Go is Loving

God Is… Loving

When you feel like God can’t love you.

Series Slide

Good morning and welcome to worship on this beautiful weekend. Have you noticed something? It’s barely perceptible… but have you noticed the days are getting just a little shorter? Do you know what that means? It means Fall is approaching and with that cooler temperatures and maybe, just maybe a little rain.

I’ve always heard, “good things come to those who wait” and I am waiting for those cooler temperatures, and a bit of rain? Amen…

Today, we are going to talk about one of the most widely stated and yet most often doubted attributes of God. The fact that God is Loving, and more specifically, that God is a Loving Father.

Sermon Slide

That is a phrase that some can’t get past. Loving Father… because we equate the love of God with our earthly fathers… and some of us didn’t have great fathers… and some of us had very Godly men that poured into us and taught us.

When I was in seminary, one of the big conversations was about removing all masculine language about God from the Bible and from our prayers and our pastoral teaching. I mean, some were so adamant that they wanted to change the language of the Lord’s Prayer to read, “Our God who art in Heaven…” or even “Mother God, which are in heaven…” or some other generic or feminine term. Now don’t get me wrong, there are lots of descriptions of God that have motherly images – Like, Jesus wishing he could gather Israel under his wings like a mother hen gathers her young… Or God described in motherly, nurturing terms in Hosea… or the fact that we, men and women – were created in the image of God.

But in seminary, it wasn’t a recognition of the motherly aspects of God, the focus was on the exclusion of fatherly aspects of God. And, I can tell you, I can see why some would want that.

There are 15,000,000 single-mother households in the United States, or said another way, there are 15 million fatherless homes in America.

Of the remaining homes, some have abusive fathers, or absentee fathers.

It’s no wonder we have a problem in the church with the imagery of God as a Loving Father…. But that is no reason to exclude Fatherly imagery.

Our experiences with our earthly relationships can shape our view of our heavenly Father… and that can cause some issues. But I want you to know right now, that God our Father is not like our earthly fathers. As good as my dad was, he was a flawed human. As much as I respect him and as much as I am like him… he was not God and I can’t confuse the two.

Some of us had dads who couldn’t or wouldn’t show us love, or the way they showed love was unhealthy. Some of us had dads that disciplined us in unhealthy ways and we have transferred that understanding to our heavenly Father.

Some of us have never been good enough for our parents and we translate that to our relationship with God…

I want you to hear this… If you have ever questioned God’s love for you… if you have ever doubted God’s love for you… if you have ever searched for approval, affirmation, or acceptance – or just hoped to some day know that someone really in truly loved you – today’s message is for you.

Just like the old country song says, some of us have been “looking for love in all the wrong places.” Amen...The first place we look should be to God.

Today, I want us to start with a passage from 1 John 3:1. It’s short but powerful…

1 John 3:1

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

How you hear that verse reveals a little something about you. You are either a shouter, or you are a doubter!

Some of you just heard these words and thought, “Yep, that’s me… I am love, I am awesome, I am a child of God!” right… You’ll shout it from the mountain top. “God loves me… and God loves you… and God loves you….” You’re like Oprah – “You get love… and you get love… and you get love…” You’re a shouter!

But then, there are the doubters. There are some who just heard these words and said, “Well, if God is a loving God, why would he love me?” doubt fills your mind and your heart. “IF God… why?” Right. Your experience right now, maybe not all the time, but right now, tells you that there is no way God could be a loving God and certainly no way God could love you. You think you don’t deserve God’s love.

But, let’s be honest with each other. Even the shouters are sometimes doubters. The environment, situations, conditions around us can all play into it. Sometimes we hit a rough patch, or there is just a season in life, or a time every year where it is hard to get out of bed… it’s hard to go and do… it’s hard to see the fact that you are a dearly loved child of God.

But, how you feel doesn’t change the facts! You are loved.

