Untitled Sermon (10)

Love From the Beginning

To start off, I want to be vulnerable with you guys in the fact that the topic we’ve collaborated on preaching about this month may seem like the easiest thing to talk about, or hear of, because we hear of it so much. But in all honesty, it has probably been my hardest pill to swallow. The concept of love, but not just any particular love, God’s love. The single biggest characteristic of God I’ve been taught from the beginning of my life–that God loves me. John 3:16, as Whitney talked about the first week, holds the concept in the most summarized way possible, and that’s not to be taken lightly. The topic of God’s love is so broad, so expansive, so overwhelming even, that even in these four messages that Whitney, Pastor Garry, myself, and my Dad are preaching on, we still won’t come close to expanding on every point of it.

But why has it been such a hard pill to swallow? I honestly have a few reasons, and some I might not even be able to express. But I’m sure that many have also struggled with this characteristic of God, because it sums up who He really is. God is love. He is full of love. Every aspect of God is derived from His love toward His creation. And where I find myself struggling is to understand how exactly His love works in my life. I’ll elaborate on this more later; but to try and draw the direction I want to go with this message, I must say that, at least for myself, I’ve gotten God’s love wrong so much in my life, and the reason I can say this confidently is because of the life I live. I don’t know all of what you guys may see in me, and this isn’t to get affirmation from anyone, but I know that no matter how much I’ve tried to live my life pouring out the image of Christ and His love, I haven’t been able to meet the standard I fantasize about, my “dream” self. It’s because I know my every mistake, my every shortcoming, my every flaw. That effort I put into the tasks I come across, and I so often disappoint myself, and even convince myself I disappoint God. I do believe firmly that I have experienced God’s love in so many ways I wouldn’t be able to name them all. But the ideology I have seemed to believe for myself so many times is that God’s love couldn’t possibly be as great for me as I’ve been told, or that I’d hoped. This is an ideology I don’t want to believe, and I know is wrong in my mind; but in my heart I feel like that’s just what I’ve come to terms with so much.

I know how messed up in the head I am. I constantly miss the standard I hold myself to every day, and I hate on myself by the end of it for not meeting the standard, and yet then and there I still choose not to meet it. I know I’ve let others down, and I often feel the weight of that. I frequently throw myself under the bus for feeling like a failure when I don’t see myself where I wish I could be. And more often than not I believe that I’ve driven myself away from God’s love because I fear I’m not on the path He has for me. All of these things have grown roots in my mind and heart through my walk of faith, and I feel like I can confidently say that some of you can probably relate, or might have others issues you could add to the table. But I’m here to paint a picture that will hopefully uproot these stems of shame and hate we shower on ourselves.

I want to say first, that these roots were not planted in your life, or mine, by God. It’s easy for us to assume that’s where they come from because God is so perfect and holy that the reality of us not being perfect or holy creates the presumption in our minds that God has to be disappointed in us. No. These are lies. We must derail them and stop letting them sprout within our hearts. The love that God has for us could never even come close to that low of a view we have for ourselves.

I want to set our foundation verse that will be the portrait for the canvas we will paint that truly reflects the REAL reflection of love God has for us, and with that, how He views us. In Romans 8:38-39, Paul says,

“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow–not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky, above or in the earth below–indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

This is the portrait, and that final phrase, “the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” is the most valuable piece of the painting, the piece that has been made known to everyone. It’s the heart of the Gospel. But I want to give us the full image, the true understanding of the lengths God went to for us! Yes! Jesus’ sacrifice was the final “cherry on top” for this painting that displays the scope of God’s love. But how do we find ourselves still doubting God’s love and grace in our lives even when we know this truth? Let me give you that image…

I have probably said this in every message I’ve ever preached, and I will continue to do so because it really is held so dear to me. But I love the Old Testament. Yes, every single part of it, even the countless chapters of genealogy, and laws, and repetitivity. Because all of it has an essential part of the Gospel. I want to jump all the way back to Genesis. The beginning, where God made all of creation in a matter of days. Just imagine the beauty of a world without being tainted by sin. It had to be breathtaking, all of creation made by God, and every time He made a new part, He said it was good. Yet, after all creation was made, on the sixth day, Genesis 1:26-27,

“Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”

Here we see God bring man into the world after everything else. And although all of creation was good, He decided to make man in HIS image. We get it emphasized three times that we were made in His image. Then in Genesis 2:18 it says,

“Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

God saw that everything except man being alone is good, so He made a woman to be his partner. A perfect reflection of God’s desire for relationship and our need for it. From the start God wanted us to have relationships to find a reflection of our need for relationship with Him.

In the center of the Garden of Eden, God places the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. God instructed Adam and Eve that they could eat from any tree in the garden except from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Many ask why God would even give the opportunity for man and woman to disobey Him and eat from this tree, and it’s because without the choice, it isn’t love. God gave us the freedom to make the choices we do, so that we could choose to love Him. Yet God said that if they eat from this tree, they will die. Later on Adam and Eve were deceived into eating from the tree anyways, and instead of putting them to death as God had instructed He’d do, where He could’ve started over with new humans that wouldn’t make the same mistake, God chose to extend His mercy to Adam and Eve and instead, banished them from the Garden of Eden. Even in disobedience, God still loved them. Where He could’ve just restarted with new humans, He had a mighty plan from the start to redeem mankind.

