It is wonderful to know that you are loved. Many of us have known that experience in life at some time or other. It hurts like mad when that is not our experience. Because of the hurtful experiences some have known, they may despair whether there is such a thing in life as real deep genuine love.
I need to say at the outset that you are loved with a deep, genuine love.
- It is a love that will never let you go. It will always be there for you.
- But you may not have experienced it at this stage of your lives.
- I’m talking about the incredible love that God Himself has for you, yet you may be totally unaware of it.
- Remember in the musical My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle says to Professor Higgins who has tried to make a lady out of her and who is obviously falling in love with her, “Don’t talk of stars burning above; If you’re in love, Show me!”
- Love needs to be demonstrated not just talked about.
God has shown His love for us. The verses quoted in this article are some of the most well-known verses in the New Testament which tell us about God’s self-giving love.
Let’s look briefly at them in turn and see how they relate to us as individuals.
1. God’s Love For The World, Including You And Me
Jn 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
You can see the pre-eminent gift of His love is the gift of His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. As we put our trust in Him, we are no longer perishing but have eternal life, Gods’ own life within us.
- The Son of God, the Creator of this universe, humbled Himself to come and to die for you.
- You are loved by Him and you always will be.
- But you need to trust in who He is and in what He has done, to experience that love.
2. God’s Love For Sinners Was Demonstrated In The Death Of His Son For Us. Rom 5:8. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
It doesn’t matter how far you have fallen into terrible, terrible sin, God’s love and acceptance is there for you in Christ, if you are open to receive them by receiving Him.
- His blood cleanses us from all sin no matter how wretched or horrible it was.
- You can be forgiven, you can be cleansed, you can be healed because of what He did on the cross for you.
When we come into a right relationship with Him through Jesus, He now saves us by His life. 5:10. The word for “saves “can also mean being made whole, being healed. He can make us more whole, healed people.
3. God’s’ Love Can Release Love Within Us.
(Eph 5:2) “and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
We were created to love. But in the fall of humankind, we lost the desire and the ability to love as we should.
But Jesus has shown us how to love, in His death for us. He considered our interests above His own as He humbled Himself to come into this sinful world.
He was obedient unto death as He died on the cross in our place. Now inspired by His example and by His Spirit within us, we can love as we were meant to love. We can live a life of love.
It seems that many people have become ill because they rejected the will of God by refusing to accept, to forgive and to love another person.
4. God’s Love For Us Can Enable Us To Live For Him.
St Paul was changed as he recognised that Jesus as the Messiah, as the Son of God had died for him.
He expressed his new life as a believer in these terms, (Gal 2:20) “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
He acknowledged that if Jesus had unselfishly given His life for him, then he Paul had to give His life unreservedly to Jesus. As he wrote elsewhere of Jesus, “He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sakes died and was raised.”
5. God’s Love For Us Never Ceases
Paul wrote in Rom 8 about his deep conviction that nothing and nobody would separate Him from God’s love. (Rom 8:38) “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, (Rom 8:39) nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
His love doesn’t run hot or cold like that of some humans. It is constant and everlasting.
You can know you are loved at any moment of any day.
He understands you. He’s there for you. He’s not going to give up on you.
He wants to pour out upon you all the unsearchable riches which are yours in Christ.
6. God Wants To Share His Love With Us To Enable Us To Love
As we open our lives to Him He gives us His own Spirit to indwell us.
Rom 5:5, “God’s (agape) love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
We may not have been able to love as Jesus commanded us, but He equips us to love people with His own love.
As we are open to receive that love for ourselves and as we are filled with God’s Holy Spirit, His love can flood our beings.
We will have the strangest experience of having compassion towards those whom we once hated. We will find ourselves loving the unlovable. We will be amazed to see how many people we genuinely love and how deeply we love them. We’ll know it is not our natural thing to do.
It has been God at work in us by His Spirit liberating us to love as we were always meant to do.
7. God Wants Us To Experience All He Has For Us In Jesus
(Rom 8:31-32) “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?”
God in His love for us has given us so many gifts. Yet none of them can compare with the greatest gift He gave, the gift of His Son Jesus to die for us on the cross.
Paul argues that if God gave us the greatest gift He could give, then it was only logical that He would give all the lesser gifts we need to live for Him.
The “all things” mean everything we need.
- Do you want some guidance so that you can know God’s will for your life? God is able to guide us by His word and to lead us by His Spirit.
