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Beth Jones is a Bible teacher and founder of The Basics With Beth, a non-profit Christian teaching ministry dedicated to helping people learn the Bible basics.
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0:15 We are in brand new series called He Loves Me. So how many of you remember? Most of you girls will remember this, but maybe some of you guys as well, just as little kids. Who remembers grabbing a daisy or a flower of0:26 some sort with petals? And so you you had a crush on somebody at school or, you know, somebody on the bus. And so you started pulling off the petals. He loves me. He loves me not. He loves0:38 me. He loves me not. You get all the way around that flower to that last petal. And what did you hope that last petal said? He loves me. And occasionally, how many of you found out it said, he loves me0:50 not? Well, you know, that's, in essence, what we're gonna talk about here in this series. Because for some people, you know, in their relationship with the Lord, the petals on the daisy for them, it feels like to them,1:01 he loves me not. But we're gonna find out he loves you. We're gonna find out the petal actually is he loves you, and he always has. And so we're gonna believe the Lord for some supernatural help to get a1:12 revelation on God's love. And all the people said, let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much, Lord, for the simple truth, the basic truth of how much you love us. Lord, help1:24 us to get it. Help us to get a paradigm shift in our thinking and in our hearts about what you're wanting to have us experience, how you're wanting us to see things and to see you. Thank1:36 you, for good fruit, eternal fruit, life changing fruit, the fruit of your love coming out of this series. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. And everybody that agreed1:48 said, amen. So some of you grew up in, you know, different all of us grew up in different kinds of homes. But some of you grew up in homes where you felt very loved and very cheered1:59 on and very celebrated. And you knew your parents and your siblings and your extended family and people were for you. It was really healthy and it was really good. Some people grew up2:11 in families like that. More and more, that's a rarity. Many people grew up in a dysfunctional kind of a setting. And it might have been more of a setting that you didn't know who was for you, and that you never2:23 felt that anyone was for you, or maybe you never felt celebrated. Maybe you never felt like people were cheering you on. Maybe you felt like people were pushing you down instead. And so everybody's got a different2:33 reference point when it comes to our, you know, our past experience, in in particular, when it comes to human relationships. And so they all vary, whether it was really, really good or really, really bad or somewhere in2:44 the middle. But every 1 of us has a God shaped place in us that can only be filled by God's love. He designed it that way. And so some of you, this will this will2:56 resonate with you in some deep places in your heart, what we're gonna talk about in the next couple of weeks. And, and that's a good thing. I really believe that in the course of our time together, I really truly believe3:07 in Jesus' name, that if you've dealt with rejection, a spirit of rejection, depression, a feeling of aloneness or loneliness that just plagues you, and you feel3:19 so alone in within yourself. You might be around a lot of people, and to everybody else's eyeballs, it looks like you're all good. But within yourself, you know how you are, how you're feeling.3:31 That may be true for several of you in the room that are in a marriage. Looks like it's all great, but on the inside, you just don't feel loved. You feel that sense of rejection or distance,3:43 aloneness. And I believe in in the course of our time together, like I said, in Jesus' name, God wants to break that. He wants to break that spirit of rejection off from us, that spirit of depression and lift us up, and3:54 all the people said. And it is something supernatural that only God can do. We're gonna talk about many things here, but I'm trusting that while you're hearing my words, it's actually the Holy Spirit who's revealing it4:04 to you and and doing something on the inside of us as we talk about his love. So let me share a picture with you Back in the day, I understand that don't don't show it yet though. Hold on. I understand that4:16 right now we're in the middle of promposal. Is that right? High school kids, I guess, are proposing to their friends, those that they want to take to prom. I guess they call it promposal. And they go through all4:28 kinds of creative things to get these invitations out, and it's it's almost a bigger deal than getting a proposal to be married. It seems that that the way that they're blowing it up on social media and everything.4:40 So well, back in my day, in pastor Jeff's day back in the seventies, we didn't have promposal, but we did have prom. And it was