ROMANS 5:5-11 GODS LOVE POURED OUT2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Romans 5:5-11 Gods Love Poured Out

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. All right, we're going to be in Romans chapter 5, and let's read Romans chapter 5, verses 5 through 11. Here's what it says. Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.

For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than, having been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him."

For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. As we look at Romans chapter 5, verses 5 through 11 this evening, the title of the message is God's love poured out.

That comes from verse 5, where he says, Now, here Paul is continuing to expound upon the gospel message and to deliver to us

solid argument. I mean, logic upon logic upon logic to understand how the gospel works and how salvation works. We've been talking about the need for salvation in the first couple chapters, and all of us are condemned and deserving of the wrath of God. But then how God gives us opportunity to be forgiven, to be justified, that is declared not guilty and declared righteous. And

And so God gives us this opportunity by faith, not by works, not by our efforts, but it's simply by faith in Jesus Christ. And through his grace, he gives us the opportunity to have this full access to God.

And so last week we talked about some of the results of justification. Now Paul continues on with that line of thought as we look at verses 5 through 11 this evening. He's continuing to talk about what we have as a result of being justified by our faith in Jesus Christ.

But as he's talking about these results of justification, he highlights for us here in these verses the love of God. Really the motivation behind the whole gospel message. The motivation behind justification. And God giving us this opportunity to have right relationship with him.

Now, as you think about God loving you, it's something that, of course, we are familiar with. It's something you've heard before. You've probably heard someone say, you know, God loves you. Perhaps you have our ministry shirts, right, that says, Jesus loves you, ask me how I know. We are familiar with this concept. And sometimes when we are so familiar with the concept, we kind of forget that

the vastness or the meaning of the concepts that we're so used to, we're so accustomed to. And so my prayer for us this evening is that we would understand kind of in a fresh way God's love and what it means, what salvation means and how it demonstrates for us, it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, the love that God has for us. Now, this is really important for us because we

Well, if you're looking at your life, a lot of times you may not sense the love of God. There was a lady who came up to me pretty recently. I was wearing the shirt. It said, Jesus loves you. Ask me how I know. And she walked up with the question, does God really love me?

And as she asked the question, does God really love me? She was emotional about it. And then she began to describe what was happening in her life. And there was this devastating thing and that devastating thing and this other thing happening and this going on. And so her question was,

Does God really love me? I can't tell that God loves me because my life is in such a mess. There is so much heartache and so much hardship that I'm going through. Does God really love me? And so as Paul talks about the love of God being poured out, this is essential and crucial for us because we'll have those seasons of life where we're

It may not feel like God loves you. You may not sense that. You may not have those feelings. You may not feel overwhelmed by the love of God. And yet the love of God continues and remains constant. And so you need to know that God's love is poured out into your heart.

And I hope that becomes even more clear as we go through our passage this evening. So four things I'd like to highlight from this passage to help us think about the love of God being poured out unto us, to help us understand God's love towards us. And so the first thing that we see is in verse 5, and that is the Spirit is given to us.

Verse 5 says, And so the first thing that we can think about as it comes to the love of God being poured out and knowing that God loves us is knowing that it's the Holy Spirit that is given to us.

That is that God has given us of his spirit. And it's the Holy Spirit who enables us to understand God's love. It's the Holy Spirit who opens our eyes, who gives us understanding and gives us clarity about the love of God. And so as the Holy Spirit comes to us, as the Holy Spirit is given to us, we are then able to understand the love of God.

The love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. The Holy Spirit being given to us, you can think about that in a couple ways. You know, we've talked about many times the three types of relationships that you can have with the Holy Spirit. With, in, and upon. The Holy Spirit with you, the Holy Spirit in you, and the Holy Spirit upon you.

In John chapter 16, Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit convicting the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. That is the Holy Spirit coming alongside. The Holy Spirit is with you to bring conviction. Now understand that when the Holy Spirit comes alongside of a person, that is God's love being poured out.

