CURRENT SERIES
The Love of God
Feb. 11, 2018
LifeWay Moments
LifeNotes
The Love of God
“Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
— Genesis 22:2 NLT
• We need to stick with the plan of God. It is always right, even though it might not feel right.
• God doesn’t look at your mistakes, He looks at your victories. More importantly, He looks at Christ in your life and what He did.
• When we miss it, if God has given us His word, all we have to do is get back on track. All we have to do is pick it back up. God is bigger than any of your mistakes.
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
— John 3:16 NLT
• Love is sacrificial. It will cost you something. When you love somebody, it will cost you something.
• Love is not always getting your way.
• We all have the wherewithal to want to put others first and sacrifice for them but it is a change of attitude, change of mind.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
— John 3:17-18 NKJV
• God’s purpose for dying on the cross was to save the world, not condemn. He who believes in Him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already. God is not going to condemn someone because they do something wrong. He gave us an option to follow Him, and it is up to us to make that choice.
• The curse was pronounced on the Earth when Adam and Eve sinned, there has not been another one. When they sinned, God said, “As surely as you eat that fruit, you’ll die” — and the earth was cursed. The Earth is crying out for redemption. Your spirit has been redeemed, but your body hasn’t. Your body is not redeemed, it’s healed. This means there is no guilt and condemnation when you believe for healing. There is no condemnation if healing doesn’t manifest in your body. Your body has not been redeemed, it’s been healed. You have to receive healing. When the Bible says you are blessed, that includes everything. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and He adds no sorrow. So when we are walking in the blessing of the Lord, so there is no sorrow. When God pronounced the curse in the garden, everything became cursed. What happened when we got born again? We received redemption and He took us out of the curse. And the way we stay out of the curse is to keep our mind renewed to the fact that we have been redeemed.
• You can walk in the curse as a Christian and not even know it and still make Heaven your home. You can be OK with God but you neglected the blessing that He offered you. How do you step into everything God has for you? You trust Him.
• We shouldn’t rest until we enter His rest.
• God didn’t condemn an individual, that individual was condemned when they were born. We were all born sinners. An individual will be redeemed if they will accept Jesus
“If you hinge your salvation on good works, that is a sad state of affairs”
— Pastor Danny
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,a]”>[a] neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Even if a person is an atheist and committing every sin possible, God still loves that person. Does He love you more? No, not in actuality. What changes? You. God doesn’t love us based on performance. We change when we receive His love.
• If God loves everyone, doesn’t that mean everyone is going to heaven? No, that is universalism and heresy. He loved us so much He gave us the power to make a decision to accept Him.
• We don’t have a sin problem. We have a rejection problem because we don’t accept the sacrifice God provided.
• The only difference between the sinner God loves and the saint God loves is that the saint made the decision to love Him back, made a decision to follow Him.
“God has a crush on you, but until you love Him back, it won’t go anywhere.”
— Pastor Danny
• The love of God leads all men to repentance. After we accept Him and love Him, we won’t want to hurt Him or do anything contrary to His Word.
Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
— 1 John 4:18 NLT
• If we don’t know the love of God, we can’t help but be afraid of judgement. When we understand the love of God, we won’t be concerned if things will work out. Perfect love expels fear. Fear is the opposite of faith. Fear is faith in reverse. Fear is believing what the enemy will do to you, faith is believing what God has already done for you.
• Romans 9:10 says “Whatsoever a man believes in his heart and confesses with his mouth, that’s what will be.”
• Second to praying in tongues, speaking your faith is probably the thing that the enemy hates the most.
• Fear is faith in the wrong thing. We have to cast down the fear. Don’t rest until you enter His rest. Rest will get rid of fear. Fear causes anxiousness.
• Enter His rest and think about past victories.
May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
— Ephesians 3:19 NLT
• You can be taught the love of God, but until you experience it, it is just teaching.
Life Lesson
God loves you and there’s nothing you can do about it!
• God loves you even though you may blow it. Does He want us to miss it? No, He is pulling for us. The closer we get to the love of God, the more we understand the forgiveness of God.
• The enemy tempts us with sin. He doesn’t make us do anything, but he lays the opportunity on a platter for us.
— Closing word from Pastor Danny —
If you are here today and this message sits heavy on you, it is because you are struggling with what the Lord is saying about His love and forgiveness — you’ve not entered into it yet. Some of the best changes I ever made in my life is where it initially sat heavy on me. I don’t want it to be heavy on you, but sometimes when something sits heavy on us, it causes us to get in the Word and find out what God said. The quickest way to change is to face reality. And for some of you, I believe you are really facing reality. Your walk with Christ has become a lot of things, but I don’t know if it has become the things Christ wanted it to become. I am 100% convinced that in the Christian community, loving yourself is the issue. Because until we realize how much God loves us, it is next to impossible to love ourselves. I am talking about healthy love — not pride or being puffed up — but loving the creation that He created because He loves you.
— Closing prayer —
Father we love you and thank you for each person here. We thank you for what You have spoken into their heart and Lord we believe they are receiving Your love today in Jesus’ name, Amen.