Understanding God's Love

I'm gonna go to what is probably the most quoted verse in the Bible. I'm going there because a lot of times, uh, the app stock folks seem to get a little nervous around this verse. I don't know why. It's a great verse. It's in the Bible. It's a good verse, right? It's in the Bible. It's a good verse. God put it there. John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

And for just a little while this afternoon, I want to preach "Understanding God's Love." Will you help me pray right now? God, thank you so much for the moment we are in, for your presence being here in such a strong way. I pray, God, that our hearts and our minds will be prepared to receive your anointed word. Let us take a hold of it, comprehend it, grasp it, and apply it to our lives, that your will be done in this place. Changes, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, and amen.

If there is one single overwhelming Topic in the Scriptures, it has to be God's love. It's more than can be tackled and put together in a single message. There is so much that the Bible has to say about God's love, that I doubt any one of us in this room has even come close to comprehending it. It is beyond what we can fit inside the limited space of our mind. In our opening scripture here, I read to you one verse that gets quoted so often: "For God so loved the world that he gave." In one sentence, that verse only contains 25 words. Yet that one sentence is packed with so much truth that we literally will not have time to fully unpack its contents. But I will do my best, because I believe it's important. No matter your walk with God, no matter how far down life's journey you are, there's still more to learn about the subject and the truth of God's love.

Thank you for that one amen, and a room full of people, you would think I'd get more than one amen, talking about the truth of God's love. It's okay. It's, it's a holiday weekend. I'll give you that. First thing that I think is important for you and I — and we, we're going to say that we, we know this, but do you really understand it? And that is this: the love of God is unconditional. Can you say that with me? Say, "Unconditional." The love of God is unconditional. The reason I — I'm repeating this phrase is because it's one thing to say it, but it's another thing to understand the depth that that word brings to you and I, to know and to fully comprehend unconditional love.

The Greek word there, but that talks about — "For God so loved the world" — that word "world," Cosmos, as defined as "the ungodly multitude, the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ." This is the world that God loves. It does not say that God only loved the good people. It didn't say that God only love the Attractive people. Thank goodness, I'd be out. It didn't say God only loved the skinny people. Thank goodness, I'd be out again. Two strikes against me. But it said, "For God so loved the world." Period. It didn't put any qualifiers on it. It didn't put anything there that I could look at and say, "Well, he doesn't love me, because I don't live up to it." If you're in the world, God loves you. God loves you unconditionally.

It's not just something that belongs to One race or one gender. It doesn't belong to just a certain age, a certain group. No, God loved the world. Period. And I'm in the world, and you're in the world. Therefore God loves us. "For God so loved the world." So God, clearly, his love isn't based on a spiritual condition. Anybody thankful for that? Because, man, I'd have been in trouble there again. Because none of us are perfect. None of us. There was one perfect one. He died for us all. The rest of us got a lot of work to do. Yeah, we do. I'm putting me in there with you. We got a lot of work to do to live up to the love that God has for us. I'm so thankful that this isn't a merit-based love. I'm so thankful that it goes beyond human conditions, because we are very fickle people. You and I — don't act like you're not that way. Our love can be very conditional. If you're buying me lunch, man, I love you. I love you extra if you let me pick what we're going to eat, and don't place them in your restriction on me. So we're having a little fun, but you can see — I think we're all — simply because of the relationship we have with them.

I remember the day that my oldest daughter was born. Remember all my daughters. I remember the birds very well. There's very Monument days in my life. But I remember specifically Kaylee being born. Everything was ready, and she arrives, and I go over there, and they're doing their first assessments, and I'm there. This is back before we, we used our phones so much for everything. I actually had a camera that was only for recording. And I remember saying, "I'm not doing a thing, because I'm captivated in the moment." Instantly, I am smitten in this moment. She is just minutes old, just, just barely adhere on Earth with us, in this moment, there. And then, all of a sudden, I'm just captivated by this thought: I would die for her. I just met her, but I'm overwhelmed with love. And I remember being caught up in this moment, and, as if God whispered in my ear, "Now you begin to understand just a little of how I love you."

