GOD LOVES YOU2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: God Loves You

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. And we're going to start out this morning in Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, we'll be looking at verses 6 through 8 to start off.

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the things that are familiar to us can easily be taken for granted. And you know that God loves you, and I know that God loves me, and yet there's a need for me to continue to refresh myself in the awe of the reality that God loves me. And there's a need for you to remember how crazy it is, how big of a deal it is that God loves you.

Anything familiar, because we know that God loves us, it can easily be taken for granted and we just don't think about it all that much. One of the things to pay attention to when you're in Japan is the price of fruit. Now, when Pastor Tom is here, you'll see him usually...

Pretty much every time you see him, he'll have a bag of fruit with him. If he goes to a meeting, he takes a bag of fruit. If he goes to the beach, he takes a bag of fruit. If he comes to church, he brings a bag of fruit. And usually, if you're around him, he'll tell you how much he bought the fruit for. Oh, man, this is a good deal. You know, these were this price, and this was that price. Oh, he's just all excited and passionate about the price of fruit.

And you understand that when you go to Okinawa because an apple in Okinawa is easily going to cost you $4 each. And so not $4 a pound, $4 each. And so it's really expensive. But here, you know, I don't, have I ever shown you a bag of fruit and told you how much I paid for it? Have I ever done that? No.

Partially, that's because I don't eat a lot of fruit. But the other reason is I'm just not that excited about it. It's something that's easy for me. I can go to the store all the time and get that price for fruit. And so I just take it for granted. But it's appreciated when that price isn't available elsewhere. And so Pastor Tom gets all excited about that. Well, in the same way, hey, God loves you. And so it's easy for us to just kind of go, yeah, OK, I know that. That's good. Great. Thanks. Thanks.

But then to not appreciate what that really means and how amazing that is. If you would rewind the clock quite a bit and go back to you as a new believer in Jesus, I'm sure that you were blown away by the love of God.

You were amazed. It was just like, wow, it's hard to believe that God would love you. And yet now coming forward as you've walked with the Lord, it's easy for that to just kind of diminish. And your amazement at the love of God is not what it used to be. And so how do we maintain that appreciation? How do we stay amazed?

Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of his day. Now, you know the religious leaders. They were passionate. They were zealous for God. And yet he tells them in John chapter 5 verse 42, he says, but I know you that you do not have the love of God in you. And so although they were passionate, they were zealous, they were, you know, on fire for things of God in their mind anyways. It was really for their own religion. But they were

But Jesus points out and says, but you don't have the love of God. You've lost sight of God's love, and you don't have the love of God within you. They had passion. They had zeal, but not for God's love. And you know that's easy to happen to us as well, as we get kind of caught up in our rituals, you know, and the normal things that we come to church, we read the Bible. It's easy for us to get caught up in those things and forget about God.

The crazy thing that God loves you. And sometimes we become self-righteous. And so we think, well, yeah, of course God loves me because, you know, look how righteous I am. And we forget what God has done and the work that God has done. It is a really big deal that God loves you. You don't deserve his love and you don't deserve his attention. And yet God loves you.

And so I want to walk you through a couple of thoughts to help you maintain that appreciation and amazement for the fact that God loves you. And so the first thing we'll look at here in Romans chapter 5, verses 6 through 8, is that God loved you when he should not have. And I would ask you to consider that for just a moment. God loved you when he should not have. Verses 6 through 8 of Romans 5 say this.

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. Here the Apostle Paul describes us in a way that says we were sinful. He says in verse 6, we were without strength.

In verse 6, he says that we were ungodly. And then in verse 8, he says that we were still sinners. And so he describes us in a way that we recognize that we were sinful, that we were in need of a Savior. And yet, as he gives these descriptions, I think it's a little bit clean for us to consider. I would ask you to consider something a little bit more graphic.

And so I'm going to turn you to Ezekiel chapter 16. You don't have to turn there. I'll put it on the screen here for you. But God describes his attention to the nation of Israel here in Ezekiel chapter 16, verses 4 through 6. Now, this also applies to us. It's a good picture of what God's done in our life as well. Listen to what he says. He says to Israel, as for your nativity, on the day you were born, your navel cord was not cut.

Yes, I said to you in your blood, live.

Here God gives this more graphic picture of the nation of Israel, which again, I think is a good picture of us. He says, look, you guys, you were abandoned on the day of your birth. Nobody wanted you. Nobody cared for you. He says in verse five, you were loathed on the day you were born.

