The ultimate love story 1 (don't use)

Good Morning Harmony!

So guys, just in case you don’t know it yet, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Kristin and I really don’t do much for Valentine’s Day, because we’re that gross couple type that are kinda just lovey-dovey everyday all day, so for us, like every day is valentine’s day.

I know, some of you are like gag me already, but it’s true - we kinda just are like we’re still dating - we still like to be around each other.

And really the glue that holds us together is both of us keeping Christ first in our relationship.

Now, here’s how we met -

I had a rotten Saturday in band - we went somewhere to do a field show competition, and it was just bad - and I was a real band geek, so I really didn’t want to go anywhere, but my best friend at the time, Jonathan, had invited me to go to his church for a church hayride. And I was just all I don’t want to go, I’m in a bad mood, and so on - right? Self started pity party, table for one.

But he keeps on, and so I’m just like fine, I’ll go, but I’m going to have a rotten time about it.

So we pull into the parking lot of the church, and I get out of the car, and there she is - the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

And a lot of people say love at first site isn’t a thing, but I’m gonna tell you, it absolutely is - the moment I laid eyes on her and heard her voice and talked with her - it was like this is the girl.

We were 16 at the time, and we started dating in December 1996, we were engaged in May 1997, and we were married in June 1998 - fresh out of high school.

And here’s the picture of us on our wedding day - they said that smile on my face was plastered on there the entire time.

Through all of this time, we wrote love letters to one another. And yes, they were the kind of love letters you would expect from teenagers, with pictures and that kind of lovey-dovey mushiness, but we still have quite a few of those letters in a tote with us here, because they are still precious to us to this day.

And what I want us to look at today is the ultimate love letter. God’s word is the ultimate love letter. The very first verse that most of us memorize is John 3:16 -

John 3:16 CSB

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

And so the big point that I want us to look at is how

The Word of God is the ultimate love story, directed toward every person that ever has lived, is living, or will live.

Beginning to end, the entire Bible is written for you.

It’s written for you.

We see it

1. THROUGH CREATION.

When God was creating everything, He created every bit of it to bring glory to Himself through a gift to us. Look at Genesis 1:27 and 28:

Genesis 1:27–28 CSB

So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

First, He created us in His image - no other creature on earth has that image. God created us to bear His image, which shows the love He has for you as His creation.

Second He gave us dominion over everything on the earth. All of God’s beauty and splendor on earth He basically just hands over to us and tells us it’s for you.

God looks on all of creation, and says you know what? I’m going to make something special. I’m going to make something that is in my image, that I can love and cherish and that will be able to love me back.

And that’s where we’d still be if the problem of sin had never came up - we wouldn’t have the love letter because we don’t need love letters if that love is mutual and works the way God had designed it.

But He gave us a choice - and unfortunately we chose poorly.

So we need this love letter from God, and He starts off with telling us that He created us in His image with this ability to love and walk with our Creator.

God’s love letter, from the beginning, to you.

He shows us

2. THROUGH ABRAHAM.

God comes to Abraham and many would just blow past this thinking God is god of the Hebrews that are going to come from Abraham, but look at what God says - Genesis 12:1-3 -

Genesis 12:1–3 CSB

The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

By now God is saying I know it’s broken, I know that there’s problems that you have, I didn’t create you to have to go through this, so I’m going to help you, I’m going to provide a way out.

So God says I’m going to make you a great nation Abraham, so that that nation can bless other nations, and ultimately everyone on earth is going to be blessed by you - all peoples from all tribes of all ages, every single person on earth will be blessed by you, because I want to restore what you were truly meant to be.

And there’s two sides to love, right. God says I love you to Abraham, and gives him Isaac.

And then in chapter 22 God tests Abraham’s love in return -

Genesis 22:1–2 CSB

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he answered. “Take your son,” he said, “your only son Isaac, whom you love, go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Now a lot of us may take that as the cruelest thing ever, but I guarantee that almost every one of us has tested the love of someone else. We may not have said go sacrifice your son - but how often do we hear or say or think if you loved me, do this?

And it’s important to look at Abraham’s response - he just does it, and he even answers his son -

Genesis 22:7–12 CSB

Then Isaac spoke to his father Abraham and said, “My father.” And he replied, “Here I am, my son.” Isaac said, “The fire and the wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together. When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He replied, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not lay a hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your only son from me.”

Dad, where’s the sacrifice?

God’s got this.

Abraham trusted that God had a plan, and He knew God loved Him because God already had given him Isaac when there was no possible way that could happen without God’s love.

And it doesn’t say Abraham questioned it - God will provide the lamb. I know God is going to do something, and Isaac will be safe. I just know it, because God said so in His love letter to me.

When we test one another’s love, we check to see the limits of that love, right?

And a part of that test is do you trust me?

When I joined the Navy, it was a quick fast thing - a lot quicker than most do nowadays.

I needed a job, and I was calling in response to a firefighter job ad in the newspaper - oldschool, I know.

