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LET GOD LOVE YOU
Getting to Know God - Part 8 of 8 07-03-11 Sermon
I John 4:16
If you are ever confronted by a person who says “I don’t believe in God, I’m an atheist,” ask them to describe for you the kind of God they don’t believe in. Chances are you could respond, "That makes me an atheist too because I don't believe in that kind of God either."
For the last several weeks we've been in a series on getting to know God for that very reason. Many people reject God before they even know Him. We've looked at different attributes of God. Todaywe will conclude this series by looking at the Love of God.
I John 4:16 "We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love." The most talked about attribute of God is probably the one that is most misunderstood. This does not mean that God lets me get away with murder. Or, I do anything I want to and because God loves me; He just slaps me on the wrist. What it means is that God wants what's best for you. He's for you. He's not against you.
If that's true, then why do so many people avoid God? Many people avoid Him like the plague. They run from Him. The reason they do that is because of a fear. They're afraid of what might happen if they really give their life to God. They're hesitant. They want to keep a safe distance.
I. WHY PEOPLE AVOID GOD
I want to give you three common fears that are reasons people don't get to know God.
FEAR #1: I'm afraid that I'll have to give up my fun.
In other words, to become a Christian means the party's over. To be spiritual is to be miserable. We're very interested in having fun these days. We don't want to give up our fun. People are frantically looking for fun fixes. It's the law of diminishing return. You find you spend more time, more money, more energy to get less and less of a thrill. You go around asking, "Are we having fun yet?" So many people are looking for love in all the wrong places and they're looking for fun in all the wrong places. Think about a Singles Bar. Have you ever seen a more phony place than a Singles Bar? Everybody's pretending they're having a good time. Where else do you walk up to a stranger and offer to buy them something? "Can I buy you a drink?" Do you walk up to someone in a Walmart and say, "Can I buy you a toaster?" That's fun?
The way you fight fear is with fact and look at what the fact says: I Timothy 6:17, "God richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment." God wants you to enjoy life. He doesn't want to take your fun away. Matthew 11:19 (Phillips) says, "Jesus came enjoying life." Fun is a clear conscience. Fun is a happy, unified family. Fun is laughing in church. Fun is having friends who don't manipulate you because they're Christians. Fun is enjoying the world that God has made. That's fun!
FEAR #2: I'm afraid I'll become a fanatic
Often well meaning and misguided people tend to cause us to avoid God because of their fanaticism. I wrote down some names of religious fanatics I've met:
Freddy the Pharisee. Rigid, narrow minded, legalistic. He has a rule for everything. His favorite word is "don't". Some think "Will I become like that if I become a Christian?"
Susie Self-righteous. Holier than thou attitude, judgmental of others. Her favorite phrase is "Thank God I'm not like you!" Am I going to become like that if I become a Christian, if I get to know God?
Billy Bible-thumper. Obnoxious, overzealous crusader. If it's alive he'll convert it. His favorite phrase: "Turn or burn!"
The fact is John 10:10 "I have come that you might have life [not religion] and have it to the fullest!" Jesus' harshest criticism went to religious fanatics. Read Matthew 23. He couldn't stand them! He said, "You guys are whitewashed tombs. You strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." God doesn't want to make you into some fanatic.
FEAR #3: That I'll lose my freedom.
The world defines freedom as a life without any restraint -- do anything I want to do, say anything I want to say, without anybody telling me Yes or No. What has sexual freedom given us? AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, abortions. What has chemical freedom given us? Grade school addicts, the most chemically dependent society in the world. What has credit card freedom given us? 146 easy payments. There is no such thing as an easy payment. They are all hard. Incomprehensible national debt.
You are not as free as you think you are. The Bible teaches that with every choice you make there are consequences. You are free to live anyway you want to live. But once you make that choice you are no longer free. You are not free to choose the consequences. What you sow you will reap.
On this 4th of July weekend, what does the Bible say about freedom? John 8:36 Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free, you will be really free!" Circle "really". He's talking about real freedom not phony freedom. Real freedom is freedom from guilt, from worry, from bitterness, from fear of death, because I know that I'm going to heaven, I’m free to be myself, free to quit pretending -- that's real freedom. How do you get rid of those kinds of fears?