We see hundreds of years through Genesis the accounts of humanity multiplying, and turning away from God. Where God merely wanted a relationship with His people, the world turned their backs on Him. God eventually flooded the earth and destroyed everyone except for the only righteous man and his family left, Noah. After which God promised to never do such a disaster again. Even after restarting with a righteous family, sin corrupted mankind as they began to multiply again. God decided to choose Abraham to be the father of the Nation that would be set apart to be His chosen people, Israel. Israel would become a Nation that was to reflect a relationship with God, that the rest of the world could see as an example and find God’s love and grace in, this is why God had given them the Jewish laws to follow, not to punish them and show His strictness toward them, but rather that they could stand out from the world and keep them from falling into the sinful ways of foreign nations. Yet through the Old Testament, the Nation of Israel over and over fell away from God and chose to worship false idols, and love their sin over Him, constantly mixing in with the other nations and their rituals and evil practices. But God in His love, tried to bring Israel back into His care. He sent prophet after prophet to warn Israel of the danger they were falling towards. Yet Israel constantly refused to listen to them, and many times killed God’s prophets. God would give Israel kings so that perhaps a physical leader to follow would help keep the accountable to God, but even the kings would often fall away from God and lead Israel into sin. We see over and over and over God attempting to bring His people back to Himself in love. Constantly extending grace and mercy to redeem them from their sinful ways, but they only continued to reject Him. For thousands of years, God patiently waited with open arms for His people even when they constantly denied Him. The world simply didn’t want anything to do with God.

So, in the midst of history, God in the biggest act of love, did what no one else could do, let alone tried to do. In the midst of a fallen-away humanity, lost in its own sin, sent Jesus, His own Son, to be human and endure all of the suffering and trials humanity had to endure. Jesus came so full of love and compassion for the world that despised Him, and He lived the life we couldn’t live, while facing all the difficulties we faced, and reminded us of a God who loves us desperately. So much so that He would do away with the sacrifices, the laws, the rituals, all of it, and make it so that all who believe in His Son and accept Him into their hearts may be reconciled to God again, and live in eternity with Him, free from the sight of sin and suffering forever. Jesus came and loved the unlovable, and forgave the unforgivable. And what did the world do in return? They put this man on a cross, mocking and beating Him, cursing and spitting at Him, torturing and laughing at Him, all while in His suffering, facing the punishment they deserved, WE deserved, and enduring all of it for the love He had for us. He died on the cross, and rose from the dead, beating death forever. Romans 5:6-11 says,

“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.”

This concept of God’s love for you and me is true. But I still have found myself so doubtful of the true power it holds in my life. I’ve faced so many seasons of sorrow and shame, that I couldn’t quite grasp this as truth over my life. I’d read about it, I’d sing about it, I’d hear and talk about it. But in my own life I haven’t truly believed His love for me applied to me. I think more often than not I have thought that there has to be strings attached; that perhaps I have to read my Bible enough, or I have to completely give up certain things in my life. I had to write or sing the right worship song. Or psychoanalyze the right Scriptures, or maybe even fast for a long duration of time. I’ve thought that maybe I have to go to lengths no one else will to “earn” His love for me. And I’ve found myself soooo disappointed in myself because I could never reach the standards I have set, and thus, no change would authentically happen in my life. I’ve felt for months if not years that I’ve been at a standstill because I’m not experiencing the change in my life I’ve prayed for, or that I’m never going to be as disciplined as I want to be and thus I’ll never get to experience a close relationship with God.

But the truth of this mentality is that this exact mindset I've wrestled with for so long is the one of the exact reasons God sent Jesus to die for me in His love. Because He had seen that I wouldn’t be able to live up to that standard no matter how hard I tried. So Jesus came and fulfilled it for me.

In my doubts and in my shame I’d question God, and I’d think,

“Lord, will You love me more if I memorize these chapters, or prayed for this long??”

And He would simply respond, “I already have shown you how much I love you.”

“But God, I’ve sinned against you again and again, the same freaking mistake countless times, there must be something I can do to make it up to You?”

And He would respond, “My grace accounted for every one of those sins on the cross, because I knew about each one of them before you were even born.”

“But God, what if I worship like this, or I journal my prayers, or do I have to give up all of my passions to earn Your love?”

And He would say, “Nothing you could do or have done will ever make me love you more or love you less.”

Why is this how God loves? Why haven’t I seen the change I wish I could? Is it because I haven’t done the proper practices? Or I haven’t gotten over that particular sin in my life? No.

It’s because I’m trying to earn an unconditional love, instead of accepting it and living unconditionally loved.

The changes we may desperately want in our lives is not what gets God to love us more, but His love for us is what enables us to make the changes in our lives happen. God’s love for you is the foundation that we can build on and grow closer to Him from, and when we stumble, or fall from our building, we land right back on His foundation of love and grace. That’s the painting of God’s love for us. Displayed from the beginning of time, a love so strong, so patient, so graceful, so powerful, that as Paul said in Romans 8, NOTHING can separate us from His love, and when we accept His love for us as true regardless on all of the mistakes we make, and our flaws we know of, we can begin to see the change in our lives naturally produce the fruit we were striving desperately to create on our own. The person you and I have perhaps wished to be can only be grasped and become a reality through believing that God’s love for you is enough to cover every blemish, every sin, every wrong. He changes us from the inside out with His love, not the other way around. It all starts and ends with the love of God.