voices that you are not worthy, you don’t measure up is the idea, when we carry in our hearts shame and guilt and a sense that we are unlovable, then he goes on to say, “…success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions.

“The real trap, however, is self-rejection…Self rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that God calls us the ‘Beloved.’” We are Beloved in Christ. We are in Christ. “Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”

I think at the core of the existence of God’s heart, at least in what I am learning, and as I have read many of the people that have walked much deeper in the Christian life than me, it comes to this sense that believing, just as you are, not if, not if this gets cleaned up, not because you do this or do that, but just as you are, because of who God is, that you are the object of His affection.

And that all these things about purity and all these things about caring for others and all these things about life transformation really start if they are genuine, at the very, very core of our existence, when we begin to see ourselves as God sees us: as precious, as valuable, as unconditionally loved, as the object of His affection and concern.

And there is nothing that brings greater honor to God if we could learn to receive it.

“How great a love the Father has on us, has lavished upon us, that we should be called the children of God.” [1 John 3:1]

So, let’s talk about what love is, let’s see if we can move it from that concept, intellectual, in our head, down into our hearts. For me, it’s: God’s love is His holy disposition toward all that He has created that compels Him to express unconditional affection and selective correction to provide the highest and best quality of existence, both now and forever, for the objects of His love.

Let me unpack that just a little, because the words were actually chosen fairly carefully. God’s love is holy. In other words, we learned that word, right? It means separate, marked-off, it’s totally other. And it’s a holy disposition. It’s just the way He feels, the way He thinks all the time about you. And it’s that He has created, He has this holy disposition that compels Him to do two things. He is just compelled, not because of something in you, but because of something in Him to express unconditional affection.

It’s a holy disposition that compels Him toward unconditional affection and selective correction. See, God loves me so much that any time my life, my thought, my relationship, my finances, and my priorities are moving me toward unhealthy things that will do damage to me and damage to others, His love does what? He brings about correction.

See, that’s what God’s love is. He is compelled to do it, but why? In order to provide the highest and best quality of existence. You know the abundant life Jesus talked about? That’s just another way of saying it. The highest, best. What does it mean? Life that is really life! Living to the brim! Living fulfilled! Living, not dependent on people’s response but something that wells up inside where the deepest longings and thirsts of your soul are satisfied. That’s what God wants for you.

God’s love is other and so absolutely beyond what we can grasp. And so that is my definition.

The characteristics of this love, and I call it agape love.

The New Testament writers actually made up that word. They just didn’t have a good word so they said, “We’re going to take this word agape, and let’s sanctify it, put it in the New Testament so it doesn’t get confused with storge or eros or some of these other kinds of loves that the Greek language was familiar with.”

And the characteristics are interesting. It’s a giving love, it’s a sacrificial love, it’s an unconditional love, and it’s a boundless love.

God’s love is expressed, primarily, through His goodness, mercy, longsuffering, and grace. And I have a quote here from one of my professors.

I really like what Dr. Ryrie says here. He says, “The love of God is like,” he says, “is like a tree and then there are branches of its expression and they are primarily His goodness, mercy, longsuffering, and grace.” And he says, “Although there are distinctions as you study these words, they are really not exact. God’s goodness may be defined as His benevolent concern for His creatures.”

Do you ever just think of God as, today, this moment? He is concerned about you. You know how some of you moms are? “Hey, call me when you get there. Call me, I want to know you’ve made it okay.” The God of the universe sort of has that attitude. “Hey, I’m checking on you. I want to make sure everything is okay.” Is that how you think of Him?

Or do you think of Him as far away, hard to get to, wish you could get His attention?

The love of God is expressed in His goodness. It’s also defined as a benevolent concern for His creatures as well as, “Mercy is the aspect of His goodness that causes Him to show pity and compassion.” Have you ever just really blown it and just felt so shameful and so bad and just, like, you’re not even lovable. Forget by God, by anybody.

The love of God is expressed in His mercy. And He just looks down and says, “This didn’t surprise Me at all. I’m not even shocked. In fact, before the foundations of the earth, when the Godhead was determining what the price tag of men’s freedom would be, Jesus knew that He would come and He would hang on a cross for that very shameful sin.

It goes on to say that, “His longsuffering speaks of His self-restraint in the face of provocation.” Have you ever thought of God exercising self-restraint? Like you really need a spanking and He just, “Mmmm, ah, I’ll wait a couple more days.” You’ve just got a really rotten attitude, or you’re involved in some blatant sin and the consequences should be swift but He just loves you so much, God is practicing self-restraint in His relationship with you. Why? Because He loves you.

And then the final word there is grace. “His unmerited favor shown primarily through Christ, which makes possible a relationship with Him.”

I have taken all that I have learned about God’s love and I thought that if I could put it in a few statements, a few simple statements, to get it from this, God loves me and I have these feelings now and then and, okay, it’s goodness and it’s mercy and it’s longsuffering and I get a little flash of it, but I wanted to give you a little summary of what it would look like if you could see, specifically, what it feels like and how God thinks about you, so you could start to move it from up here, intellectual, to down here to spiritual and emotional.