That is why the Holy Spirit comes and brings conviction, because God loves us. And because God loves us, he gives us the Holy Spirit. He brings conviction. He speaks to us about our sin. He speaks to us about righteousness, and he warns us of the judgment that is to come. As we begin to believe in Jesus Christ and are born again,

we then get to experience the in relationship with the Holy Spirit. That is that the Holy Spirit then indwells us. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is our guarantee of salvation. And the Holy Spirit within us producing fruit in us is part of God's love being poured out. The Holy Spirit is given to you, indwelling within you.

And so you are experiencing the love of God being poured out into your life. And then, of course, there's the upon relationship with the Holy Spirit. And Jesus promised this experience in Acts chapter 1, verse 8, where he told his disciples, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you'll be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and Judea and to the uttermost parts of the earth.

And the Holy Spirit coming upon you to be a witness for him is the love of God being poured out upon you. And so the Holy Spirit being given to you is the first thing to consider as you consider the love of God being poured out in our hearts. But I want to think about this idea of being poured out for a moment.

Because I don't think I've ever taken really much time to think about this concept of being poured out. The word poured out, it means something more than a little stream or a little flow of water. The idea of being poured out, it's not a little trickle, but it's a complete pouring out of

I like the way that one dictionary defined it. It says to run greedily out, to run greedily out. That is, it's not just like a little bit, but there's just this abundance that flows out. And so if you want to think about it as a picture, right? And so let's say the love of God, you know, is within the picture. And so it's not that, you know, God's just going, okay,

Here's a little bit of love for you. Just a tiny bit, just a little trickle. I really wanted to put water in here and like pour it over somebody, but I decided against that. But so here's a little bit of trickle, right? That's not the picture here. The love of God is poured out into your hearts. And it's not just a tiny bit that God loves you or that God shows you that he loves you. It's like this.

Just completely emptied, poured out. That's the idea. That's the picture of this word. The love of God is poured out. It's just completely emptied. All of his love is poured out into your heart by the Holy Spirit. All of his love is demonstrated, is given to you. The same idea of being poured out, the same word is used in Matthew 9, verse 17.

where Jesus was talking about new and old wineskins. Remember that? And he talked about not putting new wine into old wineskins, or else, if you did, then the old wineskins would break. And then he says, and then the wine will be spilled. And so this idea of the skins would burst, and all the wine would come out if you put new wine in the old wineskin. That's the idea. That's the picture here.

The love of God being poured out, it's not just a little bit of a trickle. It's not just a tiny bit of flow, but it's an absolute, God gives all of his love to you. And he pours his love into your heart by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. I like what Spurgeon had to say about this. He says, the love of God is like light to a blind eye.

until the Holy Ghost opens that eye. So if you're blind or your eyes are closed, you can't see the light. The light is there, but you can't see it. But when the Holy Spirit opens your eyes and then you can see the light, that's what he's talking about with the love of God. The love of God is poured out into your heart, whether you realize it or not.

The Holy Spirit is given so that you can then understand the love of God. The love of God is given, it's poured out upon you, even if you reject God, even if you don't know God, God still loves you with all of his love. And not just a little bit of a trickle, but with all of his love, he loves you. And what the Holy Spirit does is he opens our eyes, right?

He helps us to see. He helps us to understand. Consider what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 12. He says, Here's one of the reasons the Holy Spirit has been given to us. So that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

The Holy Spirit is given so that you might know how much God loves you, that the Holy Spirit would reveal to you that your eyes would be opened and that you would know the love that is freely given to you. And so, Lord, we pray, give us your spirit. Help us to know the things that are freely given to us.

Help us to know the love of God being poured out into our hearts, to realize, to rest in, to trust in the love that God has for us. And so the Holy Spirit is given to us. Another way that we see the love of God poured out into our hearts, found in verses six through eight, is that Christ died for us. God's love is poured out.

And we know that that's demonstrated by the death of Jesus Christ. Consider verse 6. He says, Paul here, he's working up to verse 8, how God demonstrates his love towards us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But as he's working up to that point, the ultimate demonstration of God's love, he starts at the beginning and says, look, consider our condition. We were still without strength. And it was at that time that Christ died for the ungodly. And so the love of God being poured out upon us is not based upon, well, you have to clean up your life first and then God will love you.

You have to fix your life and then God will pour out his love upon you. No, the idea here, the understanding is that you were without strength. And this word without strength, it means that you are incapable of working out anything for yourself. You're not able to fix your life.