And so you were in this place of nobody loved you. Nobody cared for you. Your navel cord wasn't cut. You weren't taken care of. Instead, you were just lying there in your own blood. You were just lying there in your own muck and your own mess. And God says, and then I came by, and I saw you there in your blood, and I said, live.

I came by and I said, hey, I'm going to give you life. I cared for you when nobody else cared for you. I cared for you when nothing else was going on in your life and nobody else paid any attention to you. I cared for you and I wanted to give you life.

And I think it's a good picture for us. It relates well to how we were outside of Christ, that we were there in just our own muck, our own mess, our own blood. And nobody really cared for us, but God, God cared for us. And God loved you in that condition. God loved you in that state. And God loved you when he should not have.

What I mean by that is that there was no good reason for God to love you. There was no good thing that you could point out and say, well, see, God, I deserve your love because look at this in my life. No, you were like a baby that was loathed on the day of its birth. Nobody loved you. Nobody cared for you. No good thing about you. But God loved you.

God cared for you. You didn't deserve his love and you weren't worthy of his love. He says that you were without strength here in Romans chapter 5 verse 6. And the idea here of being without strength is that you were incapable of doing anything righteous. You were incapable of doing anything good. There is no good thing in you apart from Christ. No thing of value.

No thing worth saving, no thing worth loving in you apart from Christ. And so Paul says, this is how we were, ungodly, without strength, sinful. And then he says in verse 7 here of Romans 5, he says, you know, it's scarce to find someone who will die even for a righteous man. Hey, for a good man, someone may dare to die. But the contrast is you weren't a good person.

For a righteous person, someone might dare to die. Who would you be willing to die for? Think about that. Now, I don't mean like in a quick decision, you know, even before you have time to process, you know, you're in a situation, you push someone out of the way just out of, you know, reaction or instinct. But who would you deliberately decide to die for?

Maybe think about it this way. Who would you walk the plank for? So, you know, here they are. They've got, they've got, I'm trying to think. Okay, they've got Jackie, you know, walking down the plank and David interrupts and says, no, no, no. I'll take her spot. Let her live. I'll die in her place. Yeah, perhaps for family, you would deliberately make that choice. You'd go out of your way and say, no, I'll die instead of them. Maybe for close friends, you might die for them as well. But

But would you be willing to die for a criminal who is guilty and given a death sentence? Would you be willing to take their place and say, oh, no, no, save the scumbag criminal. I'll die in their place. Who would do that? Well, the point is, that's not going to happen. Nobody would do that. And yet, that's what God did for us. Verse 8. But God demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

And so Paul's point is, there was no good reason for God to love you. You were guilty. You were deserving of death. But God loved you anyways and sent his only begotten son to die upon the cross for you. But not for anything that you have done. If God had asked you for counsel about whether or not he should love me,

If he laid my life before you, showed you my heart, showed you, you know, what goes on in my mind, shows you, you know, what's happening in my life and where I'm at and what I do. If he laid all that out before you and said, what do you think, Jeff? Should I love Jerry? Jeff would say, absolutely not. Nothing of value there. Why would you love that? That's worthless. Why would you waste your time on that? Why would you waste your attention on that?

especially if he was showing you this week, because this week, coming back from Japan, man, this jet lag is hitting me hard. I've been so grumpy all week long. And so you'd look at that and you go, forget that guy. I mean, it's not worth it. There's nothing lovable there. And yet God demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, while we were still in that sinful condition, while we still had no value, Christ died for us. God loves you.

And he gave you the ultimate proof that he loves you by dying on the cross for you. And so this morning, I'd like to stir you up and remind you to be amazed at God's love. God loves you when he should not have, when there is nothing good in your life, when there is nothing of value, there is nothing worthwhile, no righteousness, no goodness. He loved you. And if you want to stay amazed at the love of God, don't forget where you came from. Don't forget what he's brought you out of.

Well, moving on to the second point for this morning, let's turn now to John chapter 17. John chapter 17, here we'll see point number two, God loves you as he loves Jesus. And this is something important to understand, to continue to be amazed at the love of God.

Here in John chapter 17, Jesus is praying right before he goes to the cross. And as he spends this time in prayer, he prays for himself, and then he prays for his disciples, and then he prays for all who will believe. Check out verse 20. He says, I do not pray for these alone, talking about his disciples, but also for those who will believe in me through their word.

And so I just want to make sure that we're all clear here. Who is Jesus praying for? He says, I'm not just praying for the disciples, but all who will believe through the testimony of the disciples. That is you and me and all of us. We believe in Jesus as a result of the testimony of the disciples. And the church, you know, has continued all of these years,

tracing its history back to the book of Acts and the work that God did in spreading the gospel through those disciples or apostles. And so Jesus says, I'm praying for them. Everybody who believes the word of God, everybody who believes in Jesus, he's praying for you. He's praying for me.

