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The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
During March we are going to continue to work our way through the gospel of John our theme is Responding to the Living Word.
Today we are talking about Look What Love Does.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we pray that You will be able to receive our offering without pain or embarrassment.
We have been greatly loved by You.
Our offerings are an expression of our love for You.
If anyone has brought less that a gift of love, help him or her not to give it.
We have not come to offer a tip to You for services rendered but an expression of our love.
We give what as we love to give,, and so, dear Lord, accept our lives as well as our gifts of money.
Because we love You, Lord, we bring what we bring with cheerful hearts.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Text
John 3:16 NKJV
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Scripture Reading
John 3:16-21 NKJV
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Introduction
We have heard story of a man being angry in the past and muttering to deacons as they leave, “Give, give, give.
That’s all preachers know to talk about!”
The deacon called him back and said, “John, I want to thank you. That’s one of the best definitions of Christian love I have ever heard.”
Right at the heart of todays text is the word “gave.”
It is the word that expresses what love does.
“For God so loved the world that He gave…”
Look at what love does.
- Love gives another chance to the creation.
Like the Bible itself, John 3:16 begins with God.
“In the beginning God created” the world and all that is in it.
The story of God’s love is that He was not content to create a world without beings who could respond to Him.
He did not want to live in an empty universe alone.
So from a love that reached out to bring into being those who could be loved and love in return, God created man and woman.
But all too soon it was clear that human love was flawed.
Human kind would not love back with the same devotion and trust God had given them.
Mistrust, disobedience, and pride entered the human family, and suddenly life was out of whack.
The humans went into hiding.
Nevertheless, God did not give up on His creation.
He came searching for the man and the woman.
The story of Jesus is that God never really found us as He’d wanted to until He “so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”
And Jesus came and found us.
God has found us in Jesus not to cast us out of the garden but to bring us in, not to condemn but to save.
2. Love gives compassion to all the world.
At unbelievable cost, God’s love comes fully to us.
He poured out all His love upon us.
The warmth of His devotion came cascading down to us in Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
Every religion that talks about sacrifice speaks of the sacrifice that people bring to their god, seeking to appease him and to justify themselves.
But not the Christian faith.
The Christian gospel states that there is nothing people can offer God in exchange for their souls.
Mark 8:37, “Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
God has Himself provided the sacrifice.
Jesus is not man’s best gift offered to God, He is God’s best gift offered to man.
God Himself has become the sacrifice of atonement.
He died in our place, holding nothing back.
He emptied His heart, and the love drained out.
Who did the love cover?
“Whoever believes in Him.”
God loves the world, not just a certain part of it.
His love for the whole world is forever a judgement on our petty prejudices.
God’s love reaches beyond the outer limits of what we can see.
It reaches down to include the humblest and most forgotten person anywhere on the earth.
When the church prays for its missionaries scattered around the world, it is praying with the certainty that God intends for all people to be reached and wants every person to be saved.
And in our hands, which have been richly blessed, He has placed the responsibility to go to all people everywhere.
Our love will cause us to give our lives as He has given His.
3. Love gives attention to our response.
One of the evidences of God’s love is that He pays attention to us and seriously considers our response to His love freely, but painfully, to us in Jesus Christ.
“Believing’ in this text means trusting with the whole heart, holding nothing back, casting all that we are in faith upon Jesus Christ.
We believe He will save us from death, deliver us for hell, rescue us from the punishment that is due to fall upon our sin.
He who believes in Jesus has no other hope.
If He drops us, we are lost, if He forgets us, we are alone, if He fails us, we are helpless.
Believing in Jesus is trusting that He will hold nothing back.
He will be faithful to us and bring us finally home.
Believing is our greatest act of response to God’s love.
No work of worship, or service comes before believing.
We can do good all of our lives and fail to please God if we turn our backs on His Son.
Love for others and ministry to the world is the healthy and necessary response that believers make to the needs around them.
But nothing substitutes for believing.
God requires us to believe.
4. Love gives us cause for celebration.
As God’s love touches us and we are delivered from death, we ar released from fear.
We are released from fear.
We are brought from the darkness to the light.
We have cause for celebration.
The promise that we have eternal life is the antidote to the poisonous fear people feel when they face eternity without assurance that they will go to heaven when they die.
This terrifying fear comes upon unbelievers at strange and solemn moments when they are suddenly confronted with their doubt and uncertainties about the meaning of their lives and the eternal destinies of their souls.
This is no surprise.
For without Christ people are dying without hope, they re perishing without God.
God’s promise of eternal life is not only the antidote to our fear, it is the fuel of our joy.
It is the cup of celebration.
The lively and joyful hope of the Christian believer is that eternal life has been given to us now and we may live rejoicing in it today.
Eternal life is a new kind of life, Jesus calls it abundant life, which God intends to bring about in us now.
And that kind of life is worth living forever.
Eternal life is not just living forever with God, it is living God’s kind of life forever, beginning now!
When we walk with Jesus, we have light all the way, there is no darkness that can overcome us.
Conclusion.
Look what love does.
It gives and gives and gives yet more.
God’s love gives His creation a second chance.
God’s compassion reaches out to all the world and gives us an invitation.
And then God gives attention to our faithful response.
He gives us a reason for celebration, for He has removed our fear and given us life with Him now and forever!
Come!
Believe in Him!
And prepare to go in joy!
Until next time
Stay in the Blessings
I really want to encourage you to be diligent with your Bible study time, because God has so much more for us than we can get from just going to church once or twice a week and hearing someone else talk about the Word.
When you spend time with God, your life will change in amazing ways, because God is a Redeemer.
Theres nothing thats too hard for Him, and He can make you whole, spirit, soul and body!
You’re important to God, and you’re important to us at www.refinerylife.org
When it comes to prayer, we believe that God wants to meet your needs and reveal His promises to you.
So whatever you’re concerned about and need prayer for we want to be here for you! Or even if you just want to say Hi, you can contact us
2022 IS A YEAR OF REPENTANCE AND BLESSINGS
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