No Greater Love

Welcome

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Service Intro:

Announcements

App

Study Guide

Prayer requests

Joel Jupp’s wife - cancer

Opening Prayer

Opening Song

Kids Time

Oliver, Charlotte, and Elliot.

Hey kids!

If you could describe God in one word, what would it be?

Have a great day!

Sermon

Illustration

Desmond Doss – A Real-Life Example of Selfless Love

Desmond Doss was a combat medic in World War II — but he refused to carry a weapon. As a man of faith and conviction, he believed his role wasn’t to take life, but to save it.

During a brutal battle in Okinawa, his unit was ordered to scale a steep 400-foot cliff. When they reached the top, they were immediately attacked with heavy gunfire, mortars, and grenades. Around 75 of his fellow soldiers were wounded or killed.

While the rest of the troops were forced to retreat, Desmond stayed behind — alone and under fire — to care for the wounded. One by one, he dragged the injured to the edge of the cliff and used ropes to lower them to safety. He did this without a weapon and under constant enemy fire. It’s estimated that he saved at least 75 men that day.

But that wasn’t all.

In the days that followed, Desmond continued to run into danger to rescue his fellow soldiers. He faced grenades, bullets, and artillery. He treated wounded men within just a few yards of enemy soldiers. He was struck by a grenade himself, and still chose to treat his own wounds rather than risk another medic’s life.

At one point, while being carried on a stretcher, he saw another soldier who was worse off than he was. Desmond rolled off his own stretcher, told the medics to take the other man first, and waited for help. While waiting, he was hit again — this time breaking his arm. He made a makeshift splint with a rifle stock and crawled 300 yards to safety.

Desmond Doss’s courage wasn’t powered by hate or pride. It was powered by love — love for his brothers in uniform, and love for the God he served.

His actions were so extraordinary, he became the first conscientious objector in American history to receive the Medal of Honor.

John 15:13 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Desmond Doss lived out that kind of love — risking his life again and again to save others, even while wounded himself. He showed us a glimpse of what it means to love sacrificially, to put others before himself.

And tomorrow, as we observe Memorial Day, we pause to honor and remember those who did more than risk their lives — they gave them. They laid down their lives for our freedom, for their fellow soldiers, and for people they may never have even met.

Their sacrifice points us to an even greater one — the ultimate act of love, when Jesus willingly laid down His life not just for His friends, but for sinners… for all of us.

And He did it so we could truly live.

John 10:10–11 “... I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

God’s Sacrificial Love for Us

Thursday night Bible Study, 1 Corinthians 13, the Love chapter.

Agape love - sacrificial, self-giving.

Question: What does "sacrificial love" mean to you? How is it different from other kinds of love?

How much does God love us?

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

What greater sacrifice is there that He could have given?

Romans 5:7–8 ESV

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John writes “by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.” 1 John 3:16

1 John 4:8 God is love...

He is agape, He is sacrificial love for us.

What more must He do to prove that He loves you?

Never-ending Love

Many of you wrestle with this idea of God’s love being for you.

Like He could stop loving you because of your failures.

Anxiety, weakness, sickness, addiction, sins.

We just studied this Thursday night — the famous ‘Love Chapter’ in 1 Corinthians 13. That’s not just for weddings — that’s the way God loves you.

His love is never ending.

Love bears all things.

Love believes all things.

Love hopes all things.

Love endures all things.

Love never ends!

1 Corinthians 13:8 “Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.”

Jeremiah 31:3 (ESV)

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

Never-ending. Everlasting. His love never ceases!

That means, there’s nothing you can do to cause Him to stop loving you.

As we read through the Old Testament about how the Israelites would continually turn away from Him, we also read how He continued to seek to love them.

He’s doing the same for you and I.

Question: Have you ever struggled to believe that God truly loves you?

Maybe, you struggle, thinking there’s no way God could love a wretch like you and yet He promises, His love is everlasting.

You believe that your sin is to great and too vast and yet He says,

Psalm 103:12 (ESV) as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

The Psalmist also says, Psalm 103:8 “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”

Steadfast love. Never-ending love. Ceaseless love.

Nothing can separate you from the love of God.

Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?”

Question: How would your life change if you truly believed nothing could separate you from God's love?

He Gave His Love

God spared no expense for your sake because of His love for you.

Romans 8:32 “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

Desmond Doss put himself in harm’s way to save the ones he served with. Jesus went even further — taking on the Cross, facing the wrath of God, bearing our sin — all because He loves you.

That’s not a distant, religious kind of love. That’s a bleeding, rescuing, never-quitting, cross-carrying kind of love. The kind that saves you — and keeps you.

If you’ve ever doubted whether you’re truly loved… look to the Cross. The proof is there forever.

Closing Prayer

Closing Song

Closing Encouragement

One point...

If still wrestle with God’s love for you being steadfast, check out:

Psalm 136:1-26 - "His steadfast love endures forever" (repeated 26 times!)

Take it to the next level...

Philippians 2:3-4 - "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."

In others words, sacrificial love. Laying down your self interests for the sake of others.

Download this week's 5 Day Study Guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tzXVHLFRjYSlz5lhws79rgfkSLM67BcjIeR5g7trCmQ/edit?usp=sharing

Download this week's Small Group Discussion Guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Eep58p8IbsftURVveXQlZWje0vua0ksJItTC4VHw21A/edit?usp=sharing

Help us build a better Innovate Church and serve more people. Read this blog post here and see how we need your help: https://bit.ly/helpinnovate