a big deal to get invited to go to prom. And so it was my senior year, 194:51 77, and, you know, everybody's talking about prom, and we're heading towards prom, and who's going to ask who, and who's going to go with who. And I had kind of had my eyes on 2 different guys I wouldn't have5:03 minded going with. I wasn't dating anybody at the time. But a couple of guys I was secretly kind of hoping that maybe they would ask me, but they didn't ask me. And it gets down to the wire, nobody had5:15 asked me to go to prom. So you girls understand, you high school girls, you're right in the middle of it now. Listen, be encouraged by this. And some of you other folks maybe went through the similar experience. You you5:27 remember that feeling. So I was, you know, I was okay with it, but I was really bummed. I was really, really bummed and but I didn't really make a big deal about it. I really don't remember saying anything to my family,5:38 but I must have because somehow my mom knew. And then somehow my dad found out. I don't know how my dad found out, but somehow my dad found out. And so unbeknownst to me,5:50 he had a friend, mister Metz, and mister Metz had a son named Kurt. So unbeknownst to me, my dad had talked to mister Metz and Kurt to see if Kurt, who had graduated6:01 from my high school 2 years earlier, would take me to prom. I didn't know this was going on. And my dad paid him the6:13 plot thickens. My dad paid him 100 dollars. So I didn't know any of this. So all of a sudden, out of the blue, I get a phone call from Kurt to go play6:25 tennis. So we go play tennis a couple of times and had an ice cream cone or something, and then, lo and behold, just in the nick of time, he asked me to go to prom. Well, of course, I said yes, because I was thrilled to,6:36 you know, be going to prom. Even though I didn't really know Kurt that well, but I I sort of knew knew him, but not that well. So anyways, so we go to prom and prom was fine and we hung out with our all my friends. And6:46 it was fun. And it but it turns out it's not that big of a deal. Girls, if you don't go to prom, it's not that big of a deal. But, you know, when you're wanting to go, it feels like a big deal. So anyways, I found out6:57 years later that my dad had paid for it. I mean, hello. That should set everybody in the room free from whatever rejection you've ever7:08 felt. Listen. I mean, seriously, I was mortified. When I found this out, I was mortified. I was also elated, but also mortified at the same time. Like, oh my gosh,7:20 how embarrassing. How oh, now I'm telling it to the whole world, but anyways, here's a picture. Me and Kurt met. So I don't know what my hair was doing, but that was a7:32 that was a yellow tux because that was so popular in the seventies. I told pastor Jeff I was gonna tell this story and and, you know, show this picture. And he says, well,7:44 I'm glad I'm not there because he goes, that story always makes me cry, and I wish your dad would have called me. I would have taken you to the proms. So but the but the point of that is all of us have experiences in7:55 life and a sense of rejection, a sense of not being included, not being invited in, not being a part of the group, a sense of, aloneness. And so what we're gonna talk about here, I8:07 really do believe, like I said, God's gonna do some some supernatural things in us and through us. Alright. So let's go over in your Bibles. Pull out your Bibles. Let's go over to first John 4 verse8:19 10. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Alright. So as we get into this,8:31 we'll introduce it this week. I want you to to to begin to get a paradigm shift. I really believe God wants us to get a paradigm shift. It's not that we loved God. It's that he loved us.8:45 That changes the whole perspective. For example, a lot of times we sing songs, and I love these songs. We sing songs like, I love you, Lord, like my Jesus, I love thee. And I love those songs,8:57 and there's and it's great to sing those songs because God has put within us a God desire for expression, to disclose our love to him. So that's not a bad thing at all. It's a good thing.9:09 But we sing so many songs about our love to the Lord when really it's not our love for him, but it's his love for us. Really, it's better to sing songs like the 1 we just sang,9:21 oh, loves us, oh, how he loves us. Songs about his love towards us. His loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee, thus will I bless thee. I9:32 will sing of your love forever. Those kinds of songs actually put the spotlight where the spotlight should be. It's not that we loved the Lord. It's that he loved us.9:45 And see, what happens so many times is because of just our human nature, we so easily can slip back into a works sort of mindset, or9:56 back into a religious sort of mindset, where we think we have to do these things, whatever these things are, there are things we have to do to experience God's love, to experience his10:08 full blessing, his goodness, his love. We sometimes think that we have to obey the