Everlasting Love

Jer 31:3 - NLT - Long ago the LORD said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.

Happy mother’s day to all the mothers out there. Those just starting out and those who’ve been at it for awhile. Those who have birthed children, those who are taking care of and raising children whether you birthed them or not and those pulling double duty as grandma and mom. God bless you for the patience, the encouragement, the chastisement and most especially for the love you have given over the years.

If you are blessed to still have your mother in the land of the living, make sure you show her lots of love today. You should do it everyday, but especially today on this day which has been set aside and marked as Mother’s Day.

This morning I want to talk with you about “Everlasting Love”.

I found this poem online, there was no author listed, but I though it was perfect for today, it’s entitled, A Mother’s Love.

There’s no love like a mother’s,

Her heart is filled with care.

With Christ as her example,

Her Savior’s love she’ll share.

A mother’s love is endless,

Not changing for all time.

When needed by her children,

A mother’s love will shine.

God bless these special mothers,

God bless them every one.

For all their tears and heartaches,

And special work they’ve done.

When days on earth are over,

A mother’s love lives on,

Through many generations,

God’s blessings on each one.

Be thankful for our mothers,

Who love with higher love,

From power God has given,

And strength from up above.

A mother’s love is special. She will love through thick and thin, through the ups and the downs and the good and the bad. No matter how angry she gets at you, no matter what she says about you, if someone else dares to speak ill of you, a mother will defend you with her last breath.

When you’re young, where you mess up is where mom would straighten you up. As you got older, if you we’re wrong, while she may defend you in public, when you get home, lookout. But what she was not going to do, is allow someone else to run you down.

A mother knows how important it is to encourage her child, to build their self-esteem. To let them know they can achieve anything they put their minds to. To let them know, that no door is closed to them if they were willing to work for it, and that there’s always a way. A mother will tell her child what’s in their best interest, even if it hurts sometimes, she’ll sprinkle that hurt with a little bit of sugar to make it easier to swallow.

A mother knows you’re never too old for a hug and a kiss when you get a boo boo, whether it’s one to your knee, your elbow or your heart.

A mother begins as your care giver, your teacher, your disciplinarian, your trainer, your advisor, and your conscious. She is your biggest cheerleader and if you’re blessed, she becomes your best friend.

A mother leaves a legacy of love and hope and joy and forgiveness. In fact, we first learn forgiveness from mother’s when after carrying a child in their bodies for whatever amount of time she carries them, full term is 40 weeks, some have a shorter time, some longer.

After experiencing the morning sickness, the cravings, the stretch marks, your inny belly button becoming an outy, the weight gain, the swollen feet, the aching back and in the latter stages of the pregnancy, the pregnancy waddle that comes with just trying to maintain her balance.

After all those changes in her body, then comes the sometimes excruciating pain of child birth. A pain, that if inflicted by anybody else would be cause for assault and battery charges being brought against them.

But a mother, when she sees her baby for the first time, her heart fills to overflowing, with love and joy and happiness. As she looks down on the wrinkled, messy, scrunched up, cone head, beautiful face of her baby, all that has happened up to this point is forgiven.

A mother has no more thought on all she has endured, that is until that child gets older and starts to become obstinate and disobedient, after all we were born in sin, shaped in iniquity and we are housed in flesh.

Some of you may have heard or even uttered the words yourself, “After all I went through to get you here, you better...” Perhaps you heard, “I brought you into this world and I’ll take you out.” Sometimes those words may even be accompanied with the question, “Have you lost your mind?”

A mother’s love

will believe, when no one else does,

it will endure, when all hope seems lost,

it will give, even when it’s not returned,

and it will continue, when everyone else gives up.

A mother’s love is an everlasting love.

A mother’s love is the closest thing we can experience on this earth to God’s love.

Jeremiah, aka the weeping prophet, in a rare occurence, had the opportunity to encourage the children of Israel after they had once again turned away from God. They had been taken captive, this time by the Babylonians and were about to be released.

In chapter 29, and I paraphrase, Jeremiah told them to unpack their bags because they were going to be there 70 years. So, build homes and plan to stay. Plant gardens and eat the food they produce. Get married and have children. Find spouses for them so you can have many grandchildren. Multiply! Don’t dwindle away! And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile.