You're not able to change your condition. You're not able to do anything on your own strength, on your own behalf. You're not able to do anything to change your relationship to God. You and I are without strength. And in this position of being without strength, being helpless, being hopeless, it's at that time that Christ died for the ungodly. And who are all these ungodly people that Christ died for?

Well, Paul spent the first three chapters saying, that's us. That's every single person, whether they're really moral and good people or totally wicked criminals, whether they're religious or whatever, all of us, every single person who has ever existed except for Jesus is the ungodly. We are wicked. We are ungodly. And so Christ died for us

When we were in this position of hopelessness and without strength completely. And it was at that point that Christ died for the ungodly. He died for us. That means on our behalf or instead of us. So we deserved to die, but Christ died instead. And then Paul asks us to consider that in verse 7.

He says, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. So he says, think about what Christ has done. While we were without strength, while we were ungodly and wicked, that's when Christ died for us. But he says, it would be hard to find someone who would die for a righteous man. And it would be worth considering for yourself. Who would you be willing to die for?

You might think about your family. You might be willing to die for your family. You might be willing to die for someone who's a close friend. But would you be willing to die for someone who was a criminal already given the death sentence? And you would step up and say, no, I'll die in their place. It would be hard to find. It's rare to find someone who's really willing to die for someone else.

But it's conceivable that for a good man, for someone that you love, someone that you know, that you might be willing to die. But what God has done is not die for a bunch of good people. It's not that he died for a bunch of righteous people who loved him so much. It's not that he died for a bunch of people who were so faithful and diligent and were, you know, really religious.

No, the contrast here in verse 8, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And so God demonstrates his love towards us. He gives us a demonstration. What's a demonstration? A demonstration is the proof that

If you watch a demonstration, let's say at Costco, you're walking down the aisles and you see a demonstration of some product. What is that? That's the proof. Look, this works. This is for real. Or maybe you stay up late and you watch those infomercials and you buy the chop chop machine or something like that, right? You see the demonstration. They say, look, see, it works. And then you get it and you go, hey, this doesn't work so good. Right?

Really, words good for them. But that demonstration is that proof. It's the evidence. It's the way to say, look, it's for real. And so as we talk about God's love being poured out, the way that you know this is for real, the way that you know for sure, without a doubt, without any hesitation, that God loves us is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And so when we ask the question, does God really love me? Like this lady asked me recently. And we look at the situations in our lives and we wonder, does God really love me? Because look what's happening in my life. Well, we're looking at the wrong thing. That the demonstration of God's love, the proof of God's love is the cross. And the cross is the ultimate proof.

proof, the ultimate demonstration of the love of God. David Guzik puts it this way. He says, So God may do other things in your life to show you that He loves you, but there's no greater proof than the cross. Sometimes we get our priorities out of line, and so we

would think that there are other ways that God could prove his love for us that are greater than the cross. And then we ask the question, well, does God really love me? Because look at what's happening in my life. But God does love you. And he proved it once and for all so that it never has to be wondered again. It never has to be questioned again. Christ died for us. And then notice, while we were still sinners.

while we were still sinners. We were without strength, he says, we were ungodly, and we were sinners. We had no merits whatsoever that would make it worthwhile or reasonable for someone to say, yeah, they're worth dying for. But even in that, even in our weakness, even on our complete helplessness, God loved us. And so he sent his only begotten son.

to die upon the cross for us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. It's the ultimate proof of God's love for us. The reasons for God's love are not found in our strengths, because when we were without strength, Christ died for us.

It's not in our faithfulness because when we were ungodly, Christ died for us. It's not in our righteousness because while we were sinners, Christ died for us. And so the love of God has been poured out in our hearts. Again, not just like a little bit of a trickle. Okay, here you can have a little bit.

but he's emptied it. But you know, this isn't quite sufficient to demonstrate the amount of love that God has for you. And so I would ask you to consider a fire hydrant. This is maybe a little bit better picture of how much does God love you? Just take the cap off, open it up, and let's just let it gush out. The love of God, again, has been poured out or gushed out or runs greedily out.