Lord, live a holy life, please10:20 the Lord, do all these things to earn his love. But it's the exact opposite. It's not that we love the Lord, it's that he loved us. His love10:32 in us is the root. And from that brings forth all the fruit. The fruit of, I'll obey the Lord. The fruit of, I wanna live a holy life. The fruit of, I wanna live a life that pleases10:44 the Lord. But I'm not doing that to earn God's love or to experience God's love. I'm doing that as the fruit, not as the root, and that's a huge change. Can you all see that? It's a big paradigm10:56 shift. Which direction are we doing that from? The root or the fruit? Take, the apostle Peter and11:07 John. Peter and John. Peter was the 1 that told the Lord how much he loved Jesus. He said, Jesus, I love you. I'll never betray you. I'm with you till the end. Jesus11:19 or Peter was proclaiming his love for Jesus. And Peter was the 1 that denied the Lord 3 times. And then as soon as Jesus was resurrected, Jesus said to the11:31 to Mary and to the other 1 that was with her, said, go back and tell Peter. Go tell Peter that I'm alive. Like, Jesus wanted to be sure that Peter knew, Peter, I love you. I forgive you. I'm alive.11:44 But Peter was proclaiming his own love for the Lord. John, the apostle John, proclaimed throughout the gospel of John, the apostle John proclaimed throughout that he11:56 was the disciple that Jesus loved. That was his testimony. His confession throughout the gospel of John, the disciple that Jesus loved. It wasn't about John's love for Jesus. It was about12:08 Jesus' love for John. And so John is the 1 that leans up on Jesus at the last supper. John's the 1 that's at the foot of the cross. John's the 1 that Jesus said, hey. Will you take care of my mother?12:20 Can you see the difference? Jesus loved both. But the experience they had with the Lord was significantly different. So it's not that we love the Lord, it's that he loved12:31 us. What happens in our Christian life is we spend so much time and and it's a good it's a good motivation. I'm not saying that. It's a good motivation. But we spend so much time trying to love the Lord.12:44 Well, I just need to love the Lord more. I just need to I just need to improve in loving the Lord. When really what we need to improve in is receiving the Lord's love.12:57 Spend more time on the receiving of the Lord's love because then the fruit of that will be you'll love the Lord. And you'll love people, and you'll do all kinds of things that will spring13:09 out of a root of love, and all the people said. So it's not that we loved him, it's that he loved us. First John 4 19 says this, we love him because13:21 he first loved us. So again, it just puts the spotlight where it needs to be switches the paradigm. Because what happens is it gives you a rest. Can you sense that? All of a sudden,13:33 when it's like, it's not that I love the Lord, it's that he loved me. And I love him only because he first loved me. It's like, there's a rest there. And not a striving, it's a restful13:44 place from which to live and to operate in your life. So what happens, we we do this, we do an if then mindset in our Christian in our Christianity. A lot of us have an if13:56 then perspective. In other words, if I do this, this, this, and this, read my bible, pray, volunteer, give to the poor, you know, if I don't fight with my14:08 spouse, if I do all these things, then God will be pleased, God will love me, God will be good to me. If then. We live a lot of our Christian life like that. But it's actually not14:20 an if then, it's a because then. If then is us loving the Lord first, but because then is us receiving his love, and14:32 because I'm loved by the Lord, then these things are true. Can you hear can you can you? Somebody got it. Good.14:45 Are you getting it? It's not an if then, it's a because then. It puts us in the position Jesus is the initiator. We are the responders. He14:57 initiated the love. We respond. It's not on us. It was on him. Okay. So go over. Let's look at this. I I think we can all see we need a revelation on this, don't we? More revelation. Ephesians15:08 3 verses 14 through 19. Now this is a prayer that many of you have prayed, I know. And let's read a portion of it, then we'll talk about it. For this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from15:19 whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts15:29 through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge,15:41 that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. So notice there he wants us rooted and grounded in love. That's God's love for us. Verse 19, to know the love of15:53 Christ, which passes knowledge. If you have an amplified Bible, it says that you may really come to know practically through experience for yourselves the love of Christ, which far16:05 surpasses mere knowledge without experience. In other words, he's saying the first the first, knowing word there that that you would know the love of Christ. That word know that you would16:17 know the love of Christ. It's a word that has