And what does he pray for? Well, primarily he prays for unity here in these verses. Unity with him and unity between believers. In verse 21 he says, that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.

So he prays for unity for the purpose of the world believing. As the church unites together, as believers unite together, remember Jesus said, the world will know that you're my disciples by your love for one another. And so as we are united together, it testifies to the world that Jesus is the Savior. Verse 22. Verse 22.

And so again, he prays for unity. Then in verse 23, And so he continues to pray for unity, but notice the end of verse 23. Now notice what Jesus says there.

As he prays for unity, he prays that the world may know that Jesus was sent by the Father. But then he says also that the world would know that the Father has loved us as the Father loves Jesus. That they would know, the world would know that you have loved them as you have loved me. Jesus is praying for you. And he says the Father loves you as he loves Jesus.

If that doesn't cause you to be amazed at God's love, I think nothing will. But here's the reality. God loves you. He loves you in the same way that he loves Jesus. You can see that by the exchange that is made and that he's willing to send his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to die upon the cross, to experience the maximum amount of suffering possible

He experienced the ultimate in suffering. He experienced the most pain. And the father said, it's worth it. Jesus said, it's worth it. It's a good exchange. You can tell how something valuable is to you by how much you're willing to pay for it, right? You can see, oh yes, that's worth a thousand dollars to me. And so you're willing to hand off a thousand dollars in exchange for that. Well, the father is

I don't want to make it seem like Jesus wasn't involved and it was against his will. So, you know, the Father and Jesus joined up and said, you know, it's worth it. Jesus says, I'll go. I'll experience the maximum suffering that is possible in exchange for these people, for their opportunity to have everlasting life and be forgiven of sin. It demonstrates the Father loves you in the same way that he loves Jesus. He values you.

in the same way that he values Jesus. This should cause us to be amazed. It should also cause us to trust God to a greater degree. You can trust in his promises because you know that he loves you in the same way that he loves Jesus. It should cause you to trust God in his work in your life, knowing that he will be faithful to complete the work that he began in you because he loves you in the same way that he loves Jesus. It should cause you to trust that Jesus loves

sees, that the Father sees what's happening in your life. Sometimes we feel like as we're experiencing difficulty and suffering that, you know, God's just not aware. You know, He's not paying attention and just not, you know, He's got important things to do. And so, you know, He doesn't really see what's happening in our lives. But

But you should know that God is paying attention. And yes, there's difficulty and suffering. But the Father sees what's happening in your life. He knows what's going on. And it should cause you to trust that he cares. He really does care about you because he loves you in the same way that he loves Jesus. This is absolutely mind-blowing. I asked while I was there in Japan how to translate that, that idea of mind-blowing. And so they told me it's like this. Boom.

It's mind-blowing. God loves you as he loves Jesus. If you want to stay amazed at the love of God, consider how much God loves you. Well, point number three, we're going to jump back to the book of Romans. Would you turn with me to Romans chapter 8? Here in Romans chapter 8, point number three is God will never stop loving you. So not only did he love you when he should not have, and not only does he love you to this great degree as he loves Jesus, but

He will always love you that way. God will never stop loving you. Here in Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 37, it says,

Now here, what has Paul been talking about? As he says in all these things, he's been talking about persecutions, affliction, and difficulty. And many times as we experience those things, we feel like we've been separated from God. And we begin to wonder, does it mean God no longer loves me because I'm suffering in this way? But Paul is saying, no, we do suffer it.

But it doesn't mean that God has abandoned us, and it doesn't mean that God does not love us. In fact, he says, instead, you're more than a conqueror through him who loved you. And so because he loves you, even in the midst of suffering, you are not just a conqueror, but you are more than a conqueror. It means to gain a decisive victory, a massive victory, or we might use the expression to win by a landslide.

And so you might feel like you're losing because of the suffering, because of the difficulty, because of the things that are going on. But Paul says, no, no, you're thinking about it wrong. You're more than a conqueror through him who loved you. You've won by a landslide because God loves you and he's on your side.

And he goes on in verse 38 and 39 to share, for I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Paul says, I'm persuaded. I'm convinced. Here's why I can say you're more than a conqueror through him who loved you.

Because nothing can separate you from the love of God. There's no way for you to be separated. There's no way. Is there anything that I can do to make God stop loving you? Absolutely not. No matter what I do, God will still love you. And he'll still love you in the same way that he loves Jesus. Is there anything that Satan can do to make God stop loving you? Absolutely not. Even though he tries really hard.