I think oftentimes that's maybe as close as we can come to an understanding. And even though it's still flawed, because Humanity messes things up, I think it's the closest we can begin to understand the, the term "unconditional love." That unconditionally, God loves me, and that God loves you. Which means this — and this is another one that makes you scratch your head for a minute: you have never, in your life, been more or less loved by God than you are right now. Which means, on your worst day, when you are as bad as you have ever been — done all the things you know you should not have done, all the decisions, all the regrets, whatever moment that was that you were at your actual worst — God loved you in that moment as much as he loves you right now. And here's the other side of that: when you were your best, when you have done your best, and acted your best, and behaved your best, and had done all the things that you knew you were supposed to do, God didn't love you anymore in that moment than he loves you in this moment, because God's love doesn't change. God loved the world, and God loves you. And the quicker you can get your head around that, the better, the bigger the impact it's going to make in your life.

It's not just acknowledging that God loves me. It's living inside of the love that God has for me. I look up things differently. I act differently. I behave differently. Why? Because my God loves me. He doesn't love me only when I'm doing good. But he loves me even when I do bad, even when I make a mistake. He may not condone the actions that I do, but his love doesn't change. God loves me.

To understand that kind of love — have you ever asked yourself, what is so unique about Christianity? To me, the answer that immediately pops into my mind is Grace. Christianity uniquely claims God's love comes free of charge, no strings attached. Now let me explain this, okay? Because if there's ever a word that gets used in spiritual malpractice, it's Grace. I heard one guy say one time, "It's the most elastic word in Christianity, Grace," because it gets stretched and shaped and formed into something that was never intended to be. Let me explain what I mean by that. I've already made the point in the case that God's love is unconditional. I think we all have a decent understanding of what that means: that no matter what I do, he doesn't love me more or less. He may not like what I've done, but it doesn't change how he loves me. Is everybody with me? Grace comes to us. His, his love comes to us. But Grace is an interesting thing, because Grace is trying to teach us something. Grace is trying to show you and I that there's a better way we can live. It's not given to us as a license to live or do whatever I want. Instead, Grace and God's unconditional love paints a picture, a portrait, an image, a direction that we should be going towards. In, in its simplest form, Grace points to Calvary and says, "This is how much I love you, and this is what I'm looking for from you. Not that you're bloody, beaten, nailed to a cross. But do you and I willingly choose to live a life that he said in example for that?" By his power, and his grace, and his love, and most importantly his spirit in us, we have the ability to live an overcoming life. That's what Grace says. Grace doesn't say, "Do whatever you want." Grace doesn't say, "Whatever you feel, it's okay." Grace says that you will look and see the example I set, and you'll try your best to live that life. That's what Grace does.

But no other religion makes that claim. Buddhists, for example, follow the Eightfold Path of enlightenment. It's not a free ride. Hindus believe in karma: that your actions continually affect the way the world would treat you, and there's nothing that comes to you not set in motion by the actions that you have lived. Islam's God is a god of judgment, not a god of love, and you live to appease him. Only Christianity dares to Proclaim God's love is unconditional — an unconditional love that we call Grace. Grace, interesting. Grace is all about God, and God freely given to us the gift of forgiveness, and love, and mercy. So God's love is unconditional for you and I.

It's the author Philip Yancey who wrote, "There's nothing we can do to make God love us more, and there's nothing that we can do to make God love us less." God loves us. But that doesn't mean that I can do what I want, because Paul addressed this when he's writing to the church at Rome. Who's Paul writing to? In the, in the Book of Romans — to the church, all right. He's not writing to unbelievers, but he's writing to the church: people who understood, who are Desiring a relationship with God. He says this in Romans chapter 6, verse number one: "Well then, should we keep on sinning, that Grace can show us more and more of his Wonderful Grace?" Verse two: "Of course not. Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?" Given yourself to God brings about a change in your life. If you have a relationship with God that has not changed your life in any way, I question whether or not you have a relationship with God. Because every example we have in scripture, and every personal example I know Beyond Myself, of someone coming into a relationship but God — they have been changed from what they were. They're in the process of becoming the new creation that the word of God talks about. It's a process. It's, it's God's plan. We're becoming new creatures in Christ.

