GOD LOVES YOU

Scripture talks about three great treasures: Faith, Hope, and Love. Today the subject is
love.

How many occasions have you heard this, "God loves you." It is the greatest story ever
told, but has it become a part of our life? Without a lot of Bible scripture, here are some
solid Bible truths about God's love:

1. The Gospel is good news regardless of our feelings from day to day. God loves
you and God is love. He has other attributes, but nothing can separate us from the
LOVE OF GOD.

2. It is God's desire to give us the "gift" of love, but do you understand how to
receive that gift? Example: A gift under the Christmas tree is not a gift until it is
accepted.

3. We have reasons why we think God does not love us. Reasons like misfortune,
abuse, we have committed something wrong, or we might believe that God cares for
others and not us. And get this, God's love extends to people that you have trouble
accepting.

4. God still loves you even when you make poor decisions!

5. There are many false loves, and they cannot be compared to God's love. God's
love cannot be compared to man's love. Perhaps you have already been caught in that
trap.

6. God has other attributes like wrath, justice, and judgment, but they are not
overshadowed by who He is: God IS LOVE. Who He is and what He does is a function of
who He is.

7. There are many counterfeits of love because THE MORE IMPORTANT A TRUTH IS,
the more counterfeits that surface. All around us are counterfeit ideas like kindness, sex
(ask the broken hearted after a love-making encounter), or a troubled relationship
where flattery was confused with love. He or she was good for awhile until the real
person stood up.

1 Rev. James I. Lyons, Alpha Ministries, Inc. | July 27, 2012

8. Conversely, God's love is unconditional. It is not a love based on good looks. It is
not a love because you have connections. There is not a list of endless "ifs." These are
all conditionals.

9. There is nothing you can do to make God love you. There is nothing we can do to
make God not love you. God loves you beyond works or without works. The point is:
He is love without cause. You can't offer Him anything that He does not have. Your love
toward him is because He first loved you. What did it take for Jesus to do for you and
me the chiefest of sinners? God's love is never ending--from everlasting to everlasting.
His love does not depend on your achievements. He does not look away when you
stumble. He sees it all.

10. God's love is unlimited. He is always present. That means He does or does not
love me because...because...because. His character is not like a man. He never
changes. The counsel of God stands forever to all generations.

11. With God the honeymoon is never over. You don't need to come up with new
things to keep His love fresh. He sees the future, yet the honeymoon continues. The
honeymoon continues because of God's grace. Why would you ever want to fall from
grace and go backward to the law? God's love is complete. Grace put a ring around
your finger and nothing can separate His love. He does not show favorites and He gave
to every tribe and nation. NOW YOU CAN FIGURE IT OUT THIS WAY, "His love is totally
different than what you have ever experienced or seen around you."

Figure this one out: God loves His Son, God loves Israel, God loves everyone who
believes in Christ, God loves the world, and God loves you. He loved you before you
were born; before you were born again with a new identity, and before you knew you
were complete in Him. He told Jeremiah I formed you, I knew you, I sanctified you, and I
ordained you. Before you were born He knew your possibilities and gifting. Before you
were born He knew your legacy.

12. Even if you are disloyal to Him, He still loves you. Ask Noah, Abraham, and David.
His love never quits. Israel knew Him as a Father of Love. He carried them when they
stumbled. He loves as a husband. He loves as a shepherd. The people of His time knew
the kind of love a shepherd had. Many then were really backsliders, but He loved them.

2 Rev. James I. Lyons, Alpha Ministries, Inc. | July 27, 2012

13. His kind of love does not mean that God has gone soft on sin. It means God
loves, and loves in a way that human beings can scarcely understand. God's love is not
fearful because it is truly unconditional and loyal.

14. God is a writer. He wrote His love in red. His love was written in Christ's hands,
His only begotten Son. The simplicity of it all was found in one Bible verse, John 3:16. If
folks understood that verse, we wouldn't have anything else to preach about.

15. God loved the world (John 3:16), the whole world. He is doing something, loving
the world. How far does His love extend? To the whole world. This is not the world's
system, but the inhabitants of the world. God's love has experience. He knows how to
handle you. God's experience, He gave away to His only begotten son. This means He
gave His best gift, love. God gave it away.

16. God's love is expensive! It cost Him His Son. And He gave it away to whosoever!
His love is exclusive. You must believe in Him. His love is exceptional. You should not
perish. His love is external with a beginning but no ending. There are no limits on God's
love. You see, in God's love there are no limitations (length, breadth, height or depth).

What we are left with is how do we respond? It is so vast that He gives you freedom of
choice. He gives all that He has and leaves you with the choice to "accept" or "reject."
Review His love via the PRODIGAL SON. By the way, THE FATHER IS THE MAIN
CHARACTER, not the two sons. (This story is 22 verses and the father is mentioned 12
times.)

 The son leaves willfully and the Father gives him his full request, inheritance.
 The father showers him with gifts when the son returns.
 The father was put to shame, but he lavished his son with gifts upon return.
 It was the father who freely initiated full forgiveness.
 It was the father who runs to the son's rescue.
 It was the father who tells the eldest son everything I have is yours.
 It was the father who holds back nothing. Welcome home son. He lavished
grace.
 It was the father who was loving and selfless.
 The perfect father said all that I have is yours.
 THEN HEAR THIS ABOUT THE STORY OF THE SHEEP. It was the father who chased
down one lost sheep.

3 Rev. James I. Lyons, Alpha Ministries, Inc. | July 27, 2012

All this means is that God loves you when you are wallowing in the pig pen of life, and
He loves you when you are coming back home to the Father.

17. The Father's greatest law turned out to be LOVE. His Son, JESUS, looked with
another set of eyes beyond the Pharisees. Like His Father, the results were the same.
They love you when you don't love Them.

18. What defines you? LOVE or anger, bitterness, a chip on your shoulder, or
legalism? What about love and forgiveness? Love is more than talk. LOVE changes your
way of thinking, reacting, and how you see others and the way we live daily. It drives us
away from revenge. It changes everything. Our mission, at some point, is to show God's
love.

19. The apostle John, the last living Apostle, his greatest message was LOVE. As he
got old, he preached nothing else but love. His commandment was, "LOVE ONE
ANOTHER." Why? He knew the life-changing effect of LOVE. QUESTION: What is life
beyond relationships? And what are relationships without LOVE? If you lack the ability
to love, then you forfeit the ability to live.

20. Because of God's love we can love ourselves. Love begins when you look in the
mirror. As long as you have an internal war, you can NEVER love others. Here is the
point: you cannot give to others what you don't exercise for yourself. Christ spoke
about self love! Here is what He said, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Life and love is
corporate. It is way more than me. Give and it shall be given unto you, pressed down
and shaken together. A balanced life is our identity with Christ because true love is
loving one another. How do we love? by edifying one another, and edifying is the work
of building each other. We flourish at the cause of each other. The core values are not
self absorption, but to think not more highly of self than we ought.

CLOSING: This story of love closes. It can only come about through the finished work of
Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. On the cross, God looked at His son and
saw our sin which Christ took upon himself. Now listen to this: At judgment, God
looked at you and saw Christ's righteousness. It was because Christ took your sin and
gave unto you His righteousness. The problem of your acceptance is solved. It is our
responsibility to accept this gift of LOVE. GOD LOVES YOU! God's love is wide open to
accept all us as sinners. He is love. God loves you and He always has and always will.

GOD LOVES YOU AS MUCH AS HE LOVES JESUS!

4 Rev. James I. Lyons, Alpha Ministries, Inc. | July 27, 2012