And I dial the number, and I hear “Navy recruiting, how can I help you sir or ma’am”

I’m sorry, wrong number. Because I thought I had dialed the wrong number. So I dial again, this time really slowly, like I’m articulating the numbers in my head as I’m dialing the numbers one at a time, because I didn’t want that again.

And guess who answered the phone? Same thing, so I say I’m trying to respond to this firefighter ad in the newspaper, and they’re all that’s us - you could hear the change in their voice, it was like everyone else dials and says wrong number and never calls again, this guy was stupid enough to call back and talk to us -

And they ask me if I’d like for a recruiter to call me back - and I respond sure, but it’s not this super excited sure, its more like that I’m not really sure but sure.

Now I’ve been married three years, we’ve got Anna, and I don’t have a job at this moment that was working. So as I’m getting off the phone and telling Kristin about what’s going on as the phone is already ringing, she’s got to trust me. As I leave that day for the recruiter office, she’s got to trust me. As I’m making the trip to Kansas City that same day for processing, she’s got to trust me. And a couple of weeks later when I ship out to boot camp, I’m asking her with everything that is going on from the moment I went to the recruiting station to the day I left for boot camp and every day since then with every day that passes and every life event in-between, do you love me enough to trust me as we start down this path? And she’s asking all along the way, do you love and trust me enough to stay with you through all of this, and that is the transaction taking place here with Abraham - do you love me, do you trust me enough with everything that you have?

Abraham says yes Lord, I trust you and I know you are going to provide for all of this. And God does. But God doesn’t stop there. Look at verses 15-18:

Genesis 22:15–18 CSB

Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn,” this is the Lord’s declaration: “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the city gates of their enemies. And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command.”

God re-states the promise - not only are you going to have a nation produced through your offspring, you will bless the whole earth.

God’s love letter continues

3. THROUGH JOB.

Most of us don’t necessarily think “love” when we look at Job’s life. I mean, Job 1:8-11:

Job 1:8–11 CSB

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.” Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven’t you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

Take that word fear, which is more like trust or love - Does Job love you for nothing? You’ve blessed the snot out of this guy, take it all away, and I bet his love for you is gone.

Take all that he has, and then we’ll just see how much he loves you.

It’s similar to the garden back in Genesis, man had a perfect life, where we were blessed by God, and satan is able to convince Adam and Eve to choose contrary to loving God.

So Satan says take away that blessing, test Job’s love when everything is removed.

And God allows Satan to do things.

Remember those wedding vows, in sickness and in health, for better of for worse?

Job was getting the short end of that stick.

Speaking of vows, everyone is telling Job to give up and let the devil win - even his wife:

Job 2:9–11 CSB

His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said. Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.

Curse God and die - And Job calls her a fool basically.

Men, be brave, but if your wife ever tells you to curse God or to turn your back on Him, I hope you’ll remember the promises God has for you and you will have the courage to tell your wife the same thing as Job. Wives are not always right, and here’s proof.

His friends show up to comfort and sympathize him. And they do a lousy job of that, but God comes in and there’s a conversation that does comfort Job, and in the end of the book of Job:

Job 42:12–17 CSB

So the Lord blessed the last part of Job’s life more than the first. He owned fourteen thousand sheep and goats, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. He also had seven sons and three daughters. He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch. No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance with their brothers. Job lived 140 years after this and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. Then Job died, old and full of days.

Blesses him more than before with stuff and kids and allows Job to live long enough to see four generations.

We see it

4. THROUGH JEREMIAH.

The Israelites are going into captivity, and God conveys His love even through that - Jeremiah 29:10-13 -

Jeremiah 29:10–13 CSB

For this is what the Lord says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place. For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.

I will confirm my promise - that promise I made to Abraham so many years before - I know the plans I have for you, because I love you, and you will learn to love me - not by force, but by choice.

It’s not about just following the Law, it’s not about being a rule keeper - those things are there for your protection, and to show us how to love. Ultimately the only thing that truly matters is I love you, and you need to love me for us to be together again.

I will confirm my promise - that promise made to Abraham so many years before - I know the plans I have for you, because I love you, and you will learn to love me -

It’s not about being good enough, it’s not about working for God, it’s about our relationship - God loves us so much, His only desire is for us to draw close to Him so that He can work all things for our good.

Speaking of how much He loves us, God’s Word shows us His love

5. THROUGH JESUS.

Again, the most memorized verse in almost every Christian’s life -

John 3:16–17 CSB

For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

God loves us so much that He gave all of creation to us in the beginning, and then He gives us His only Son so that we can be reconciled to Himself. This is the promise from Abraham fulfilled, blessing every person who ever was, is, and ever will be that place their trust in His care.

We could stay here all day talking about the love of Jesus, but we’re not today because most of us know the purpose of the Gospel and Jesus telling us and showing us how much God loves all of us - we’ll look mre at that in a moment.

