SUNDAY 10TH MARCH 2013 AM
HE LOVES THE UNLOVABLE
Mat 5:43 You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy; [Lev. 19:18; Ps. 139:21, 22.]
Mat 5:44 But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, [Prov. 25:21, 22.]
Mat 5:45 To show that you are the children of your Father Who is in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the wicked and on the good, and makes the rain fall upon the upright and the wrongdoers [alike].
Mat 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward can you have? Do not even the tax collectors do that?
Mat 5:47 And if you greet only your brethren, what more than others are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles (the heathen) do that?
Mat 5:48 You, therefore, must be perfect [growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity], as your heavenly Father is perfect. [Lev. 19:2, 18.]
This passage demands that we love the unlovable. If we do we are showing everyone that we are of our Father who is in heaven. We are like Him when we love the unlovable.
Rom 5:5 Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.
Rom 5:6 While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly.
Rom 5:7 Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die.
Rom 5:8 But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.
Rom 5:9 Therefore, since we are now justified (acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ’s blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God.
Rom 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin’s dominion) through His [resurrection] life.
In this passage we see that God’s kind of love is given to us to love others with. He reminds us that Jesus died for us before we made any decision to follow Him, that is, when we were still sinners, the unlovable, in order that we would come into relationship with Him.
GOD’S LOVE FOR EACH AND EVERY PERSON ON EARTH IS COMPLETE. HE LOVES THE UNLOVABLE.
Everyone of us deserves His wrath, but everyone of us has been offered His mercy.
We must rid ourselves of the pride and deception in which we tell ourselves, “I’m a good person really. It’s all those other scum bags that God is talking about.”
Isa 64:6 For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God’s favor, hurrying us toward destruction]. [Lev. 13:45, 46.]
In spite of all that, God loved us, God reached out toward us, God saved us and gave us His righteousness.
Is there that moment in your life when you sense that overwhelming gratitude for what God has done for you?
Take a look at one of my grandkids…
What’s not to love? We as human beings find it easy to love when the object of our love seems worthy of it. But God shows His love is beyond that.
As Jesus was dying on the cross, one of the thieves who were crucified beside Him asked for mercy and Jesus gave it freely to him.
The two thieves perfectly illustrate all mankind. Both were guilty as is all mankind for we have all sinned and come short of the perfection of God. One thief was humble and penitent and one thief was proud and insolent towards his only hope. These two reactions are the only two reactions of all mankind towards Jesus offer of forgiveness and life.
God’s love towards us as sinners is remarkable. God’s great passion for relationship with anyone who would come to Him in humility and faith is unending.
Because of His righteousness He must judge all sin. Therefore God executes wrath against sin and punishes every wrong doer, however, so great is His love towards each and every lost person that he gave His only begotten Son to die in their place, to receive the punishment they rightly deserve so that they could be given an opportunity to go free.
Let’s take a look at this Crazy Love of God towards you. Not only did God send His son to die for you, and on your behalf, before you even had a chance to respond to Him; He then came out searching for you and calling you to come to Him.
Joh 6:44 No one is able to come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come to Me, and [then] I will raise him up [from the dead] at the last day.
1Jn_3:1 SEE WHAT [an incredible] quality of love the Father has given (shown, bestowed on) us, that we should [be permitted to] be named and called and counted the children of God! And so we are! The reason that the world does not know (recognize, acknowledge) us is that it does not know (recognize, acknowledge) Him.
The love with which God loved you is huge!
When God loved you; He loved the unlovable. He loved a sinner. He loved someone who had fallen way short of the standard of perfection needed for heaven.
But because of this great love He rescued you and me, and because of this great love you are now a child of His and filled with this same love.
Eph 3:17 May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love,
Eph 3:18 That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it];
Eph 3:19 [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!
Now that you have been saved by this love and filled with this love….
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH IT?
Yes, of course you will love God with it, we are to abide in His love, but also if He loved the unlovable and His love dwells in us then shall we not love the unlovable too?
The power to change a life begins with an invitation.
Our Vision as a church movement is to give every Aussie an opportunity to hear the gospel, and what better time to hear it than at Easter?
Will you invite a crowd to come to Easter?
How to invite someone.
Don’t worry about whether they may or may not be receptive. Invite everyone. You can’t tell who’s ready yet. Just invite saying, “Can I give you this invitation?”
“Hey, take a look at this, my church has special events on this Easter – I would love to invite you to come along.”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Describe a time when you chose to love an enemy or someone who persecuted you.
2. When we love people who are hard to love, it’s too hard in our own strength so we need God’s love. How do we obtain it?
3. Why do you think God asks us to love the unlovable?
4. If we are full of His love – a love for the unlovable – will that enable us to go out and love the unsaved around us?
5. Who, in your sphere of influence ,can you invite to the Easter concert?
craigmanderson 