Because God's love is unconditional. But you know what else God's love is? God's love is sacrificial. God shows you and I: true love has nothing to do with what you and I can do for God, but everything for what God can do for us. When we repent and turn to God, our sins are forgiven, and we are transformed in that process, because of Jesus, who paid the price for forgiveness. John chapter 15, verse number 13, says, "Greater love hath no man than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you." See, we like verse 13. But oftentimes we struggle with verse 14. We love that he laid down his life for us. But sometimes we struggle with the part where he says, "If you want to love me back, keep my Commandments." "What about the ones I like? I'll keep those." No, he didn't give you an out here. This wasn't the cafeteria plan. It wasn't that I pick and choose. This was saying to you and I that if we love him, we'll keep his commands. The love of God is valuable here. We see in this, by the word "value," that Not only was he willing to give, but he was willing to give his best. I love that about God. He didn't just come in sometimes and just say, "This is, this is just a bare minimum of what I need to do." I don't know about you. I can't speak for you, but I can speak for myself. There have been times when I gave minimal effort, especially when it was something that I wasn't interested in. There have been times — and confessions good for the soul — that I've been asked to do things that I didn't like to do. And I did them, but I did them begrudgingly, and I did them with half heart, and with very little effort. Sometimes those things happen when helping my wife in the garden. I know that because she pointed it out. I think we've all been there, right? We've all had things in life that we've done, but we did it at whatever the bare minimum was, because we didn't enjoy whatever it was we were doing.

Let me ask you a question: do you think Jesus enjoyed the cross? Do you think he enjoyed the beating? Do you think he enjoyed the cat of nine tails? Do you think he enjoyed being smocked, mocked, spit upon? Do you think there was any part of that process that he was happy with? How many in here are thankful with me that he gave his best? That even under the most harsh of conditions, he continued to do what he knew he needed to do, because without that, you and I wouldn't have an opportunity for Mercy or Grace. But I'm thankful that there's a God who set the example first. He didn't say, "This is what I want you to do, but I myself am not going to do that." But instead, he went ahead — before there was ever a requirement back at us — he went ahead and did what he knew he needed to do. And he gave his very best. He paid the highest price. In fact, you and I are very unique in this: is that when the price was paid at Calvary, he purchased us. And he purchased flawed material. He purchased broken Humanity. God's love has value.

When you give to someone out of your abundance is one thing. But when you give to someone out of your poverty, it's quite another. And what you give is a sacrifice that comes back to God as something that is pleasing, whether that's monetary, as, as exampled in the scriptures, when, when Jesus was standing by, watching those who were contributing to the temple. And I want you to notice — because sometimes people get a little bit weird about how things are done — Jesus was paying attention to who was putting in the box and who wasn't. Just gonna throw that out there. And nobody was going, "Hey, buddy, what are you doing? You shouldn't be watching that." It was Jesus who watched the Widow put the mind in, and he was the one who turned and said, "She gave the most." Now, in physical money, she didn't give the most. There were others who gave bigger gifts. But sacrificially, the gifts she gave was great.

Now, that's just money. But money is something that we struggle with sometimes. We've got to be careful: it will become something that will be a stumbling block to you and I. But even more than just the money: our abilities, our times, our talents. These things are important, that we give sacrificially — not just because it's convenient for me, but because it's what I should be doing. Oh my, this is where it gets into an area that — if I'm just going to do a little bit of teaching right now, as Pastor — that we got to be careful that the only Ministries we do are the convenient Ministries. Sometimes you just need to step up and do what you know you should be doing. Ah, no, we got all Heavy in here all of a sudden, didn't it? But what you give sacrificially, God pays attention to. Would you want him to go half-heartedly to Calvary? No, none of us would. We're thankful that he gave it all. But he set an example for you and I. He said, "If any man will come after me, let him — what was, how was the command? — he gotta take up his cross. And now, when you took up a cross — like, we see this now, it's so sanitized in our world. It's so — it's, it's, it, it's all, you know, something. Well, it's, it's a cross. When we see it in those days, when someone said "cross," that equal death. It wasn't a pretty thing. For him to make a statement that you need to take up your cross, everybody there understood those words: that cost you your life, exactly. But he didn't give his life with any less expectation: "I'll give what I have, and in turn, take up your cross and follow me." So part of living a life dedicated to God is, there are some things you do because it's what you should be doing. It isn't always convenient. But it's in the sacrifice of doing it that God gets the glory and praise.

