God's Love (Funeral Message)
Introduction:
At times I wonder, does God really love me? Perhaps you have asked yourself the same question. Maybe you assume God does not love you because you face disappointment, discouragement, pain, loneliness, and other kinds of problems.
It is good for us in times of sorrow and loss to be reminded of God’s love for us.
I am going to attempt to answer from the Bible the question, “Does God really love you and me?”
I. We can know that God really loves us because He has communicated His love for us.
John 3:16 — “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
God’s love for sinners was His primary motive in sending Jesus Christ to die in our place as our substitute.
“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
The Bible illustrates God’s love:
A. Isaiah uses a mother’s love for her child to illustrate God’s love.
Isaiah 49:15 — “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? even these may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”
B. David uses a father’s love for his children to portray God’s love for those that reverence Him.
Psalm 103:13 — “Like as a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.”
C. The Bible tells us of God’s everlasting and never-ending love for us. No matter what happens, God loves us!
Jeremiah 31:3 — “I have loved you with an everlasting love…”
C. H. Spurgeon saw in the distance a barn. On that barn was a weather vane. The inscription on the weather vane was “God is love.” As the wind was blowing greatly, Spurgeon asked the owner of the barn, “Does this mean that God’s love is changeable as the wind is changeable?” The owner of the barn replied, “No. It means whichever way the wind blows, God is love and God loves me.”
The Apostle Paul was personally persuaded of God’s love:
Romans 8:38-39 — “For I am sure, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
II. We can know that God really loves us because He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the sinless substitute for our sin on the cross of Calvary.
Romans 8:32 — “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ shows us the sin of man at it’s very worst, but it shows us God’s love at it’s very best.
1 John 4:10 — “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
God loves you so much that He allowed His Son to suffer, to bleed, and to die that you might be saved.
The Bible clearly teaches that we are not saved by what we do, but by believing in what Christ already did for us.
III. We can know that God really loves us because He freely forgives all sins.
Isaiah 1:18 — “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
1 John 1:7 — “…the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
Just imagine, the sins of an entire lifetime washed away!
Psalm 103:12 — “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
IV. We can know that God really loves us because of the eternal joy that lies ahead for those who have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.
Many times we live as if this life is all there is.
1 Corinthians 2:9 — “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."
For the believer, the best is yet to come. __________ is experiencing right now the very best!
Conclusion:
There is sufficient evidence to prove that God really does love you. If you have never trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ to be your Savior, you can trust Him now.
John 6:37 — “…him that cometh to me I will ‘never ever’ cast out.”
Acts 4:12 — “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
“The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).
Benediction:
“Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word” 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.