Sermon Central
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God's Incredible Love Series
Contributed by Keith Edwards on May 1, 2002 (message contributor)
Summary: You must understand this. If you have difficulty grasping His love, you will have difficulty with everything else.
The Incredible Love Of God
Bethel Assembly of God
2/24/2002 AM
INTRODUCTION
In a couple of weeks I will no longer be the pastor of Bethel Assembly of God. For the next couple of weeks I want to preach what I believe to be the most important messages of my time with you.
There will be no new revelation. You have heard me say and preach these things to you over and over. These are the things I have been trying to say the last seven years.
The first thing I want to remind you of is the incredible love of God.
SCRIPTURES:
1. Paul earnestly desires for them “to grasp” – KJV, “able to comprehend.”
2. To apprehend (), an old and common verb, “to lay hold of effectively (), here with the mind,” to grasp.
3. In other words, “I want you to get it.” “You must understand this.”
4. If you have difficulty grasping His love, you will have difficulty with everything else.
1. If we could every comprehend, or even begin the process of understanding, God’s love, our lives would change
2. The way we worship, The way we respond to Him, The way we respond to others, The way we reach out, The way we live, The way we think about ourselves, our past, our present, and our future.
The Psalmist had some understanding:
1. Psalm 13:5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
2. Psalm 36:7 How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
3. Psalm 130:7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.
Do you understand that you are:
1. His Treasured Possession (Deuteronomy 7:6 6For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.)
2. The Apple of His Eye (Zechariah 2:7 – 9 Come, O Zion! Escape, you who live in the Daughter of Babylon!” For this is what the LORD Almighty says: “After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye—I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me.)
3. A Child of God – Joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16 - 17 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.)
4. A Friend (John 15:13-16 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.)
5. His People (Jeremiah 31:3 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.)
6. The Sheep in His Care (Psalm 100:1-5 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.)
7. Are the Reason He Died (Romans 5:6-8 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.)
8. The One He Died For
9. His Masterpiece (Ephesians 2:8-10 God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.)