They had gotten into trouble once again because they looked at the things and people around them and decided they wanted to be like them, even though the people around them were heathens who didn’t know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

They wanted to do what they saw others doing

even though what the others were doing led to immorality

even though what the others were doing went against the very nature of who God was

even though what the others were doing included sacrificing their own children

even though what the others were doing meant they would break the very promise they had made to God to follow his statutes

Even though the children of Israel turned their back on the God

who had delivered them time and time again

the God who had provided for them time and time again

In his infinite compassion and long suffering, He took them back, time and time again. God loved them with an everlasting love.

Even though during this time, the people were in the consequences of their disobedience, God was reassuring them that He had not forgotten them.

The thing you must always remember is that there are consequences to sin. God still loves you, He still cares, but the Word says, He chastens those whom he loves. If you’re in sin, there is a price to pay,

even when it looks like you’re prospering,

even when it looks like you’re winning,

even when it looks like you’re getting everything you want—there’s bill is coming due and I can guarantee, it will be more than you can afford to pay.

How many of you, after having accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, have gotten to a place where you felt like the Lord had forgotten about you? You felt like he had deserted you. You were praying and all you heard was silence.

It didn’t matter that you had been disobedient

It didn’t matter that you had turned your back on God

It didn’t matter that you had broken your vow to God

It didn’t matter that you were not faithful to God

It didn’t matter that you hadn’t pay your tithes to God, whether it was with your time, your talent or your resources

It didn’t matter that you had continued in sin

even after you found out what you were doing was sin

even after the pastor told you

even after your friend told you

even after you said you would stop

It didn’t matter that you failed to evangelize and spread the good news of the Gospel

or share the message as you’re asked to do each week

or invite someone to church, as you’re asked to do each week

or fail to come yourself, each week

None of that mattered, to you. But then, you found yourself in a desert, feeling that God had left you for dead and you wanted him, you needed him

to act on your behalf, right now

to save you, right now

to get you out of the mess you got yourself into, right now

to answer you, right now

GOD, WHERE ARE YOU!? DON’T YOU HEAR ME CALLING YOU? I NEED YOU, RIGHT NOW!

Let me reassure you right now, that same God who who delivered the children of Israel from the slavery of the Egyptians under the leadership of Moses; that same God who encouraged them in the Babylonian captivity through the prophet Jeremiah all those years ago, that same God has not; forgotten you.

Even in your dry period God still loves you with an everlasting love. Even when it seems like God is not speaking to you, he’s still there. Have you ever thought about this? Perhaps you’re not hearing anything from God because it’s your move.

What was the last thing He told you to do? Have you done it? No? Then it’s your move. God is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. What has he told you to do and you’re hoping He’ll forget? Newsflash, He’ll forget your sin when you repent, but not your assignment.

God is not looking for perfection, he’s not even looking for sacrifice, but what he is looking for is obedience, what he is looking for is your best effort, what he is looking for is your love. He wants you to be holy as he is holy; and how do you do that? Through faith, through dedicated service to him, because faith without works is dead faith.

With unfailing love God has drawn you to himself, God gave you his heart through his only Son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for your sins and for mine. His love never wavered, it didn’t fail then and it won’t fail now.

That story we recount in depth, every Good Friday Service, every Resurrection Sunday and in some churches every Sunday, of how Christ gave his life to give us everlasting life—it’s still true.

It is still the most selfless, compassionate, merciful, unwavering demonstration of love there ever has been and will ever be.

He never harmed a soul, yet he was treated like a criminal. He said if I be lifted up from the earth, I’ll draw all mankind unto me. He was, he did and he still is.

We have a responsibility to tell the story of what Jesus did for us. Even if you don’t know his whole story, tell the part about what he did for you. Unashamedly tell the part about what he brought you out of. Don’t be too embarrassed to share your redemption story, every born again believer has one—and everyone looking for redemption wants and needs to hear it.

Sometimes you want to know you’re not the only one it’s ever happened to.

Sometimes you want to know you’re not the only one who’s ever said the wrong thing.

Sometimes you want to know you’re not the only one who’s ever done the wrong thing.

Sometimes you want to know you’re not the only one who’s ever hurt someone.