God loves you incredibly, abundantly. You can't even experience, you can't even take in all that God loves. But all of it has been given to you. All of it has been demonstrated for you upon the cross. All of it, God loves you incredibly. Proven once and for all by the cross. While you were undeserving, completely unworthy,

ungodly, without strength, Christ died for you. He died for you. He gave you his Holy Spirit and he died for you. Well, we continue to consider the love of God being poured out to us in verse nine and 10 for point number three. And that is that we shall be saved. I like verse nine. It says much more than. I think you could just stop there. Much more than.

So everything that he's going to talk about now is on top of the things he's already been talking about. Much more than while you were without strength, while you were ungodly, while you were completely sinful, Christ died for you. And so now he's going to build on that. Much more than having been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

Now we looked at the wrath of God back in chapter one when Paul introduced it. The wrath of God being revealed against all ungodliness. That is the judgment that we deserve because of our sinfulness. And so here he says, having been justified by his blood, you've already been justified. You've already been declared righteous. You've been declared not guilty. So much more, you've already been justified

justified. You've already been declared righteous. So much more you shall be saved from wrath through him. He already did the hard work. Christ died for your sin. He died for you. He died in your place. That was the greatest work that could ever be done. That was the biggest need that we will ever have. He already did that. It was the

most costly price that could ever be paid. He already paid it. He already did it. So how much more then and much more than that shall we be saved from wrath through him? So you can count on, you can rest assured, for sure, guaranteed, you are saved from wrath as a believer in Jesus. You are saved from

In no way is it ever possible that you are going to experience the judgment of God, the wrath of God. Listen, the hard part's already been done. Jesus died on the cross while you were still ungodly and without strength, without any reason on your part for him to die for you. He died for you. And now you're justified. You're declared not guilty. You're declared completely righteous.

God looks at you and he relates to you as if you are as righteous as Jesus Christ himself. And so for sure, absolutely without question, you are saved from wrath through Jesus Christ. You will not experience the wrath of God. Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians that we are not appointed to wrath. We've been saved. We've been delivered is another word for saved.

rescued from wrath. We deserved wrath. The wrath of God was revealed against all unrighteousness and ungodliness, and we were unrighteous and ungodly. But the hard part, being justified, it's already been done. So much more than God will save you, deliver you from wrath. And then he explains that a

So he says, That was our status. That was our condition. We were enemies. We were against God. We weren't neutral. We weren't just, you know, not really excited about God. We were against God. And in that condition,

We were reconciled to God. And so the relationship changed. You were an enemy, but you've been brought into right relationship. That's the idea of reconciliation. The relationship has been restored. There's right relationship. And so you were an enemy, but now you have been reconciled to God through the death of his son. Through the death of Jesus, you have been reconciled. And so he says much more.

Having been reconciled. Again, that was the hard work. You being an enemy of God, being brought into right relationship with God, that was the hard work. So how much more shall you be saved by his life? The commentator John Trapp says, it is a greater work of God to bring men to grace than being the state of grace to bring them to glory. Because sin is far more distant from grace than grace is from glory.

It's a far greater work to bring you to grace, to give you forgiveness. But now that you've been justified, completely cleared, not guilty, and declared absolutely righteous, then to bring you to glory, that's easy. The greater work has already been done. While we were enemies, that greater work was done. And so the question is, if God does this much for his enemies...

how much more will he do for his friends? Think about that. There are things that you would do for your friends that you would never do for your enemies. But God's love is poured out so that towards his enemies, he gave the greatest gift that could ever be given. Towards his enemies, he paid the ultimate price. Towards his enemies, he did the greatest work that could ever be done.

And so if he did that for you while you were an enemy, while you were against God, well, how much more will he do now that you've been reconciled, now that you've been brought into right relationship? His love has been poured out. I pray that the Holy Spirit would open our eyes, that we would see the love of God that's poured out into our hearts.

We've been reconciled, and so we shall be saved. Absolutely guaranteed. A pitcher, not quite sufficient for helping us understand the love of God being poured out. A fire hydrant, maybe comes a little bit closer. But maybe not just opening the nozzle of the fire hydrant. How about like really letting go of the fire hydrant?