I John 4:18 "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives our fear." The antidote to fear is to recognize how much God loves you. Love and fear can't exist in the same heart. When you realize how much God loves you, you're not going to have a fear of becoming a fanatic or that God's going to take away your fun or your freedom or anything else in life. He's not a cruel God, He's a loving God. The very first words of Jesus when He came out of the tomb on Easter Sunday was "Don't be afraid." He was saying, "I don't want you to be afraid! I didn't come to scare you, I came to save you." We just need to realize how much God loves us. God is not at all the way many people think He is. Do you think God gets His kicks out of making people miserable? What kind of God do you think we serve? You need to realize how much He loves you.
II. HOW MUCH DOES HE LOVE ME?
Ephesians 3:17-18 "I pray that you will grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ." There are four dimensions there. Circle those four words: "wide ... long ... high ... deep". These are four ways God's love grows for you.
1. GOD'S LOVE IS WIDE ENOUGH TO INCLUDE EVERYBODY
Psalm 145:17 "The Lord is loving toward all He has made." All -- everybody. John 3:16 "God so loved the world." Who does that include? -- everybody. It's universal. The good news is that God loves me. But that also means that He loves my enemies just as much. Jesus loved the unlovely and that's what got him in trouble with the religious fanatics. Everybody you meet this week -- God loves them. And He loves them unconditionally. God never made a person that He didn't love. He loves you. He loves you very, very much. You matter to God.
This is one of the reasons why everyone is welcome at United Methodist communion services. No matter what you have done, no matter who you are, you are welcome if you are coming repenting of your sins and wanting to walk from this place following in the ways of Jesus.
The secret of self esteem: If you want to feel good about yourself, if you want confidence, realize how much you matter to God. That’s the secret of self-esteem! He loves you, He made you and God doesn't make junk! If I like me and God likes me, if you don't like me it's you that's got a problem. If God likes me, who cares what anybody else thinks. Because God loves me I don't have to prove my self worth. That is so relaxing. I don't need the props anymore to make me feel good about myself. I don't have to wear a certain kind of clothes to make me feel like I'm OK. I don't have to drive a certain kind of car to prop up my faltering ego. I don't have to have certain status symbols around my house. I don't need them. God has looked at me and said, "I love him; I value him!" He made you and He loves you. God's love is wide enough to include everyone.
2. GOD'S LOVE IS LONG ENOUGH TO LAST FOREVER
Jeremiah 31:3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love." Psalm 89:2 "God's love will last for all time." That is so different from our kind of love. Human love can wear out. It can. That's why we have a lot of divorces. It wears out. There are people who are not divorced but they don't love each other anymore. There's sometimes a limit. It dries up. That's why you have to have God's love in your marriage if it's going to last. I don't know how marriages last without God's love in them. Human love can wear out, it can be hurt. But God's love never wears out. God's love is patient, persistent, persevering.
Isn't it good news to know that God never gives up on you? No matter what you do His love never gives up. It's wide enough to include everybody and it's long enough to last forever. God will never love you any more than He does right now. But He also will never love you any less than He does right now. He loves you on your good days. He loves you on your bad days. Because His love is not conditioned by your response. God is love. It is unearned, undeserved. Just accept it!
3. GOD'S LOVE IS HIGH ENOUGH TO BE EVERYWHERE
Romans 8:39 "Neither height not depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." There is no place that you can go where God's love isn't. You'll never be separated from God's love. Nothing, no circumstance, no situation can separate you because God's love is everywhere. If you want an antidote for loneliness, that's it. You will never be separated from God's love. The fact is we do lose loved ones. If you're married, one of you is going to die first unless you die together in an accident. And you will grieve over that. But if you're a Christian, you'll never have to be lonely, because you can always tune into God's love. I'm not talking about religion, I'm talking about a relationship with Jesus Christ. His love lasts forever and His love is everywhere.