God did not have a backup. God didn't have a spare. God gave himself. And the power and passion of God's love came across not through the, the special meaning in a Greek word involved — and, but, no — it was the fact that he actually did what he said he was going to do. He gave himself as sacrifice. And I'm here today saying that — someone listening to me — that, that God is saying, "I gave my everything for you, to show you how much I love you. Will you come to me today?" I'm here to call back out of the closet someone who has hung up their Ministry, somehow thinks they're disqualified, or it's inconvenient. I'm here to call out someone and say, "No, God gave his best. Go and give your best back to God." For some of you, you can unlock the greatest thing that's ever going to happen into, in, in your life. But it will cost you something. Are you — is, is it a price you're willing to pay? Because God's love has value.

God's love is very personal. I'm so thankful we have a personal God. I'm so thankful that he knows me. He knows where I am. I, I can't — I couldn't begin today and sit, because time would fail me, to sit down and talk about my own life, and how good God has been to me in my life. I have not been perfect. I have been anything but perfect in my life. I'm thankful for God's mercy. I'm thankful for his grace. And I'm thankful that they are available every morning, fresh and new, because I need them in my life. I, I got to have those things in my life. And I'm so glad and happy that we have a God who does that for me. But, but here's the deal: he knows where I am. He knows what I go through. He knows what I need. He knows what I don't need. And what I have found in my own life: it goes a whole lot better if I just listen and be obedient, even if I don't fully comprehend or understand. It always works out better for me in my life when I go according to his pattern and his plan. But when I drift off course, because of my feelings, or, or what I think, or my own laziness, it always ends bad. There may be a moment of happy, but it never lasts — not the way God's plan does.

God's love was made manifest in this world through the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to reveal the love of God for us. Part of the problem with the world we live in today is that they've forgotten about the sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus has become something that's kind of cool now. I'm old enough to remember when I didn't always like telling people I was Pentecostal. Do I have any other Witnesses in the room? Yeah. I remember being in school and be like, "Hey, where you go to church?" Because it wasn't always cool to speak in tongues. It wasn't always cool to live our lifestyle convictions. It was something that I was not — I'm saying this as a confession — something that I was not always happy and proud about. I didn't like it because it would make things inconvenient in my life. And I feel like a lot of people have forgotten that living for God requires sacrifice now This isn't salvation by work. So I rebuke that, in Jesus' name, anybody thinking that. I'm not talking about that. I can't be good enough to get to heaven. It's not in me. Not in my flesh. No. I have a desire, but I'll fail every time. But thanks be to God that he filled me with his Spirit, which gives me overcoming power in this life. But that comes by me living an obedient life, committed to God.

So many in our world today have not taken to Heart. They have not hidden in their heart his word. Some people only have knowledge of God, but no relationship with God. And knowledge itself doesn't work. You have to apply the knowledge in your life. You have to invite him to be a part of your everyday walk. This new Christian Movement of consumerism is leading too many down a fast track to hell. And this blending of religions we're having — I know I talked about that last couple weeks — it's something that's really bothered me, and grieving me in my spirit, as I see people who are taking bits and pieces from things that they just feel is right for their life. And I'm afraid you're going to feel your way right into hell. Because here's the deal: God doesn't change his mind. He's not going to grade you on a curve. He did what he needed to do to provide you away. But you still have to follow the path laid out before you.

That's why, again, I'm not a big fan of the word "saved," because we're all still here. Just, Just One Pastor, one man's opinion. I don't say I'm saved, because I'm not in heaven. I'm still here. Which means I can stumble and fall at any moment, at any time. And I'm thankful for grace and mercy in my life. But I'm in the process of being saved. Every day I get up, and I make a concerted effort to make sure that I'm being obedient to his work, and make right choices and right decisions. I make sure that when I mess up, and conviction Pricks my heart, that I say, "God, please forgive me for what I did, or what I said, or how about." I want to live in that state of repentance, so that I make sure that I've done everything I know to do, to live the best life I can live. I know none of those things will cause me to get there, but living that life — but his spirit gives me what I need to be an overcomer.