This is, you can see kind of some perspective. There's a fire truck. There's a two-story house right there. And the water is just, imagine sticking your face in that. It might hurt a little bit. The love of God has been poured out to you to this degree. Just completely let go. Just completely let loose. God has given all of his love to you. And he's given you the Holy Spirit to help you see how much he loves you.

but also to prove that he loves you. He brought the Holy Spirit alongside to convict you of sin. As you believed in Jesus, the Holy Spirit took up residence and is indwelling within you to help you see the love of God, to help prove to you that God loves you because the Holy Spirit is at work within you. And the fruit of the Spirit is love. The Holy Spirit is producing in you the love that God has for you.

And not only that, but Christ died for you. The ultimate proof, the ultimate evidence, the greatest sacrifice, the greatest gift, he's already given it to prove once and for all. While you were a scumbag, while you completely didn't deserve it, while you were worthless and helpless and strengthless and ungodly and sinful, Christ died for you.

And so now that that great work has been done, you have been justified. You stand before God not guilty. You stand before God absolutely righteous and he will bring you to glory. The love of God is poured out in your heart by the Holy Spirit. God loves you. He's opened up the floodgates and he has poured out all of his love.

upon you. He loves you intensely and greatly and far more than we realize. Well, fourthly, found in verse 11, we have the fourth reason or the fourth demonstration of God's love, and that is that we rejoice in God. Verse 11 says, and not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

I love the words that Paul uses here. He talks about if when we were enemies, Christ died for us. Well, how much more? And much more than, and then now he says, and not only that. And so he's just adding thing upon thing upon thing to help us understand the incredible nature of the gospel on top of everything else.

Now, last week we looked at verses one through five, and we talked about the results of justification being that you have peace with God and you have access to the grace of God. And so you can rejoice in hope and you can glory in tribulation. On top of that, the Holy Spirit is given to you and Christ died for you and you are guaranteed you shall be saved. But on top of that,

I mean, it's just, look how good God is to us. Again, the floodgates are open. The love of God is poured out upon us. On top of everything else that we've already been looking at, he says, we also rejoice in God. We also get to rejoice in God. This word rejoice, we talked about it a few times last week because it's found in verse two, translated rejoice. And then in verse three, translated glory, right?

And so rejoice and glory, they, well, they're part of the same word. It's the same thing that Paul is saying here. To glory means to exalt because of something or to boast about something or to celebrate something. To celebrate. I like that idea. He says, we also celebrate in God.

We celebrate in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So because of Jesus and through Jesus, we rejoice in God. We celebrate in God. He says, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Now again, that idea of reconciliation is the relationship restored. And so we were enemies, but now that has changed and we've been reconciled. We're friends.

God loved us in both conditions. But even when we were enemies, even when we were against God, we've received the reconciliation through Jesus Christ. And by faith in Jesus Christ, that relationship has changed. And so now we rejoice in God. Here's the thing to consider here. Because the relationship has changed, we can rejoice, we can glory, we can boast in God.

Salvation is not such that, well, God forgives you, but don't speak to him for a while because he's still pretty upset. It's not that, well, he forgives you. He'll declare you not guilty. He'll declare you righteous, but don't you dare bug him for anything else. He's already done so much. Don't ask for another thing. How dare you ask God for something else? I mean, he's already done so much for you.

That is not the picture that God gives us. That is not the understanding. That is not the way that God works. Paul says, on top of all of this stuff, on top of all these amazing benefits, we rejoice in God. We get to celebrate our relationship with God. We get to boast about God. We get to trust in Him and have joy in Him. God gives you joy.

full access to himself. He invites you in. He says, draw near and you can rejoice in that relationship with God. J. Vernon McGee says, I think this is one of the most wonderful statements we have in scripture. It means that right now, wherever you are, whatever your problems are, you can joy, rejoice in God. He says, you can rejoice that he lives and that he is who he is.