Let me tell you a little about me. Some of you may have heard some of this, I want to share it again for those who don’t know. I grew up in East Texas. Dad worked at the Steel Mill. He started in the rolling mill and then worked his way up from there to the office, from the office to the Personnel department where he was responsible for scheduling large parts of the plant… back when scheduling was all done by hand. He was amazing, we would be out at Catfish Village and see someone and he would say, “Hey, your Tom Smith badge number 24683, you just switched to third shift in the Blast Furnace, how’s that going?” It would blow our mind. When late 70’s and early 80’s rolled around, the company decided they wanted to automate the scheduling, so Dad was sent all over the nation – New York, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Denver… I mean really, all over the nation to be trained on a new computerized system. He got back and set up the new system, worked with the IT department or whatever they called it back then, and got the automated system rolling, trained others on it… then the recession caught up with us… and in 1983 he was RIF’d – they called it a reduction in force… basically he was a 50 year old man with no degree and a large retirement pension they were going to have to pay out, so he was fired. Saved the company a few thousand dollars.

We were never wealthy, but we were comfortable… then suddenly we were poor. I never felt it, I just thought fried bologna, green beans, rice, and government cheese was normal. I thought everyone processed their deer at home, spent the weekend fishing and cleaning fish for the week, and eating squirrel was normal. What I’m saying is that my dad worked hard to make sure we were taken care of until he got back on at the plant in a new department.

Here's the thing. Do you know what I was supposed to do? Do you know what I was supposed to grow up and be? I was expected to go to college, then come back and work at the plant. That was to be my life, never leave East Texas, and work my way up from slinging ingots to working in the office… and there is nothing wrong with that. But I thought God had more for me.

When I was 14, I knew God had a call on my life. After summer camp, oddly enough, it was a summer and a camp that Nanda worked at, yes, Joey’s late wife Nanda. She wasn’t my counselor, but Joey and I figured out that she worked at that camp the year I was there. My counselor was a guy we called ‘Twitch,’ not sure why, but that was his camp name, and it was with him that I surrendered to the ministry. So, in the middle of my dad having no steady job, I announce that I am going to be a preacher. I preached my first sermon that Summer – and it was horrible. Life went on, by senior year of High School I had kinda slipped away from my calling and was back to looking at becoming a steel plant worker. More and more, I had been hanging out with the wrong crowd. I got into drinking and a little into drugs – I mean, I wasn’t some big drug user and dealer or anything, but I was far from where God had called me to be. Instead of a preacher, I was going to study computers and play drums. That was going to be my life. Working at the plant in the technology department.

I went to SFA and, oddly enough, marched on the Drum Line with Mr. Lambert – yep, BHS band director David Lambert. He was the good kid on the drum line… I wasn’t so good. One night I was in the dorm – already about 3 sheets to the wind – getting ready to go out for some party… and I’m walking down the hall and run into this large figure. I look up from the chest I just bounced off of and said, “Twitch?” and he looked down at me and said, “I remember you, you surrendered to the ministry at camp.” I stuttered and stammered and tried to play it off, then he said, “I’m preaching at Northwood Baptist Church this Sunday, then we are having a college student luncheon. Your going to be there aren’t you.”

Of course, I showed up, got involved with the church, began helping with Campus Crusade for Christ, learned to play guitar and lead worship a little, and then became a youth minister in the summers. By 1991 I was married – way to young to have been married… and I was an Associate Pastor and Youth minister at a small church in Nacogdoches. Then the reality of money hit and I had to figure out how to pay for the rest of my schooling… so I joined the Army Reserves. It would be a short hitch away from school and family, but the money would be good and I would be able to start receiving monthly money for schooling. Then, my wife ran off with another guy, the church I worked for fired me – when I needed the church most, and I ran from God and everything that appeared to represent God. I’ve often said that if I hadn’t met Renee, I would have been dead. She pulled me out of a deep spiral.