4. GOD'S LOVE IS DEEP ENOUGH TO MEET MY NEEDS
Psalm 40:11 "My only hope is your love [circle this] for my problems are too big for me to solve and are piled over my head." I'm going under for the last time! I'm about to sink! The fact is God's love is not shallow. It's profound. No matter what problem you have, His love is deeper than that problem. Some of you may be in deep despair, deep trouble, under deep stress, you've got deep problems, emotional problems, physical problems, financial problems. God's love is deeper still.
Corrie and Betsy Ten Boom were Christians who lived in Holland during World War 2. During the war they hid Jews in their home to protect them from the Nazis. When they were discovered, not only were the Jews taken to the concentration camp but Corrie and Betsy and their father were also taken to the concentration camp, and they spent their lives there during the war. Corrie came out alive. Her sister and father died. At one point in the movie where they had seen one atrocity after another, Corrie says to Betsy, "This place is the pit of hell!" Betsy says, "There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper."
Some of you in the last few weeks and the last few months may have hit bottom. Maybe financially and you think, "I am going broke!" or you've hit bottom emotionally or your marriage has hit bottom or you're having health problems and your health has hit bottom and you're frustrated and you think, "I am going under." Where is God when you hit bottom?
Deuteronomy 33:27 "The eternal God is your refuge and underneath you are His everlasting arms." When you hit bottom guess who's underneath the bottom? God is. Drop into His arms of love. Let Him catch you and support you when you have nowhere else to go.
When you look at these four phrases --- "know the height, the depth, the length and the width of God's love" -- you have the four dimensions of the cross. Height, depth, width, length. You can't really talk about the love of God without talking about the cross because the ultimate demonstration of love is when someone gives their life for you. "Greater love hath no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends." The Bible says in Romans 5:8 "God demonstrated (or showed) how much He really loves us by dying for us." Christ died for me and for you. That is the ultimate demonstration of love. Good Friday is about love.
When you go to Jesus Christ and say, "Jesus, how much do you love me?" Jesus stretches out His arms on the cross and says, "I love you this much. I love you so much it hurts." When you reject that kind of love and then expect God to let you into heaven, it is ultimate arrogance to walk away from that kind of love as if it doesn't matter. It matters! And you matter to God that's why He did it. That’s why there was a Good Friday.
You matter to God. He loves you so much it hurts. He loves you so much.
The fact is everyone of us came here this morning for different reasons. Some of you came simply became it's tradition. Some of you came out of duty. Some of you came because you had a need and you thought "Maybe I'll find the answer there."
Regardless of why you think you came, you came because God brought you here and He knew you'd be here even a thousand years before you were born. He brought you here. Some of you have felt God's love in the past. You were close to God. You felt His care and His concern but you've kind of drifted away. You think, "Can I ever get back to that kind of relationship?"
What does God have to say to you? Regardless of your situation, regardless of your background God brought you here this morning to say one thing to you. He says, "With a deep, deep love You matter to Me more than you'll ever know. I have a plan for your life. Get in touch with Me. Build a relationship, not a religion. Get to know Me. Let Me show you why I made you. You'll find your niche and all of a sudden you'll know that's why you're here on earth ‑- not just to take up space and breathe and die. You're here for a reason." Don't reject God's love. There is no one who will ever love you more than God does.
Prayer:
I invite you to pray a prayer in your heart right now. You don't have to say it out loud. God will hear you. God knows what you're thinking. He knows the very thoughts going across your brain right now because He made you. You don't have to say any formula or fancy words. It's really the attitude of your heart. Would you say this to God, would you just be honest to God once in your life, say, "God, Help me to realize how much You love me. Help me to realize that You care for my problems and my needs. Help me to realize that You have a plan for my life. Forgive me for being afraid of You. Help me to realize that You want what's best for my life. Today, God, I want to come back to You."
Lord, thank You so much for Your love for us. Thank You for Good Friday. Thank You that the cross demonstrates the heights, the depth, the width and the length of Your love. Thank You that there is no fear in love, that perfect love casts out all fear. We don't have to fear You. We can know You personally. We thank You. In Jesus' name. Amen.
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