"Well, you just don't have confidence in your relationship, God." I do have confidence in my relationship, God. But I live with me every day, too. I live with me. And I know how my mind thinks. I know how I act. And I need the grace of God every day in my life. "Well, you — maybe you just don't got all you need." "Well, maybe I don't." But every time I read this book, this is what I'm convinced of: he loves me. He doesn't love me anymore, any less. He loves me. And that he did what he needed to do. And then, if I'll line my life up with his principles, Even If I Stumble, I can get back up and ask forgiveness, and he still loves me.

He see — see, sometimes we have disqualified ourselves. God hasn't disqualified you, but we've disqualified us. We've said, "I've been too bad. I've stumbled too much. I've done too much wrong. I've lived in such a way that no way that, that I could ever be, uh, someone that God loves." And you're thinking about it through a human perspective. Maybe you don't love you. But I gotta — I got a truth for you: God loves you. Even if you don't love you, God still loves you. And if you'll allow him, he'll work with you, so that you can get back to a place where you can also have self-respect and love for you. Don't buy into that lie from, from the Devil.

So many churches, and pastors of those churches, seemingly teach exclusively from the gospel accounts. And please hear me. Please understand pastor's heart in this moment. Please, please listen to me: there's absolutely nothing wrong with the gospel accounts. I love the gospels: Matthew, Martin, Luke, and John. It's the life of Jesus. Why would we not like that? But there is more to the New Testament than Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You have the life that God was living out, and modeling to his disciples. But I'm thankful that we have the book of Acts. It's the only history book in the New Testament. And if you're going to see what the Acts of the Apostles — it's what the literal people did, who literally followed Jesus, started doing. Do you, you know that the New Testament Church didn't start in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, right? It didn't start there. It started in the book of Acts. So if you want to know what God expects of his church, then go to the book where the church started, and see what they did. And then the Epistles: these were letters written to individuals who were leading churches, or directly to the churches. And then we got the Book of Revelations. I'll save that for another day. I'm not scared of it, but it makes my head hurt.

So you've got to take the New Testament together: what started in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, what was birthed in the book of Acts, and what the apostles were doing to the people who experienced the outpouring of his holy spirit in the book of Acts. They were not starting a new Plan of Salvation. They were going back and showing up the foundation of what happened in Acts. And it was about God's love. I'm afraid things have been so watered down, and Christianity as a whole, that they have seemingly taken the power away from God, because people and have failed to really develop a strong personal relationship with God.

Here's what I know. Here's, here's what I know about relationships, okay? And then this is, this is what God does in the scriptures. Sorry, I know I'm not supposed to walk out here. It makes them guys nuts back there. But you'll get over it. God talks about our relationship — the church — as a marriage. Been married 23 years to this woman. She, she is a gift from God to me. That isn't me earning brownie points. I've told her that before. She's a gift to me. But here's what I know: I have changed in 23 years of marriage. And I have changed. And there's a lot of her that has rubbed off on me. And I feel like there's been at least a little thing or two that rubbed off on her. But I, I needed way more sanding than she did. What am I saying is, I know this: it's impossible to have a deep relationship with you, with someone, and not change in some ways, to be like the person you're in a deep relationship with. So if you have claimed to have a deep relationship with God, yet over time you have not changed to become more like God, it makes me stop and scratch my head of how it is you have a deep relationship with God.

Now, we, we all in this room — I dare say, I don't know everybody's story, but I would say that they're the majority that's in this room — we, we know our conversion experience, right? You remember where you were at. It was an altar. It was a chair. It was a bed. It was somewhere you were at. How many of you remember that? Do you remember when God filled you with his spirit, that, that salvation Day? I remember it. I was on Spring Street, on the left side, if you're looking from the back door. I was sitting there, and Clayton Hill was praying with me. And he was saying, if I start speaking in tongues, he'd start dancing. So I started, when God filled me. Everybody's inside. I didn't do it myself. God filled me with the spirit. And I looked my eyes, and there, that little ball guy was dancing around. Thank you.