to do with a heartfelt experience, an intimate knowing. In fact, in the Bible, when it talks about Adam knew his wife Eve,16:29 it's an intimate word, talking about the marital relationship there. That kind of intimacy is the exact same kind of word that God wants us to know him intimately,16:40 personally, in a heartfelt, experiential way. That's what he was praying in this prayer for the church, that you would come to know the love of Christ, that you would know the love of Christ.16:52 You'd experience it, deeply loved kind of a thing, which passes knowledge, which is funny. How does knowing how does knowing something pass17:04 the knowledge of it? Doesn't even make sense. Except for the second part of that verse where it says the knowledge, it's a different Greek word. It's a different word entirely. That's more just the17:16 mental knowledge of, the awareness of, the scientific knowledge of like, everybody in the room, I I I would venture to say, we all would say, well, I scientifically, intellectually, I know God loves me.17:28 But what he's saying here is I want your knowing of the love of Christ, your experience of the love of Christ to surpass just that mental not that mental knowing.17:40 See, for a lot of us, our mental knowing surpasses our experience. In fact, probably for 90 percent of the room, our mental knowing yes. I know God loves me. Okay. Fine. Our mental17:52 knowing is far surpasses our actual experience, heartfelt experience of his love. But the prayer that he prayed was that we would know18:03 heartfelt, experientially, his great love because it's not that we loved him, it's that he loved us. I was driving in my car a couple of months ago, and that that verse just kept popping up in18:15 my spirit. It's not that you love God, but that he loved you. Just that little phrase just kept popping up in my heart as I was driving around. And I just kept meditating on it and have been for months, this subject.18:27 Meditating on it. And the more I meditate on it, the more blown away I am by how big God's love for us is. It's not that we love God,18:39 it's that he loved us. The pressure's off. And from the root of knowing personally his love, all the fruit that he desires18:50 and that you and I also desire will come forth. And all the people said, amen. Alright. So go over to another verse here. Let's look at this. Laying some foundation here. We'll19:02 get into, like I said, more of this in the weeks to come. But in first John 4 16, this is another key. It says, and we have known, there's that intimacy word, we have known19:14 and believed the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. So you see 2 parts there, the knowing part. We have19:26 known, which is a big part of what we're believing God for in our series, that God will help us to have not just the head knowledge of his love, but the experience of his love, heartfelt19:38 experience of his love. We know it. And we believe it. Okay. That's the second piece there, the believing, which is huge because that's where many of us struggle. So let me get do a little demonstration19:50 here, and then and then we'll talk about it. Alright? So, go ahead and turn off all the lights. Alright. So if we're in a dark room, then what's the only thing that can overcome this20:02 darkness? The only thing is light. Right? So if I light this lighter, this little lighter has just overcome the darkness, and the darkness has no way of20:14 putting it out. There's nothing the darkness can do to put out this light. Now if everybody had a lighter and all of us were lighting up the lighters, we'd have a whole room full of light.20:25 Light overcomes darkness. Darkness is just the absence of light. Right? Okay. You turn it back on. So in the same way then, when we experience the feelings of20:37 aloneness, rejection, not being included, being excluded, depression, and so on, All that is is the absence of love.20:49 It's the absence of love. So the way to turn that around, the way the way to light the light, so to speak, is just to find out from God's word, how do we light the lighter of21:01 love? Because the more we can light the lighter of love in our own lives, it will displace the darkness of rejection,21:13 loneliness, feeling like no 1 cares, no 1 knows, depression, not feeling celebrated, not feeling important, not feeling like you matter. All21:24 those feelings are just the absence of love. So the more we can light the lighter of love, the more we will displace all of that and experience21:36 God's love. And all the people said, amen. Can you see that? So he says, we've known and believed. So in in the course of this series, we're gonna talk about how to light the lighter of love. We'll talk about21:48 really practically how to do it. This is 1 practical thing right here I'm gonna tell This is 1 really practical way to light the lighter, to start doing it on a regular basis. We have known and believed22:00 the love. So the belief part. We have to choose to believe it. Now here's here's what we do. Something will happen. You'll sing a song