And in speaking of that blessing, God’s Word closes with a new promise for us all

6. THROUGH REVELATION.

We’ve made it from the beginning to the end, and the fire and destruction and all that of the whole earth, which sounds terrible, and it is for those that aren’t in the relationship with Christ, but look at the final promise to those that Love God and have chosen that relationship with Him in Revelation 21 -

Revelation 21:1–5 CSB

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”

A new Heaven, and a new Earth, for the purpose of God dwelling with us again as He did in the garden. A new Jerusalem, that’s where we’ll be, like a bride for her husband.

No more tears. No more death. No more grief, or pain, or crying, because all of that is gone - God destroys all of that for you - He has to, so that He can reconcile those that Love Him back to Himself. He makes all things new for you if you’ve chosen to be in that relationship.

And obviously there is a lot more to God’s love story for you here - I mean, there’s Noah and the rainbow, Ruth, Ester, Song of Soloman, Corinthians - every bit of God’s Word is not only His instruction to us, but it’s all His love letter and His promise made for you.

And in every scenario in every inch of the Word of God, the main purpose of it all is for us to have a path to reconciliation with God. It’s a choice.

So, what’s

7. OUR RESPONSE.

His love letter presents us with the answers to this.

First, we need to choose that relationship with God.

And I know, some would say this isn’t really much of a choice, I either get eternal life or destruction, that seems like a forced answer.

But you can choose to love destruction. You can choose to live your life separated from God to satisfy your desires of the flesh - God allows you to have that choice. Sure, it’s short term, and there are consequences to that, but while you are here yu could make that choice. That isn’t God’s desire for you, but He allows you that choice.

And for those that choose to be in that relationship we’re told how to respond and how that relationship works. Matthew 22:37-40 -

Matthew 22:37–40 CSB

He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Everything depends on these.

We are to love Him back.

Be in a loving relationship with Jesus. Treat others with love.

How?

Ephesians 5:1–2 CSB

Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

Be imitators of God -

That dearly loved children part? Comes from the word that means beloved - agapetos - You are a dearly loved or a beloved child of God.

And we are to walk in that relationship with God every day, and show that love to others, even if we think they don’t deserve it, because if we’re imitating God’s love as we are told to do here and back in Matthew then it doesn’t depend on if they deserve it or not. God loves you even though none of us deserve it.

Love those that don’t deserve it. Be ready to sacrifice your feelings, and your prejudices and whatever it is that is in the way and be ready to love everyone unconditionally.

God loves us so much, He gives us the ultimate love letter, that tells us how much He loves us. He provides the ultimate gift, that demonstrates His love for us. He tells us how to be in that relationship with Him and how to love. Even the law of the Old Testament was there to show us how to love, and to show us His protection and provision.

God’s Word is God’s love letter to you. When He gave the words to be written, you were on His mind. Our God is the only God, and He’s a God of love, who gives everything, just so that we could be in a relationship with Him. He wipes away every tear and eliminate all of our sin and grief. He did it all with me, and with you, individually, in mind.

Father, thank you. Thank you for blessing me with all of this love, thank you for pursuing me, when I didn’t deserve it. Thank you for blessing me when I still don’t deserve it.

Father, I pray that if there is anyone here today or listening online that doesn’t know your love that they begin that relationship with you today and truly know the love you have for them.

As the music begins to play softly, I just want to ask, have you entered into that relationship with God? Do you know relationally the love God has for you?

If not, God is calling out to you today. He knows every doubt, every fear, every concern you have, and only he can give you that peace that is so far beyond anyone’s understanding or comprehension.

How do we enter that relationship? How do we obtain that peace that God promises?

You talk to God. You admit that you are a sinner, because everyone of us is one. He knows it already, and you know that to be true as well.

Second, you have to be willing to trust, so we place our trust in the belief that Jesus did exactly what He said He was here to do - He lived a sinless life, He died without sin, and three days later He rose from the grave defeating death hell and the grave for you to live and be free. He died the death He didn’t deserve to save us from the eternity we did deserve. God loves you so much and He did it all for you.

And then third, you have to choose to follow Him. You confess that Jesus is Lord and you choose to follow Him. You place all of your life and all of your trust in Him to show you the life you were meant to have here and the eternity that He has for you. He is pursuing you, because He wants a relationship with you.

That conversation could be something like this:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. I believe You died for my sins. Right now, I turn from my sins and open the door of my heart and life to you. I confess You as my personal Lord and Savior, and I choose to trust you with my life.

And the you just add at the end of that personal conversation, in Jesus name, amen.

As the music continues softly for just a moment longer, as the Spirit moves you, right where you are or here up front at the altar, give it all to Jesus - If you need someone to talk to or if you have questions, you can come forward now, or catch myself or someone from leadership and we’d be happy to talk with you. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in church a very short time or your whole life, Don’t wait another moment, start that relationship today.

Father, thank you for Your message today, help us to live our lives for You, walk with us as we desire to be true to you and your mission you have given to us.