I remember that man, that vividly remembered that. But that was not the sum total of my relationship with God. All right, I'm going to take it a step further, because I feel like this is where we apostolics struggle. This sum total of my relationship with God is not right here. What I mean by right here — I mean, like, in this altar area right here. I mean, in this building right here. This is not the sum total of my relationship with God. Because if it is, I'm not where I need to be. Because guess what? I'm not here every day. Well, I'm here most every day, but you know what I mean. I'm not here 24 hours a day. Neither are you. So I can't only be right with God when I'm in the building, because eventually we've got to leave. Otherwise it becomes a cult, and it's weird, and people talk about us. Plus, God never intended that. I'll get back on my notes. I started to drift. I'm gonna go back over here.

We should be changing into the image of him. We should be different, year over year. We should not be spiritually in the same place as we were five years ago. If, if you have been living for God for 20 years, but you are no more in word or deed than you were 20 years ago, I really struggle with the depth of your relationship with him. Because what I have personally experienced is that every time I dig, I find more. Every time I, I push in, I get more knowledge of who he is, and I realize there are still areas that I have to change.

For example — let me, let me, let me do a little, little clarification. Wednesday night, I preached about the Sabbath. You guys blew my wife's phone up: "His Pastor saying I can't ever do anything but setting the corner and hum on Sundays, have Bible on repeat in the background." No, no, no. The point was: church can't be simply something you check off the list, and then move on back into life. All right. The, the fourth Commandment gives very specific instructions: that you should be about worship, and that you should have that day to reflect on it. Which means that you can fellowship with friends and family. You can do activities together. What did I forget? If you need to do laundry, do it in Jesus' name. If you got to pick up your click list, talk about God. Like, there's some Liberty there. All right. I didn't say, "Go just be shut up in the house." All right, everybody okay now? Because I just messed — I know a whole lot of families up. They were like, changing stuff, and we're never gonna have clean underwear, and just — so, is everybody okay? All right, now.

Let's go back to God's love. Your relationship with him should be stronger. A proper relationship with God means you prefer his will to yours. See, this is where I struggle sometimes, from a pastor's standpoint: is I have people who have been living for God for a number of years, yet they still will say, "Yeah, but — I know what the word of God says, but — blah, blah, blah, blah." You don't put the conjunction in that statement. No, no. You should just say, "I know what the word of God says." And then, whatever it says, you do that. See, the, the, the, the, the — here we go, with us married men: how many, how many married men in the room? I don't care how long you've been married. There's like — there's George in the back. He's got his hand up, so proud. Right there he is, two weeks into marriage. And then Trey — where you at? Trey's one week in the marriage, right here. Even you guys know this: there are just some things, when she says it, you're going to do it, brand new. Because happy wife, happy life. Except if it goes against the word of God.

See, here's what we get. This is us. And y'all — okay, if I just myself — and I don't know how to be anybody else, I'm gonna be me. My wife is so nervous right now. I, I don't know how to receive you when you know to do right, and you do wrong. And I really don't know how to receive you when you know to do right, and you blatantly do wrong, because you say, "That's how you feel." Your feelings will mislead you. They will destroy you, if you only base everything off of how you feel. At some point, you have to have something that you filter things through. So God gave us his word. And what's brilliant about him giving us his word is that we can take things like his love, and as we're comprehending him, and we will say, "Well, God loves me, so he — because he loves me, he's going to let me have this, and I get to do this because God." I've seen people justify stuff, wrongs in life, because of God's love. And I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. How about you back it up a little bit, and go back to what he said is forever settled, and what he said doesn't change?" He did us. He says, "I'm Lord, I change not." And it's because of this that you're saved. Oh, sons of Jacob. Why? Because if we have something that doesn't move, then I can test everything else in my life through something that doesn't move. Because I'm living in a world where everything is moving. Even the church seems to be moving. So I have to have something I could go back to that's anchored, that doesn't move. That's why there are things in your life that you need to go back and filter through the word of God, and say, "I know this is how I feel, but the word of God says this. So I may be feeling that, but God, your word says I shouldn't do that, so I'm not going to do it." And then, all of a sudden, we're growing in our relationship. That's why: I promised, from the day I took this office to now, I will always teach you what thus saith the word, and not what Kevin's opinion is. My opinion matters not. This is what we will all be judged by, right here.