And as I read these, what I would like you to do is think about this question, lean back, Is this how I see God? Is this how I see God? And if that quick gut reaction is, I might intellectually believe God is that way, but that is not how I see God or think of how He sees me, then what you know is you have some renewal of the mind to do.

Statement number one: God’s love for you means His thoughts, intentions, desires, and plans for you are always for your good, and never for your harm.

We looked at Jeremiah 29:11 and James 1. But think of that. Do you, in your heart of hearts, think that His desires and intents, His plans, they are always for your good. He is just a very safe, safe Person to be with. And the plans for the future that He has for you, His desires for you, oh, it’s always for your welfare. See, if you understand the love of God, that’s what you will think.

God’s love for you means that He is kind, He is open, He is approachable, He is frank, and He is eager to be your friend.

Do you see Him that – remember? “I don’t call you slaves, because a slave doesn’t know what His master is doing. I have called you my friends, for all things the Father has made known to Me, I have revealed to you.”

Do you see Him as open and friendly? Or is He distant and unapproachable and you have to be good to be on good terms and when you’re good, He will listen to you, but if you struggle, He probably doesn’t? God’s love means that 24/7, He is open, He is kind, He is approachable.

God’s love for you means He emotionally identifies with your pain, your joy, your hopes and dreams, and He has chosen to allow your happiness to affect His own.

Have you thought of the – when you’re in pain and when you are hurt, is He on the other side of the fence and He is maybe causing it? Or is He on the side of the fence behind you with His arm around you, and your joys bring actually happiness to the heart of God?

And your hurts and your struggles bring tears. Have you ever thought of that? Have you ever thought that when Jesus’ friend Lazarus died in John 11, that He wept? That He hurt? That He felt for Mary and He felt for Martha and it broke His heart when He saw what a fallen world and death did. Is that how you see God? That when you are really struggling, instead of being down on you, He weeps with you.

God’s love for you means, fourth, that He takes pleasure in you just for who you are totally apart from your performance or your accomplishments. He is the God of Zephaniah 3. He is the God that is mighty. He is the God who is with you. He is the God that, when there is confusion all around, says, “Just let Me quiet you with My love, and let Me sing over you in rejoicing.”

Is that how you see Him? You know who I am describing? I’m describing the God of the Bible. This is the God of the Bible.

Finally, God’s love for you means He is actively and creatively orchestrating people, circumstances, and events to express His affection and selective correction to provide for your highest good.

Do you think of this God who is not only loving but He is actively orchestrating and allowing relationships and events and circumstances so that He could express affection through a person? Affection through a job promotion. Affection through a discovery of a spiritual gift. Affection through a new friend that really understands you. Affection through a relationship that you never thought you would have. Affection because your body wasn’t working and for reasons that none of us understand, why or when or how, but rather than through medicine He decided just to touch your body.

Or does He also, in His love, just so care that selectively brings circumstances and people to bring about selective correction and bring some pain and discouragement and some depression and maybe you lose a job and maybe you lose a friend because He wants to get your attention?

Maybe your 401k went bloop and maybe your business is going south because, just little by little, you didn’t mean to, but you are drifting, you’re drifting. And He is so jealous and He so loves you and He sees where that is going to head, but He does some things that make you mad at first. But like watching the little kid run out into the street, He runs out after you, grabs you by the neck, jerks you back so the car doesn’t hit you, and then, out of love, gives you a little whack on the rear end and says to you, “Honey, don’t go there anymore. You are too precious.”

Some of you may say to yourself, like I have struggled with, Of all the ones, this is kind of a neat one. If this were true, it would be really neat. You know? That one on justice was kind of hard to take. The holiness was a little overwhelming. The wisdom I kind of liked. But, boy, this would feed my soul. This would change my life. Is it really true?

And so what I would like to do is I would like to demonstrate, from Scripture, that this is the God that loves you and loves me.

I’d like to walk through how God reveals His love to us through about one, two, three, four, five, oh, six different things.

God reveals His love to us, first, through creation. Are you ready for this? He made you for Himself. Do you ever think about it this way?

Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 and 27: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our own image, in Our own likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and birds of the air, and the livestock, and over the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

He created you in His own image. You are like Him. And He creates this paradise and He wants to have a relationship with you and then in Colossians 1:16 you learn, “For by Him, Jesus, all things were created: things in heaven, things on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and,” I love this, “for Him.”

It’s easy to think, Oh, the earth was created for Him. Angels were created for Him. Everything was created for Him, watch this: you, you were created for Him. He made you so He could be with you.

I remember when I was a little boy, it is so in our DNA because we are in God’s image, I remember going to the beach as a little boy and you know when you play in the sand and it was that wet kind of sand, which you could build stuff? I took about three hours. I dug the hole and got it, I thought it was really deep but it seemed kind of deep. And then I built this wall and I was making this castle. And it was like on a cartoon.

Some big kid I didn’t know, three hours, you feel bad for me already, don’t you? Tell you what, ladies in the front row here, they are going to be permanent prayer partners. Oh, man, Chip! He’s probably psychologically damaged for years! But seriously!

This big kid comes and he kicks it all down. I’m five years old and I can still remember it. And I created a sand castle from a little water and this is how it made me feel. Why? Because what I make for me matters to me.

And what God makes for Him matters to Him, and He made you. He made you. That’s how much you matter.