God is Love
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
As we start The Refuge Church, I believe the Lord would have us look at the main theme of the Word of God. The Love of God. The Bible is God’s love letter to His creation. The most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
God loves His creation. I am reminded of the hymn, The Love of God. Here is the back story of this famous hynm:
The history of this hymn spans nearly a thousand years and multiple languages in a story that magnifies the unchanging nature of God. Frederick M. Lehman was born in Germany, but moved to America with his family when he was just four years old. He first met the Lord in Iowa, where he spent most of his childhood. God convicted his heart and drew the 11-year-old child to Himself, and Lehman’s life was never the same. As he later recounted, “The weight of conviction was gone and the paeans of joy and praise fell from [my] lips.”
Lehman studied for ministry and served as pastor in Iowa, Indiana, and Missouri. Throughout his career, he wrote many hymns and sacred songs, giving himself to the artful expression of God’s love. In 1911, he helped found the Nazarene Publishing House in Kansas City, which is still in operation as The Foundry Publishing today. While serving as pastor, he maintained an entrepreneurial spirit, and continued to work as a businessman.
Through unfortunate circumstances, he lost everything in business and found himself working manual labor in a California packing house. Despite his unfortunate turn in circumstances, his faith never wavered. Inspired by a recent sermon, he took every moment of downtime between packing the oranges and lemons, and began to write a love song to the Lord. After two stanzas and a refrain, he was at a loss for words, but there was a problem: songs from that time weren’t considered complete without at least three stanzas.
When he returned home, he began composing the melody for the hymn on his old upright piano. Even so, he was without a third stanza. Then he remembered a poem he had recorded on a small card that he used as a bookmark. He pulled the card out and found the poem fit perfectly with his composition. Then he saw the note written beneath the poem:
“These words were found written on a cell wall in a prison some 200 years ago. It is not known why the prisoner was incarcerated; neither is it known if the words were original or if he had heard them somewhere and had decided to put them in a place where he could be reminded of the greatness of God’s love - whatever the circumstances, he wrote them on the wall of his prison cell. In due time, he died and the men who had the job of repainting his cell were impressed by the words. Before their paint brushes had obliterated them, one of the men jotted them down and thus they were preserved.”
The name of the prisoner was never discovered, but historians later found the source of the poem: it came from a Hebrew poem composed by a Jewish rabbi living in Germany. The poem was written around the year 1,000 as a prelude to The Ten Commandments—a reminder that all of Scripture tells us the story of God’s love.
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin. O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
2
When hoary time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall;
When men who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call;
God’s love, so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race—
The saints’ and angels’ song.
3
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
The world does not really believe that God is love. They look at the awful ravages of sin in the world and say, “How can a God of love permit these things to happen?” But people need never doubt God’s love: He proved His love at the cross.
Love one another v.7
1 John 3.11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
1, 2 & 3 John Love Comes from God / 4:7–21
John repeated his call to Christians (his dear friends) to continue to love one another (see also 3:10–18, 23)
1 John 1. The Call to Love (7–8)
We are not commanded to love one another to earn or become worthy of God’s love. We love one another because we are loved by God, and have received that love, and live in light of it.
1. A hallmark of being a Christian is the love for others.
Sign of the Christian
Sign of the Christian
As a result of poor planning, Dennis, from Katy, Texas, needed some same-day dry cleaning before he left on a trip. He remembered one store with a huge sign, "One-Hour Dry Cleaners," on the other side of town, so he drove out of his way to drop off a suit. After filling out the tag, he told the clerk, "I need this in an hour."
She said, "I can't get this back to you until Thursday."
"I thought you did dry cleaning in an hour?"
"No," she replied, "That's just the name of the store."
Those of us who carry the name Christian, but fail to act like the one whose name we bear, create confusion and disillusionment for those who have yet to believe.
"By this, all men will know you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35).
2. Love is from God V.7.
God is the creator of all things; including love.
God is the source of all Love.
He loved us by sending His son v.10