You can rejoice because he has provided a salvation for us and is willing to save us and bring us into his presence. He has worked out a plan to save us because of his love for us. And so we rejoice in God because of what he has done. We rejoice in God because of his incredible work of salvation. But we also rejoice in God because of this reconciliation. You have access to God. Rejoice in that.

joy, in this opportunity, in this renewed access to God. That you, you had no business approaching God before. Before Christ, what are you going to do? Try to approach God on the basis of your goodness? In this condition of being guilty, unrighteous, ungodly, without strength? It's always been, from the very beginning, unrighteous.

about approaching God by faith. That's what Paul went through in Romans chapter 4. He went back to Abraham to say, look, it was by faith. Abraham didn't approach God on the basis of his strength or his merits or what he had done. He approached God by faith, and God accounted that to him for righteousness. And so Abraham could have faith or could have relationship with God, not because he's such a good man, not because he's such a great man, but because he believed God.

And so he got to enjoy relationship with God because he believed. And in the same way, you get to rejoice in God. God's love is toward you in such a way that you don't have to stay at a distance. He doesn't require that you pay all kinds of penalties in order to approach. He doesn't look at you and say, you know, I've got more important things to do, so stop wasting my time. You can rejoice in God.

Because that relationship has been restored. And so you get to walk with God. You have the promise of eternity. Christ has died for you. You have the Holy Spirit. God's love has been poured out. And it's not just a little trickle. Again, with the picture. Not just, okay, like a couple drops. Okay, that's enough for you. It's been emptied. Everything that God has in his love for you is given to you.

A fire hydrant maybe pictures it a little bit better, maybe helps us grasp it a little bit more. And then the broken fire hydrant where it's just gushing out, maybe that helps us understand a little bit better. But maybe there's another idea that we could consider. This is Niagara Falls. Have you ever stood under a waterfall? I remember in Samoa standing under a waterfall.

And it just beats down on you. And you're just overwhelmed by it. You're gasping for breath. You're just trying to keep alive, essentially. I mean, it's just like rushing water, just overwhelmed, just all over you. It's pounding. It's constant. You can hardly breathe. You're overwhelmed. That was just a little waterfall. But listen, God's love for you is huge.

You never ever have to wonder if God loves you. If you are wondering if God loves you, just ask the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was given so that you could know what was freely given to you. And if we would receive from the Spirit this understanding of God's love for us, I think that he would show us we're standing under Niagara Falls.

and the love of God has been poured out completely. God is love, right? John tells us that. God is love. He gives himself for us completely. The love of God has been poured upon your hearts. All of it poured out completely, just completely emptied out upon you. He loves you abundantly, overwhelmingly. God's love towards you is amazing, and that is

is demonstrated by the cross. It's demonstrated by the Holy Spirit being given to us. It's demonstrated by the guarantee of salvation. You shall be saved. And it's demonstrated in this access that we have to God, that you can rejoice in God. You don't have to fear judgment. You don't have to fear God's wrath. You never have to fear God's wrath as a believer in Jesus. You can rejoice in God.

You can celebrate his relationship, his work, access to him. God loves you. I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes and my eyes, that we would know more and more. And when we wonder and when we doubt, when we question, that God would help us to see we're in the waterfall of

God is for us. He's on our side. He is doing what is absolutely best for us and in our lives. He works all things together for good. It's all his love being poured out upon us. God loves you. Let's just enjoy that this evening. I would encourage you this evening to rejoice in God. I'm going to invite the worship team to come back up and they're going to close us out in worship.

And during this time, I would encourage you to just rejoice in God. Rejoice in worshiping him. Rejoice in what he has done for you. Rejoice in all that he has given on your behalf. God's love is poured out. The picture of the pitcher, the picture of the fire hydrant, the picture of Niagara Falls, those still don't quite capture how much God loves you. And so as we worship,

invite the Holy Spirit to help you know what you've been freely given. Invite the Holy Spirit to help you know how much God loves you. As you do that, as you rejoice in God and you celebrate who he is and what he's done and your relationship with him, he may prompt your heart to share some of that with others around you. And so as we worship the Lord, I would give you the freedom and invite you

to minister to one another around you and to share that love of God with one another. Maybe it's something that God's showing you. Maybe it's a scripture. Maybe it's a prayer. If God prompts your heart, as you rejoice in God and celebrate who he is and what he's done, share his love with someone else. Allow him to be an expression of love through you. Let's worship the Lord and rejoice in him together.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.