LOVED. Period.

Does God love you - general way - all children of God - paternity, not fatherhood - conditioned on strong enough faith, or ask Jesus into your heart enough, or obey all the rules His rules… Why 9 year old me - confused… Mrs. Milne…

Why Dannah Gresch, author of Lies Girls Believe, surveyed over 1,500 tween girls. The vast majority of these 7-12-year old girls considered themselves to be Christians. So when they were asked, “Does God love you?” Good news! 92% said yes!

So these girls know they are LOVED. Period., right? LOVED. no matter what?

Sadly, no. Gresch writes in A Mom’s Guide to Lies Girls Believe, “The majority of the girls knew God loved them, but their responses revealed a lack of confidence in His love when they sinned.” In other words, God loved them if they obeyed. God loved them if they followed all the rules!

While adding one little word if to God’s great love may not seem like a big deal, it is. It’s a lie! A lie that leaves girls who sing, “Jesus Loves Me This I Know” just as empty and lost as the girls who never sing the song at all.

Knowing a different kind of love - differnt country, alien… makes all difference… every love - even family love here, not eternal, also imperfect… best mirror metaphor = different kind of love from God in Christ… predesitined IN CHRIST IN LOVE …

GIVEN US . past tense aorist, called = more than sons legal position, experience, reality…

Girls today often look for love, worth, and acceptance in places culture tells them to: Appearances, emotions, experiences, performance, personality, possessions, popularity, or social media. These things can leave girls feeling emptier than ever, and they miss the Truth that they are already unconditionally LOVED. by God.

Stats: the statistics about girls are sobering. Girls as young as five are worried about their weight. A girl’s self-esteem peaks at age 9 and then takes a nosedive. Recent studies suggest there has been a 50% increase in depression and suicidal feelings in girls ages 12-16, and 70% of girls feel they don’t measure up.

But facts:

girls will learn the capital ‘T’ Truth of who she is—accepted, beautiful, chosen, and so very LOVED. ...Lest one of us be so overwhelmed with this unbelievable fact that we are children of God, John says, “and so we are.” The missionary Ziegenbalg tells how, in translating this text with the aid of a Hindu youth, the youth rendered it “that we should be allowed to kiss His feet.” When asked why he thus diverged from the text he said, “‘Children of God!’ that is too much—too high!” But it is not too high! It is what God himself declares us to be! In C. S. Lewis’s famous book Screwtape Letters, Screwtape, the senior demon who is instructing his younger, inexperienced understudy, Wormwood, in the art of guiding a human being into Hell warns his pupil that his task is all the more difficult because the “Enemy” (God) “has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into sons.” To function well as a Christian, you have to know who you are in Christ. No matter what problems you may be facing at the moment, you are his child. You are in his family now. But the news gets even better! Just as we are born only once into our family, so the new birth, which places us in the family of God, is a once-for-all event as well. We can never be disowned by God as a member of his family. You may bring dishonor to your earthly family name; you may do things the family frowns on; but you cannot get out of the family even if your family in an official capacity disowns you. You will always be a part of your earthly family biologically. The same is true of your spiritual family. You did nothing to cause yourself to be born into your earthly family. Likewise, you had nothing to do with your spiritual birth (John 1:12, 13). Adoption gives us the name of God’s children 1 John 3:1

If a beautiful woman marry deformed, grotesque like Hunchback of Notredame the world would be amazed, God’s adopting sinners is for more amazing Never lose the wonder of grace: John Newton, like this John near end of life … 3 wonders when I reach heaven, first some I had not though would be there, miss others thought for sure, greatest wonder of all - to find myself there!

v.2 MLJ felt sorry for anyton who has not spent a week with this verse,,,

not yet come into full inheritance = E. V. Hill, the great African-American preacher, once hired a young girl to be his secretary. He did not know who she was other than her name. One day one of his friends came by and said, “Do you know who your secretary is?” Hill responded, “Of course. That’s Natalie Cole.” He said, “But do you know who Natalie Cole is?” Hill said, “Of course. She’s a very nice young lady who works very well, and I pay her $2 an hour.” The friend said, “That’s Nat King Cole’s daughter.” Hill was stunned. He asked Natalie to come into his office and asked her if she was indeed Nat King Cole’s daughter. “Yes,” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Hill. She said, “I didn’t know it was required. I just wanted a job. My daddy left me something, but I haven’t come into it yet. It won’t be mine until I am twenty-one.” That is the way it is with all of us who are Christians. We are children of King Jesus, but we have not yet come into our full inheritance. It is ours now, but we don’t come into it until we get to Heaven! 1 John 3:1

WHAT WE SHALL BE: When I was in London a few years back, I toured the famous St. Paul’s Cathedral. One of the monuments was a white marble statue of John Donne, famous poet, preacher, and Dean of St. Paul’s Church from 1621 until his death in 1631. During the last few weeks of his life, Donne lay on his bed in pain as his life ebbed away. The church employed a carver to design a monument for their Dean. Donne posed for him in the posture of death as a living cadaver, hands folded, eyes closed, and a winding sheet wrapped around him. After his death it was mounted over his funeral urn. His face wears a serene expression that ironically contrasts with the suffering he endured in later life. Donne wrote and preached as much or more about pain and death than any of his contemporaries. But in spite of all he suffered, he was well acquainted with 1 John 3:1, 2, as is evidenced by the following words from one of his later sermons: Our last day is our first day; our Saturday is our Sunday; our eve is our holy day; our sunsetting is our morning; the day of our death is the first day of our eternal life. The next day after that . . . comes that day that shall show me to myself. Here I never saw God too. . . . Here I have one faculty enlightened, and another left in darkness; mine understanding sometimes cleared, my will at the same time perverted. There I shall be all light, no shadow upon me; my soul invested in the light of joy, and my body in the light of glory. In verses 1, 2 John has told us what we are: “children of God.” He has told us what we will be: like Jesus when we see his face someday. 1 John 3:1