You are a child of God
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Crazy Love
Crazy Love
Do you ever just stop and think about the love of God?
Pastor Francis Chan wrote a book called “Crazy Love” Where he dives in to the “Crazy Love” of God. As we look at 1 John chapter 3 this morning. God’s love is the main idea of the passage. So we are going to look at God’s love and what that means to us. So 1 John chapter 1
1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
I want to emphasize this first statement. Never let this grow old. I think John has enthusiasm in his heart as he writes this to the church. Do not be complacent with this truth. The love of God is incomprehensible.
Pastor Chan has a video that accompanies his book called called “the awe factor of God” I know I often bring up the point of how large the universe is and I love how atheist scientists are stumped on why it is so big, but do you know how big it actually is?
Now this video is old but I want you to sit back and watch this in Awe of God. Allow you self to be amazed and just worship.
So can you even imagine how large our universe is and how tiny we are? The next time you read Genesis 1 verses 14-19 remember this video. Let’s read it now
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years,
15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.
16 And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.
17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth,
18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
19 And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
When you look up at the night sky, you are not just seeing stars, you are also seeing galaxies and not just some galaxies, the have observed over 100 billion and as technology advances in telescopes, some believe it will easily pass 200 million. I saw one estimate that number could be over a trillion.
Who here can fathom our God?
Pastor Chan encourages us to stop and think.
Have you ever being going about your day and think it’s just another normal day?
He points out there is nothing normal about this life.
Really when you look at creation you need to stop and think. Think about the God who created everything, be in awe and worship.
Just think about it, we are on a huge rock that is spinning at 1,000 miles an hour and we aren’t flung off. What an amazing design.
Did you know that the earth is tilted at just the right angle? A little more either direction we die. The is nothing normal about his.
So we are on a rock spinning 1,000 mph on it’s axis and then the rock is moving at 67,000 miles an hour around a massive ball of fire. What is normal about that?
Just how much bigger is the giant ball of fire than our earth?
109 times larger.
What does that mean to you?
The size of the universe and the fact that Our God made that from nothing, He maintains that and most impressively He is out side of it. The universe that is billions of light years wide can not contain our God. I want you to pause and ponder your God before you go on.
Now that you have a better understand of the size and power of God, What does it meant to you that you are a child of God?
As we look at this passage this morning, we are going to focus on what this really means to be a son or daughter of God.
First being a child of God means:
You were chosen
You were chosen
If you are a believer in Jesus of Nazareth, you were chosen.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
and
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
Why is this significant to our faith? Why does it matter that we didn’t choose God but He chose us?
5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
What do you think about that? God chose to love you, God chose to redeem you, God chose to save you.
Not only did He chose you, you did nothing to catch His eye. You did nothing to deserve it. In fact you hated God when He saved you.
Why is this important? Pride, we don’t want to become proud. God hates pride because it steels His glory and it can lead to us looking down on others like the Pharisees and Scribes who looked down on the tax collectors and sinners. But Jesus looked on them with compassion
Oh HOW GREAT IS HIS LOVE!!!
Listen to Paul in his letter to the Romans:
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Second, if you are a child of God, that means
your relationship has been restored.
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
A child, when in right relationship, has access to their father right? My children can approach me any time and talk to me and hug me. This relationship is restored
Listen to 2 Corinthians:
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
As a child of God, you are completely restored to sonship. Remember from last week the story of the prodigal son. How was the relationship when the son told his father he wished he was dead and took his inheritance and left? It was broken right? The father said his son was dead. And the son also knew that he destroyed the relationship listen to his words.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!
18 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.” ’
So the son knew he severed the relationship and did not expect his father to restore him to sonship. Do you see how great God’s love really os for us? We do not deserve to be called God’s son or daughter. We have rejected Him and sinned against Him. But oh what wonderful love God has for you. That He has not just saved you He has restored you to sonship or daughter-ship. How awesome is that? You deserve death and hell. But He has given you life. Not just today but life forever!
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you,
5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
and
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
This is your reward, God has restored your relationship now and forever! Our promise is in heaven and as we prepare for communion this morning. Part of what we celebrate is this promise and as we partake of communion, we also look forward to Jesus’ second coming. I like how my commentary describes it
The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Jude (The New Birth and Our Relation to God, 2:29–3:10a)
Not yet do we wear the white robes of heaven; not yet does the crown of glory sparkle on our brow. The robe of Christ’s righteousness, our crown of hope,
the diamond of faith, the pearls of love, are invisible to physical eyes. We still wrestle with the flesh; in a sinful world and with a mortal nature we plod on wearily. A child of God is here and now, indeed, like a diamond that is crystal white within but is still uncut and shows no brilliant flashes from reflecting facets.
Part of your promise as a child of God is yet to come. We can’t loose sight of that. As our bodies begin to fail and we face hardship and trials. We have to cling to this promise that our citizenship is in heaven. And God has given us a commandment.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
This is our mission to a lost and dying world. You are called to be an ambassador for Christ. God has called us all to implore the lost on behalf of Christ, to be reconciled to God. Restored to sonship or daughter-ship which promises heaven and relationship with our Heavenly Father forever! Does that sound inviting to you? I hope so and if not I leave you with this.
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
The days are evil just look around. They will draw to an end. Do not put off seeking the Lord. God urges us to seek Him while He may be found. Remember, our Father desires that none shall perish, but we must bowl the knee to His Lordship. Just like the prodigal when he “came to His senses” we must return to the Father. Do not delay, no one is guaranteed tomorrow.
Seek the Lord while it is still day.
Remember the warning John gave us just a couple verses ago?
28 And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
29 If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.
You want to examine your heart today. You want to make sure that you are striving towards righteousness because the Lord is coming back and you don’t want to shrink back in shame.
Remember what great love is this? Our father not only forgives us, He calls us children of God. How will you respond? I hope in love back! I hope you cherish the relationship the Lord has given His son to restore!
Let us pray.