I'm getting ready — I'm getting ready to close. Max Lucado, the author, he writes this — directly quoting from one of his books — says, "There are many reasons God Saves you: to bring glory to himself, to appease his Justice, to demonstrate his sovereignty. But one of the sweetest reasons God Saves you is because he's fond of you. He likes having you around. He thinks you're the best thing to come down the pike in quite a while. If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your picture would be in it. He sends you flowers Every Spring, and sun rises every morning. And whenever you want to talk, he'll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, but he chooses your heart. Face it, he's crazy about you." Can you get your head around that? That the God of all — the god of the universe — is mad, crazy in love with you? Who is man that you are mindful? God, of all the things that you've done, and all that you created, and all that you are — who am I that you would even think or consider me? But yet, he are — you're there. Every time I call your name, I feel you close. If all that you could be doing, you're here.

I love the fact that, when we love him, and understanding his love, is to know that God has our back. We say that, all right, in our days. You know, God said — hey, man, you got my back. You know, it, it comes from a military term: having a rear guard that's there. Isaiah 52, verse 12. This is interesting. The reading, from the King James, it says: "For you shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight. For the Lord will go before you, and the god of Israel will be your reward." Now, that "rearward" there — but if you — the original language is, is "r-e-r-e-w-a-r-d." And almost like somebody started to write, and they went back again, tried to start it, it didn't work. If you're skimming this, you're thinking, "Man, was there a typo in the scriptures?" But it's, it's a very specific, unique word that is there. It's, it's a military term, basically saying — and interpret it as "rear guard" — that God's going to be behind you. In fact, if, if you look at it, the, the actual, uh, uh, Armor of God that gets talked about in there — when you put on the armor of God, has nothing that is behind you, because God stands behind you. That's part of his love. Okay. We get an example in Exodus 14, verse 19: "And the angel of God, who went out before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud went before them, and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus, it was the cloud and the Darkness to one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that one did not come near the other all night." God stood between the enemy and Israel, and said, "You can rest. I'm here." See, his love affords us that knowledge, that he stands behind me. We need not fear the enemy that is behind us, because he doesn't want to get behind you, because that's where God is.

aiah 50 and 6, gives us a little different insight. Though he stands behind us, he protects our back. But look at this — Isaiah 50 and 6: "I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks of those who plucked out the beard. I didn't have my face from the shame and the spitting." This was for us. For you and I. He loved us so much that he left his back exposed. What a love! What a love that is!

God's love is accessible. It's good news for you and I. It's not hard. It's not difficult to obtain. From the human perspective, when you compare God to other gods of religions, the world — you have to say our God is sort of odd, because he uses the common, ordinary folks. Thank you again. I'm thankful, because there's nothing special about me. God comes down to our level. God wants to be where we are. I want to know if you have enough Faith here today to receive God's love. Because you can take Faith, and draw closer to him, and allow God — this God of love — to meet you, and change your life. In fact, as I get ready to end, the musicians are going to come.

One of the greatest things about his love is this — and you may try to argue this point, but hopefully I can make it with Clarity today — God's love is non-judgmental. God's goal in coming from Heaven to Earth was not to condemn you, or to show you how bad you are, to tell you that you were hopeless. God's only desire was to show you his love, and to draw you into a relationship with him. In fact, his word says, "Except he draw." So you're here today, in this room. It's not an accident. You hear? Maybe, maybe you think it's an accident you're here. But the God is no accident. He knew you were going to be here. He knew what I was going to say. He knew what was going to be preached. And he knew you needed a reminder of how much he loves you.

Jesus didn't come into the world in order to rebuke you. He came to rescue you. Didn't come to criticize. Instead, he come to cleanse. He didn't come to punish — to come to pardon. He didn't come to destroy, but he came to deliver. Now, this doesn't mean that God's not a god of judgment. Please listen to me: there, there is a huge difference between recognizing right and wrong and being judgmental. There's a difference between judging and The unrepentant Sinner, and being judgmental. Being judgmental means that one has a critical spirit that only looks for the bad, and is quick to condemn. But God, on the other hand, will judge us for our sins, even sentence us to hell — but only as a last resort. He went to Calvary to pay the price for those sins.

