Sermon Central
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How Can God Love Me? Series
Contributed by Gene Gregory on Dec 8, 2007 (message contributor)
Summary: Attempts to answer the question, "How Can God Love Me?", by examining how special each person is to God. Largely a topical message.
HOW CAN GOD LOVE ME: YOU ARE SOMEONE SPECIAL
As you remember, a while back I gave you some cards and asked you to give me some questions you have or some questions that you’ve been asked that I might be able to address. I got a number of cards in response, some of them I have addressed in weeks past. None of them, however, bothered me quite as much as the question on one of the cards. It asked, “How can God love me when I don’t even like myself?” How can God love me when I don’t even like myself?
Quite honestly, I don’t believe I can accurately or completely answer that question. No one can really explain the love of God. That is a question many people have asked and many people have struggled with since the beginning of time. That is the type of question our minds ask when we are alone, and don’t have any busyness, amusements, activities, or people to hide behind; when we stop long enough to see ourselves as we truly are instead of the person we want others to think we are. That is the type of question that comes to our minds when we think about the trillions of stars in the universe, and think about how small our planet is in the vastness of all of creation.
In the book of Job, believed to be one of the first books written in the Bible, Job asks:
> Job 7:17 What is man, that You think so highly of him and pay so much attention to him?
David asks in:
> Psalm 8:4 What is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him?
> Psalm 144:3 Lord, what is man, that You care for him, the son of man, that You think of him?
If you have messed up in life, if you have made mistakes, or stupid decisions, if you ever stop to look at some of the people you have hurt or see the holiness of God, the realization and questioning can get even worse.
Isaiah, that prophet in the Old Testament, used so greatly by God, after seeing himself next to God’s holiness said:
> Isaiah 6:5 Then I said: Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, [and] because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.
Often, the better life you live, the better person you are, and the closer you walk with God, the more you will ask that question.
The Apostle Paul was a good, moral man. He did what he believed to be right, from the beginning. Yet he asked:
> 1 Timothy 1:15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them.
He also had struggles.
- Romans 7:15,18-19, 24
> Romans 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
When you think of who God is. When you think of His goodness and holiness; when you think of how small we are and the many times we’ve messed up and the people we have either intentionally or unintentionally disappointed, or hurt, it’s easy to get down and discouraged. It’s easy to wonder how in the world a God like ours could possibly love us.
I do, however, have good news. I believe God wants you to know that you are someone special. You are someone special. You are special to God and He loves you. * Turn to someone beside you and tell him, “You are special to God. God knows you and He loves you.
Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Luke chapter 15 and verse 1. Luke chapter 15 and beginning in verse 1. Let’s look for a moment at how special you are to God.
Did you see how this passage started? Jesus was hanging out with sinners. He was hanging out with the outcasts of society. He was hanging out with folks that society would say are not the best people in the world. What did the church folk, the religious people do when they saw Jesus hanging out with the nonreligious folk? What did they do when they saw Jesus hanging out with the people from the wrong side of the tracks? They got upset. They began to complain that Jesus was spending His time with “sinners.” They complained that Jesus was hanging out with the “bad elements.” Today it would probably be the prostitutes and pushers, the homeless and helpless, the alcoholics and abusers, the liars and lechers, the abortionists and those who’ve had abortions, the unwashed and unconverted, He’d be hanging out with, and the church folk got upset.