or you'll go through22:12 something, and the enemy makes sure our first inclination is to feel like God's not helping us. God's mad at us.22:24 God's not there. God's absent. I mean, enemy's number 1 goal you have to understand, this is such a basic simple truth, such a foundational fundamental thing we're talking about. The enemy works22:35 overtime on people to separate us from God's love. Of course, Romans says nothing can separate us from God's love. But the devil works overtime to separate us22:47 from God's love. Are you out there? To cause us to feel as if God doesn't care, God doesn't hear, He's not answering my prayers, He's not. He's not. All that stuff, the devil works overtime.22:59 And then there are people in your life that the devil also uses. You know, you get together with family and there's like always somebody that is like, oh, Lord, help me.23:12 Be around so and so. There's somebody at work. Oh, God, help me at work. They just always needle me. Some of you, maybe you've applied for promotions. You've applied for some upgrades in your job, and you didn't get it.23:23 Somebody else got it. And the devil's right there. Yep. See? God doesn't care about you. I mean, how many of you would agree the devil is working overtime always to get us separated from God's love?23:37 So what we have to do is we have to believe it. We have to believe in the love. It's not a goosebump. It's not a feeling. It's a choice. Just like everything else we believe we23:48 receive from God. You know, you believe you receive a prayer that you pray to the Lord. I believe I receive my salvation. I mean, whatever it is, we believe we receive from the Lord. It's the exact same24:00 principle. I believe I receive God's love. I believe it. I know and believe. So when thoughts come to you that tell you God doesn't love you,24:12 What we should do is stiff arm those thoughts and say, no, that's not true. God loves me. I don't understand what's going on. I don't know why this is happening or not happening, but God loves me. We24:24 should stiff arm those thoughts. But what we do is we don't stiff arm those thoughts, we embrace those thoughts. Yeah. I know. That's why I'm so lonely. Nothing ever goes right for me. Nothing ever turns out. It turns24:36 out for everybody else. And we start to get into a downward spiral. What we should do is stiff arm those negative thoughts and embrace the thoughts that God loves me. But we do the exact opposite. Somebody will say24:48 to you, hey, God loves you. You'll read a scripture like the ones we're reading today. God loves you. And some of you, I know, in here, you're like, stiff arm. I don't know if he does or not. Doesn't feel24:59 like it. And we stiff arm God's love. And it can come to us a lot of different ways. Could be a song we're singing. Even that last song.25:12 You know, that last song can irritate people. Oh, how he loves me. Oh, how he loves me. Do you know that song can irritate people? Because instead of embracing that and believing it, they stiff arm God.25:23 Nope. Because that happened, and I don't know why. And so there. And the problem is it's understandable why we do it. But the only problem with it is it doesn't help25:35 us. When we keep stiff arming God's love, then we're not embracing it, and then we're not experiencing it in a heartfelt, intimate kind of way. So it's a bad spiral. Can you all see that?25:47 So you have to choose to just say no. I know and I believe the love God has for me, for me personally. I know it and I believe it. And you do that by faith. When a25:59 thought comes to you, God doesn't love you, you just put your arm up and go, no. I reject that. I know and I believe God loves me. When a thought about God's love comes to you, take it in. Don't stiff arm it.26:12 Amen? So your homework, your your way to light the switch is on a regular basis today and the whole rest of the week and this whole month and the whole rest of your life, just now get in the habit. I'm in the disciple26:24 Jesus loves, just like the apostle John did. Get in the habit. Your loving kindness is better than life. God loves me. I am loved. We'll get into it in the next couple of weeks, but not only am I loved, I'm the beloved.26:36 The beloved. I'm the beloved. I'm loved by my God. My God loves me. My heavenly father loves me. Jesus loves me. This I know. I mean, whatever you have to come26:48 up with, whatever phrases work for you, whatever ones, you can begin to just get into the renewing of your mind and begin to say and or sing. I'm telling you, that's step 1, to light that light, to27:00 displace the rejection, displace the feelings of emptiness, to displace depression. To start saying, I know and I believe it. And all the people said,27:13 amen. Okay. So let me tell you a couple things, 2 things I want to mention to you that I think are or actually 3. 