So for you to go to hell, you have to walk through Mercy to get there. You have to walk through Grace to get there. You have to walk around Calvary to get there. Another way of looking at it: isn't so much that God sends us to hell, is that we choose hell over heaven. We choose, because life's about choices. The greatest thing that he did for Humanity was Calvary. But Calvary was there because of love. See, the whole thing's been about love. Let me explain. He had the angels in heaven that didn't have a choice on what their job duties were, because the moment they refused to stay in place, he kicked him out. It's in the scriptures, and I can show you. If you want me to explain this to you better, after service, I'll show you. Because the Bible says, there's lightning, Satan was cast out of Heaven, the moment he said you know what — I'm a pretty good guy. I'm all about worship. I should probably get a little bit of Praise." In that moment, he forgot who he was. And in that moment — boom — gone. Kicked out. No option. But his desire was not for someone to be forced into a relationship. Because let's be honest: does anybody like forced relationships? No. But when someone chooses to be your friend, how does that make you feel? I feel good, don't you?

So God knew: "Hey, I want a relationship. I want to create man. But the only way I can truly have a relationship with them is, I have to give them the freedom to choose whether or not they will or won't love me." So he did. How did he prove that? How do you prove whether you will or you won't love me? That in the middle of that perfect environment, of the Garden of Eden, the only way he could prove whether or not they would or wouldn't love him is, he put a tree there, and said, "Everything else is here, belongs to you. But this one, you don't touch. This one's me. And if you love me, you won't touch it." It wasn't — what was the tree? It was the knowledge of Good and Evil. It wasn't that God didn't want them to have knowledge. He was giving them knowledge every day, through the relationship he was fostering. And he was giving him one thing. And in the fullness of time, he would have revealed himself completely. But they were not mature enough to handle it. Because as parents, we know there are some things our kids can't handle. So we say, "Hey, you can't do that. You can't operate the stove. Well, I can't operate and stuff, because you're not mature enough to handle it." So we, we understand how this works. That's what God did. God said, "Look, everything hears for you. But this one, don't touch it, because I Gotta See if you love me."

So what was the one thing? The enemy came in and said, "Did God say you can't — it's either of any tree?" And then he did what? "Oh, God's not going to kill you. God knows you'll be like a God." All of a sudden, doubt entered in the mind. And here we are today, dealing with someone's decision to be disobedient. So what am I saying, as I end, is this: is when we choose him, it's the expression of Love he's been looking for the whole time. Because he chose us first. So what do you choose today? God's always had something that's going to be separated to him. Always have, always will be. That's how he is. That's how he — that's how he knows love. Again, it's not a merit-based system. It's just simply choosing God: "I Choose You. And I choose what you want from my life."

You can't, can't fully get your head around how much he loves you, and how much he's for you. But God is all-knowing. We see very limited. We're stuck in — we're finite human beings. We're stuck inside of time. God stands outside of time. Was his invention. He lives in eternity. He created time, and stuck it in there. We live inside of time. He stands outside of time, saying, "I want you to choose me. I have an expected end just for you. I want you to choose to love me. Choose me, and, and work in my timetable, and you'll have a life beyond anything you can imagine, because of how much I love you."

Now, here's what I know in this place today — and I'm fixing to pray — here's what I know: there are some in this room who question that love. There are some in this room because of circumstances and situations that have happened to you. And there are some in this room because of circumstances and situations you chose. You deal, feeling disqualified and unfit for his love. But regardless of what has happened to you, or what choices you have made, you are never disqualified from God's love. God's love doesn't change. "For God so loved the world." Period. I just wonder if maybe it's time for a reconnection today. So as I say this prayer, I invite anybody that wants to be reconnected back into God's love, or wants to shore up their connection, to come down to this altar area, and allow the god of love to work on you. Will you pray with me? My God, you are so good. It's hard to even put into words just how good you are. I feel your presence moving so sweet in this place. I know there are hurts and pains that are beyond what I can even comprehend myself, that are here. But I know your love. Your love is reaching. Your love is about restoring. Your love is about pray, Jesus, right now, that you're drawing them, that they would have a boldness and a courage to step out, make their way to a place where you truly can become Lord of their life. God, take the Brokenness. Take the hurt. Take the pain. God, make something beautiful out of it today. God, I pray you pour out your spirit in this place. In Jesus' name, we pray.