- Do you want to be freed to love as you should? God can release you from all the barriers that stop His love flowing through you and He can flood you with His love as you open yourself to His love. Romans 5:5, “and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.“f God? God can heal you to do His will. We can pray an unselfish prayer, ”Lord in Your love heal me, so that I can do Your will to Your glory.” Being healed to do the will of God should be our ultimate aim in life as we seek to live for Him.
Blog No.535 posted on Thursday 08 March 2024.
holbeck 
535. Sermon Notes On John 3:14-21. “God’s Love For Us.” [Gospel for Sunday 10 March 2024.]
It is wonderful to know that you are loved. Many of us have known that experience in life at some time or other. It hurts like mad when that is not our experience. Because of the hurtful experiences some have known, they may despair whether there is such a thing in life as real deep genuine love.
I need to say at the outset that you are loved with a deep, genuine love.
God has shown His love for us. The verses quoted in this article are some of the most well-known verses in the New Testament which tell us about God’s self-giving love.
Let’s look briefly at them in turn and see how they relate to us as individuals.
1. God’s Love For The World, Including You And Me
Jn 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
You can see the pre-eminent gift of His love is the gift of His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. As we put our trust in Him, we are no longer perishing but have eternal life, Gods’ own life within us.
2. God’s Love For Sinners Was Demonstrated In The Death Of His Son For Us. Rom 5:8. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
It doesn’t matter how far you have fallen into terrible, terrible sin, God’s love and acceptance is there for you in Christ, if you are open to receive them by receiving Him.
When we come into a right relationship with Him through Jesus, He now saves us by His life. 5:10. The word for “saves “can also mean being made whole, being healed. He can make us more whole, healed people.
3. God’s’ Love Can Release Love Within Us.
(Eph 5:2) “and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
We were created to love. But in the fall of humankind, we lost the desire and the ability to love as we should.
But Jesus has shown us how to love, in His death for us. He considered our interests above His own as He humbled Himself to come into this sinful world.
He was obedient unto death as He died on the cross in our place. Now inspired by His example and by His Spirit within us, we can love as we were meant to love. We can live a life of love.
It seems that many people have become ill because they rejected the will of God by refusing to accept, to forgive and to love another person.
4. God’s Love For Us Can Enable Us To Live For Him.
St Paul was changed as he recognised that Jesus as the Messiah, as the Son of God had died for him.
He expressed his new life as a believer in these terms, (Gal 2:20) “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
He acknowledged that if Jesus had unselfishly given His life for him, then he Paul had to give His life unreservedly to Jesus. As he wrote elsewhere of Jesus, “He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sakes died and was raised.”
5. God’s Love For Us Never Ceases
Paul wrote in Rom 8 about his deep conviction that nothing and nobody would separate Him from God’s love. (Rom 8:38) “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, (Rom 8:39) nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
His love doesn’t run hot or cold like that of some humans. It is constant and everlasting.
You can know you are loved at any moment of any day.
He understands you. He’s there for you. He’s not going to give up on you.
He wants to pour out upon you all the unsearchable riches which are yours in Christ.
6. God Wants To Share His Love With Us To Enable Us To Love
As we open our lives to Him He gives us His own Spirit to indwell us.
Rom 5:5, “God’s (agape) love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
We may not have been able to love as Jesus commanded us, but He equips us to love people with His own love.
As we are open to receive that love for ourselves and as we are filled with God’s Holy Spirit, His love can flood our beings.
We will have the strangest experience of having compassion towards those whom we once hated. We will find ourselves loving the unlovable. We will be amazed to see how many people we genuinely love and how deeply we love them. We’ll know it is not our natural thing to do.
It has been God at work in us by His Spirit liberating us to love as we were always meant to do.
7. God Wants Us To Experience All He Has For Us In Jesus
(Rom 8:31-32) “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?”
God in His love for us has given us so many gifts. Yet none of them can compare with the greatest gift He gave, the gift of His Son Jesus to die for us on the cross.
Paul argues that if God gave us the greatest gift He could give, then it was only logical that He would give all the lesser gifts we need to live for Him.
The “all things” mean everything we need.
Blog No.535 posted on Thursday 08 March 2024.
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About Jim Holbeck
Once an Industrial Chemist working for the Queensland Government but later an Anglican minister in Brisbane, Armidale and Sydney. Last position for eighteen years before retirement in 2006 was as the Leader of the Healing Ministry at St Andrew's Cathedral Sydney.