Fast forward a couple of years, we are married and living in Beaumont, TX. We decided to go to church, mostly because Renee heard there was a church with an interpreter and she wanted to watch the interpreter. So, we ended up at FUMC Beaumont with Danny Waymon as the pastor. Shortly after we got there, we were absorbed into a small group. I don’t thing we ever joined, they just absorbed us. Then they started talking about a new service with a praise band… but they needed a drummer and drums… then Renee opened her big mouth and said, “Jay plays drums, and you still have you drum set at your parents house, right?” So, now I’m drumming for the church… and the pastor wants to visit with this new couple helping with the new service…

So, get this picture… Renee and I are sitting in the pastors office one Sunday afternoon. We are visiting about the new praise service and how it will work with the other services and Pastor Waymon says something about preaching… and Renee says, “Well, Jay use to be a preacher.” And I said, “That was years ago…” Mind you I’m a 26 year old newlywed talking about “years ago…”

And Pastor Danny looks at me and asks, “Why is it ‘used to be,’ why aren’t you still a pastor?”

So, I gave him my long laundry list of sins... All the things that I had done to break my relationship with God.

What I was saying was, “Pastor Danny, I know in my head that God loves me and has a wonderful plan for my life… but in my heart, I don’t see how God could love someone like me.”

You hear that, “How can God love someone like me.”

In the middle of that doubt… In the middle of questioning God, do you know what Pastor Danny said to me?

“Don’t you think God can forgive you for that?”

Ladies and gentlemen, that question changed my life!

I had been believing the lie that God is judgmental and that God is angry and that God is hateful.

I believed that God judged me by my mistakes, that God was like Zeus sitting on a cloud with a lightning bolt waiting for me to mess up… I had been believing that there was no way God could love someone like me… but do you want to know the truth?

God isn’t judgmental – God is compassionate

The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who feaer him.

Psalm, 103:13

God isn’t angry – God is patient

Yahweh! The LORD!

The God of compassion and mercy!

I am slow to anger

and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.

Exodus 34:6

God isn’t hateful – God is full of love

But God demonstrated his great love for us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!

Romans 5:8

I know we are getting close to the end of our time together today, but I want to end with a story…

It isn’t a story about me, it isn’t a story I’ve seen in a movie or something. This is a story Luke tells us from the life of Jesus. Turn with me to Luke 8. We are going to begin with verse 41.

The people have been hearing all about Jesus and all the miracles he performs… and the people are crowding in to see him and hear him, then we get to our story.

Luke 8:41-42

Then a man named Jairus, a leader of the local synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come home with him. His only daughter, who was about twelve years old, was dying.

As Jesus went with him, he was surrounded by the crowds.

Let’s stop right there for a moment. Who was Jarius? A ruler of the Synagogue… he’s not supposed to like Jesus. Jesus is in a little trouble with the establishment religion… but yet, one of the leaders of the Jewish religion comes to Jesus with a problem… not just any problem, but his daughter is sick! His daughter is dying. He’s done everything he can do, but nothing helps, so he comes to Jesus and Jesus walks with him to his home.

Here's what I want you to see. Jesus walks with him! When you are in your hardest time… when you are hurting… when you have nowhere else to go… Jesus walks with you. As the old hymn goes, “He walks with you and talks with you along life’s narrow way.” Like I said last week, God is with us. Jesus isn’t the way to avoid the troubles in life, Jesus is the way through the troubles in life.

Jarius was going through the worst thing in his life. Jesus had the power to snap his fingers and change everything, but in that moment, what did Jesus do? Jesus walked with him. Jarius needed Jesus to walk with him in that moment, and Jarius needed to see what happened next. You see, Jesus wasn’t just looking at the momentary need, Jesus was looking ahead at how Jarius faith could grow and how Jarius could be transformed! Picking up in verse 43:

Luke 8:43-48

A woman in the crowd had suffered for twelve years with constant bleeding, and she could find no cure. Coming up behind Jesus, she touched the fringe of his robe. Immediately, the bleeding stopped.