3 things that I think are really important. Number 1 is, okay, you know in Revelation chapter 227:25 verse 4, it says, Jesus said, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Return and do the things you did at the first. Remember that verse? I've always read it.27:36 I have this against you. You've left your first love like you are not loving the Lord enough. And I'm sure there's an application there. But actually, in light of what we're talking about, I27:48 I'm wondering if actually what he's saying is, hey, you've left your first love. Your first agape love was me, Jesus. You've left me. Let me love you.28:00 Return and do the things you did when you first got saved. How many of you, when you first got saved, you remember the Lord loved you? You didn't do anything to get saved, did you? You didn't do anything. In fact, you28:12 did everything wrong, and he still loved you and saved you. And you remember how happy you were? Do you remember how effortless it was? He's saying return to that. Return to that effortless28:23 Christianity where you have received my love. And the root of that will cause you to do all kinds of things that will be the fruit of it. But it28:35 won't be works, you striving to do all these things to somehow please God. No. Just return to your first love, my love for you.28:47 Amen? Then in Galatians and now that we're gonna give you a couple of verses here. In Galatians, it says that faith works by love. Again, I've always viewed that verse, and there is28:58 an application, but I've always viewed that verse in the light of my faith will work as I walk in love towards people, towards the Lord, and there is a truth there. But in light of what we're29:10 talking about, faith works by love. When we know God's love for us, when we're settled on that, when we know for a fact God loves me because I've known it and I've29:22 chosen to believe it, I know God loves me, then it's so easy to have faith because why wouldn't God give me the thing I just requested? Why wouldn't he? He loves me. As opposed to me29:34 trying to work up some sort of faith works by love, and okay, God, I'm gonna walk in love. Have I not walked in love anywhere? And then I get right back into a religious kind of works thing. Are you out there?29:46 Are you following this? Faith works by love. Whose love? His. By his love for us, receiving his love. Doesn't this just29:58 take pressure off? Don't you just feel like, God, you're amazing. I'm going to receive and walk in your love because it's not that I loved you.30:10 It's that you loved me. Wow. I had it backwards. I still love you, but now I see the emphasis is you loved me. I receive30:22 it. I drink it in. Amen. Another 1. People say, yeah, but you can't talk about God's love too much because, you know, people will just get lazy and they won't live for God the way they30:34 should. Gotta crack the whip. Well, there's probably some truth to that in the sense that people, you know, give them an inch, they take a mile. But Joseph Prince told a story. I thought it was a good 1. He he30:46 Joseph Prince teaches a lot on grace and it's so good. I I I really enjoy his ministry. He he happened to say something. He said that he was preaching on God's favor and God's grace and God's goodness to people. And30:58 after the service, somebody came up to him and said, well, you need to preach more on God's anger. You know, he's a God of judgment. He's a God of anger. He's a God of severity. And you're just making it31:09 too too much about God's goodness. There just needs to be a little more about God's anger, his righteous indignation. And so he said to this person, he says, well, how many how long does the Bible say how long does the31:20 Bible say God is angry with us? This person said, well, I don't know. He says, well, I can tell you, in Psalm 30, it says his anger lasts for a moment, but31:32 his favor lasts for a lifetime. In other words, the emphasis is on his goodness. The emphasis is on his favor and on his love. And he poured out his anger,31:44 by the way. His momentary anger he poured out on Jesus on the cross. And his favor lasts for a lifetime. How many of you can see we need to get our minds renewed in a big time way31:56 to what the Bible says about God's love for us. Amen? Alright. Let me close with a couple thoughts here. First, first John 4 9 through32:08 10. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Romans 5 8, but God32:19 demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So in both of these verses, we get this picture that God's love is manifested. God's love is directed in both32:31 verses toward us. His love was manifested toward us. He demonstrated his own love toward us. We are the objects of his love. You32:43 are. You are. You are the object of his love. You are in his sight. It is toward you. His love is toward you. Not his32:55 anger, not his wrath, not his judgment. His love is demonstrated and manifest toward you. Well, the greatest33:06 demonstration of God's love, we all know, but let me just mention it, the greatest demonstration of his love was when he sent his only begotten son. When Jesus went to the cross, Jesus33:18 took on the sin of all mankind, the sin of all mankind, all sins past, all sins present, all sins future at that