Loved By God

Different responses…

-Cute Christian slogan

-Similar to ice cream

-Hear it but don’t hear it

-Impossible possibility

-Pain and disappointment

-Unshakeable reality

-A mixture of all of the above

I didn’t give love, because I didn’t know how to receive love. 

Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 

 People need a revelation of God’s love.

God loves us because of who He is, not because of who we are.

Romans 5:8 (NKJV) But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Psalm 90:14 (AMP) O satisfy us with Your lovingkindness…that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. 

Lost — “to have missed the point of what it means to be a person.” 

Luke 19:10 (NKJV) “for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” 

Psalm 119:176 (NLT) I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me…

Isaiah 53:6 (NIV) We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 

1 Peter 2:25 (NLT) Once you were like sheep who wandered away.  But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. 

We are the object of His love.

1 John 4:10 (NLT) This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

John 3:16 (NLT) 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. 

“Agape is a love that loves so profoundly that it knows no limits or boundaries in how far, wide, high, and deep it will go to show that love to its recipient.  If necessary, agape love will even sacrifice itself for the sake of that person it so deeply cherishes.  Agape is the highest form of love — a self-sacrificial type of love that moves the lover to action.  

Agape is love that has no strings attached.  It isn’t looking for what it can get, but for what it can give.  Its awe for the one who is loved is so deep that it is compelled to shower love upon that person regardless of the response.  This is the profound love God has for the human race, for He loved man when he was still lost in sin with no ability to love Him back.  God simply loved mankind without any thought or expectation of receiving love in return.”

Isaiah 49:15 (NKJV) “Can a woman forget her nursing child, and not have compassion on the son of her womb?  Surely they may forget, yet I will not forget you.”

Ephesians 3:16-19 (NLT) I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him.  Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 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.