Sometimes you want to know you’re not the only one who’s ever felt unloved, unwanted, thrown away, unworthy, unsupported, unheard, and not just unforgiven but, unforgivable.

Sometimes you need to hear, that there’s nothing you have done that God won’t forgive, because when Jesus died on that cross, every sin was covered by his blood.

So, when you appear before God in your messed up, tattered, muddied state, He sees you through the blood of Jesus. God doesn’t see your sin, He sees His Son.

Glory hallelujah He looked beyond every one of our faults and saw our need. Not only did he see our need, he fulfilled it.

Man can see you in need, but not have the capacity to fill it. But God, God has limitless resources to give you more than you can ask or think according to the power that works in you.

How much Holy Ghost power do you have in you?

Do you believe God can do what he said he would do in his Word? Or do you think the Bible is just a bunch of stories and the people in it are made up characters?

Have you gotten into His Word for yourself to even find out what his promises are? Or are you relying on the pastor to let you know on Sunday?

Are you walking by faith and not by sight?

Have you tasted and seen that the Lord is good? Or are you eating the bitterness of the sometimes unfairness of life?

Do you know that great is the Lord and he is greatly to be praised? Or is his praise determined by your circumstance?

Do you know that his mercy endures forever? Or do you think there’s an expiration date?

Do you know that his mercies are new every morning? Or do you believe they are only available at certain times?

Do you know who God says you are? Or are you listening to who people say you are?

Do you know that you were made a little lower than the angels? Or do you believe you’re the devil incarnate?

Do you know that you’ve been crowned by God with glory and honor? Or are you wearing the cloak of guilt and shame?

Do you know that you’ve been given dominion over the works of God’s hands? Or are you a pawn in the devil’s playground?

Do you know that God has put all things under your feet? Or are being trampled on by others?

Come on now what kind of power do you have?

Do you know that you’ve been chosen by God to do great works? Or are you walking in mediocrity, just good enough?

Do you know you’ve been chosen by God? Or are you still walking in the rejection of man?

Do you know that you’re a new creation? Or are you still walking in that old mentality?

Do you know that you’re an overcomer? Or are you living a defeated life?

Do you know that you are fearfully and wonderfully made? Or are you looking for your identity in the airbrushed pictures on the pages of a magazine?

Do you know that you are an heir to the Kingdom?Or are you walking around begging, ready to accept whatever crumbs the world throws at or to you?

Do you know that you’re a conqueror? Or are you being conquered by fear and regret and remorse and disappointment and despair?

COME ON NOW you’ve got to know who you are in Christ! You’ve got to know, that you know, that you know, that God is your Father, Jesus is his Son, your brother and savior, and that the Holy Ghost is your comforter and guide.

When you invite Christ into your heart, you receive so much more than you could ever give.

Stop looking at what you think you have to give up and see what you’re receiving.

Stop thinking you have to get yourself together, when God said come as you are.

Stop comparing yourself to others when Jesus is the standard.

Stop trying to be a cheap imitation, when God made you a rare gem.

It’s time, today is the day to stop and make Jesus the Lord and Savior of your life. He’s waiting just for you. If you’ve never made that decision, all it takes is a prayer.

God, I confess that I’m a sinner, I know I need you, please forgive for my sins. I give you my heart, Jesus please be my Lord, thank you for giving your life, so that I would have eternal life. Thank you for loving me with an everlasting love and drawing me with your unfailing love. In your name I pray. Amen

If you prayed that prayer for the first time welcome to the family. Tag us on whatever platform you may be viewing and let us know you’ve made this wonderful decision and let us connect with you.

For our online viewers, if you’d like to make Love Christian Center your church home, where you can learn what it is to be a Christian, and you live in the Douglasville, GA area, I encourage you to meet us at 3500 Hwy 5, Ste 101 Sundays at 8:45 a.m. for Sunday School and 10:00 a.m. for worship. And Wednesdays at 6:00 p.m. for intercessory prayer and 7:00 p.m. for Bible Study.

If you’re not in the Douglasville area but would like to join us live on zoom, go to our website at www.lovechristianctr.org for the meeting IDs, upcoming events, information on how you can financially support this ministry and other information.

Call your mom if she’s living, hug her if she’s close by and appreciate her everyday.