“Who touched me?” Jesus asked.

Everyone denied it, and Peter said, “Master, this whole crowd is pressing up against you.”

But Jesus said, “Someone deliberately touched me, for I felt healing power go out from me.” When the woman realized that she could not stay hidden, she began to tremble and fell to her knees in front of him. The whole crowd heard her explain why she had touched him and that she had been immediately healed. “Daughter,” he said to her, “your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

Let’s take in the magnitude of this moment… This important leader of the church is walking with Jesus, he is hoping Jesus will heal his daughter… and then Jesus stops. Not for a Pharisee or someone more important than Jarius, but for a woman… a woman that Jarius would not have been allowed to let into his synagogue. A woman who was unclean.

Think about this woman for a moment… No name is given, she’s just – a woman… and she has been sick for over a decade. She has spent everything she has trying to get well, and nothing worked. For 12 years she has been an outcast. For 12 years the religious leaders have shunned her because she was ceremonially unclean. For 12 years she has not been able to gather in Synagogue and worship. For 12 years she has been alone. She has been overlooked, she has been unseen.

I am sure she was saying, “Jesus won’t give me the time of day either. Jesus won’t look at me, I’m unclean. Jesus wont want to talk to me, I’m a nobody… Jesus can’t love me – I don’t deserve it. But maybe, if I can just touch the hem of his cloak, I can be healed… maybe… as she stretches out her hand.

And in that moment…

Something changed. Doubt was gone. She felt Jesus’ healing presence. She was healed.

But Jesus did the unexpected. Jesus didn’t keep going like she thought… like Jarius expected. No, Jesus stopped. He stopped to find her. And he didn’t reprimand her for being unclean and touching him. He didn’t ignore her like the others had, No, I can see Jesus walking back to her, and with compassion in his eyes taking her hand, or maybe placing a hand on her shoulder, or her cheek like a dad would to his own daughter, and he said, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

Friends, when you are hurting. When you are alone. When you can’t find help anywhere when you are abandoned, struck down, afflicted, outcast, unacceptable to the world around you… isn’t it good to know that Jesus will stop for you. It’s like hearing a pastor say, “Don’t you think God can forgive you for that?”

But, before we get all caught up in this moment of grace and healing, there is another little girl. She hasn’t been dealing with an illness for 12 years, no, she’s ONLY 12 years old, and in the middle of Jesus healing this woman, someone from Jarius’ house comes to him and say, “don’t bother the teacher any longer, she’s dead.”

But Jesus doesn’t walk away, remember, he walks with him. And Jesus walks with him to the house and tells him, “Don’t fear, you are walking with me.” Jesus get’s there and they are in full blown grief. But here’s what Jesus does:

Luke 8:52-56

The house was filled with people weeping and wailing, but he said, “Stop the weeping! She isn’t dead; she’s only asleep.”

But the crowd laughed at him because they all knew she had died. Then Jesus took her by the hand and said in a loud voice, “My child, get up!” And at that moment her life returned, and she immediately stood up! Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were overwhelmed, but Jesus insisted that they not tell anyone what had happened.

When all hope is lost… Death is at the door… when there seems to be nothing left to do but cry… How beautiful it is to hear God.

Yes, Jesus walks with us, and Jesus stops for us, and Jesus speaks to us… in our deepest and darkest moments… God is with us.

This story is one of the most beautiful stories in Luke. It is a story that shows Jesus, God in the flesh is Compassionate… that Jesus is patient… and that Jesus is full of Love.

God lavished his love upon a hurting father… and God lavished his love on a woman that the community had forgotten and God lavished his love on this little 12 year-old girl…

1 John 3:1

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

Our God is a loving father… one who walks with us when times are rough, one who stops for us when no one else will, and one to talks with us when others have given up.

God is loving…

Would you pray…