time. So let me back up even further. Back in the33:30 Old Testament, when they would, prepare their annual offerings to be forgiven of sin and their regular offerings, I'll put it that way, they would have to bring a spotless, blemish33:42 free, defect free animal to the priest, to the high priest or to the priest. And the priest would then here here's this person. They're bringing their animal.33:54 There's the animal I brought. Might have been a goat, a bull. Once a year, they would bring a lamb. But I bring my animal, and the priest now get this. The priest inspects the34:06 animal. The priest doesn't even look at me. He's inspecting the animal to see if it's pure, perfect, defect free, spotless. Is it a worthy34:17 sacrifice? Can this animal be a worthy sacrifice? So the inspection is all about this animal. Once the animal's been deemed perfect,34:29 then the person who wants forgiveness transfers their sins to the animal by laying hands on the animal's head. They transfer their34:41 sins to the animal. And now this spotless, perfect animal will have to shed its blood to pay for the sins. The animal dies,34:54 goes to die, the person is set free to live, completely set free from the sins because they were transferred. So when Jesus comes to the earth, he35:05 is, the Bible says, the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. When Jesus goes to the cross, God's not looking at us, he's looking at Jesus. Was he a35:17 worthy sacrifice? Was he spotless? Was he pure? Was he sinless? And Jesus obviously was a worthy sacrifice. When Jesus is on the cross, the35:29 Bible says we were crucified with Christ. That's us laying our hands on him, so to speak, and all the transfer of our sins. When Jesus was on the cross, the transfer of35:41 all sin, past, present, and future for the whole world, was laid on him because he was a worthy sacrifice. We went free. He died,35:54 shed his blood to pay the price for our sins. That's love. 3 days later, God raised him from the dead. And because he lives, now we36:05 live eternally as well. So God demonstrates his love toward us by sending his son. That was the premier act of love. Everything else, and there is a lot of everything else, which we'll get into36:17 in the weeks to come, everything else is gonna have to be secondary to that because that's the pinnacle of God's love. And we haven't really recognized it. We've just thought, oh, yeah.36:29 Thanks, Jesus. You died on the cross for me. Thanks. Good Friday, Easter Sunday. Whoo. Okay. We've not even really grabbed it. That's why we need the revelation from God and his love for us and36:41 how profound that sacrifice was and then everything else. We'll close with this verse. Go over to Romans 8 31 and 32, what36:53 shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all,37:05 won't he also with him give us everything else? There is a lot of everything else. Everything else God wants to pour on us because of his love comes37:16 with his son. Because if he didn't spare his own son, which was the premier act of love, if he's already done the premier act, is there any act of love37:28 he wouldn't do for you? And the answer is no. There's no act he wouldn't do for you. There's nothing he wouldn't do for you. And so we're gonna come back in the next couple of weeks and find out more about how is it then37:39 that we light that love light or how is it then that we access in a tangible practical way God's great love. It's not that we loved him. Not even talking about our love. It's that37:51 he loved us, and we're asking him to give us a revelation, a greater revelation on his amazing love. And all the people said,38:03 let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. Lord, thank you so much for this basic truth, basic but so profound, so amazing, your love for us. Lord, we've hardly plumbed the38:15 depths, but we ask you to help us. Lord, help us to get a revelation on your love for each and every 1 of us. We know it, and we choose to believe it. From this moment forward,38:27 we will be like the apostle John and just say, I am the disciple. In fact, say it with me. Say, I am the disciple that Jesus loves. Come on. 1 more time. I38:39 am the disciple that Jesus loves. Alright. Last time, but say it like you mean it this time. Come on. I am the disciple that Jesus38:51 loves. Amen. Lord, help us to do that in the course of these next couple of weeks. Lord, just to get our minds renewed to this reality. We know and believe the love you have for us. In39:03 Jesus' mighty name, thank you for eternal fruit to be the result of our time together, Lord. Amen.39:10 Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's message. I hope you are encouraged. Be sure to hit the follow button so you can binge on all the Bible basics throughout the week and stay39:22 encouraged in your faith. And don't forget to share these messages with your friends. If you'd like more information about our ministry, you can always go to thebasicswithbeth dot com. That'sShow more
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