He's called the accuser of the brethren. And he stands before God and says, hey, do you know what that guy did? Are you paying attention to what he just said right there? Did you see that? He's accusing you all the time before the Lord. But nothing he does can cause God to stop loving you. There's nothing, no created thing, no angelic being, no person, no boss, no freeway, no traffic, nothing that could separate you from the love of God. Is there anything that you can do?

To make God stop loving you? Absolutely not. God loves you. He will always love you. He will never stop loving you. He's proven that once and for all at the cross. Nothing can change God's love for you. No one can change his mind. He will always love you. And so to stay amazed at God's love, remember that nothing can separate you from it.

We have the opportunity this morning to reflect and consider the love of God demonstrated by the cross as we partake of communion together. And so I'll invite the girls to come on up and prepare to lead us in worship for a time of communion. And I want to share with you and remind you what the Lord said in Luke chapter 22.

Jesus took the bread, he gave thanks, and he broke it and gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so he took the bread of that supper and he said, this is my body which I'm giving for you because I love you. And he says, do this in remembrance of me. And so that's why we partake of communion together, to remember the work of

that Christ has done for us, to remember the love that he has demonstrated for us. In verse 20, he says, or it says, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you. And so he took the cup. He said, this is the new covenant, a new covenant by which I've accomplished everything that's needed for salvation. All you have to do is believe in me and you'll be forgiven of your sin, washed and cleansed.

And as you believe in me, you have everlasting life. That's the new covenant. And so this represents this new covenant that I'm creating for you. It represents the forgiveness of your sins as I give my life for you. And Jesus gave us the instruction to do this in remembrance of him. And so we do this regularly to remember the Lord.

And I would encourage you as we partake this morning, let it refresh you and remind you of the love that God has for you. I love what David Guzik says about this. He says, the work of Jesus on the cross for us is God's ultimate proof of his love for you. He may give additional proof, but he can give no greater proof. He may show you all the time that he loves you in your life, but the greatest, the ultimate proof of his love for you is the cross.

And so they're going to lead us in this worship song. And I want to encourage you to take this time to remember the cross. Remember the ultimate demonstration of God's love for you. They're going to pass out the bread and the cup. And you can partake at any time between you and the Lord as they lead us in worship. Go ahead and you partake at any time as you reflect on the love of Lord and just want to say, yes, I receive your love towards me. I receive your grace and your forgiveness.

And if you're not a believer in Jesus today, if you've not made that decision to follow Jesus, this is a great opportunity to do that. And I would encourage you to partake as well and say, yeah, yes, I receive. I believe in you, Jesus, and I receive what you've done for me, and I want to follow you. Now, if you don't believe in Jesus, don't partake, because the scripture says you just bring condemnation to yourself as you testify, well, I know what Jesus did, but I'm not going to receive it or follow it. And so don't partake if that's you.

if you want to receive what God has for you today, this is a great opportunity. And so we're going to worship the Lord together as they pass out the bread and the cup. Again, go ahead and partake between you and the Lord at any time during the worship, and then I'll come up and close in a couple words. Higher than the mountains that I face Stronger than the power of the grave Constant in the trials

Your love endures.

and on and on and on it goes and it overwhelms and satisfies my soul and I never ever have to be a swan swan never gives up never runs out on me your love

Never fails, never gives up. Never runs out on me. Never gives up, never runs out on me. Your love. Your love. In death, I'm confident in covering the path. My death is pain. There's death that can separate my heart. Your love. In death, I'm lying.

♪ In death, I'm confident in coming back ♪ ♪ My death is pain, there's nothing that can separate my heart ♪ ♪ Your love gives up, never runs out on ♪ ♪ Your love never gives up, never runs out on ♪ ♪ Your love never gives up, never runs out on ♪ ♪ Your love higher than I ♪

Higher than the mountains that I reach. Stronger than the power of the grave. Constant in the trial and the chase. It's what we make. It's what we make. It's your love.

never runs out on me never runs out on me your love never fails never runs out on me your love

Never runs out on me. Your love.

You can partake if you haven't already. And Lord, we thank you for your amazing love, how you loved us so greatly, God. It's so awesome. Help us, Lord, to maintain the appreciation for your love, to continue to be amazed because your love towards us, it never ends, it never fails, and we're completely unworthy of it. Thank you, God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

There's one last thought I'd like to share with you. And so if you would turn with me to 1 John chapter 4, we'll look at this one last thought really briefly to continue to consider the fact that God loves you. Not only does he love you when he should not have, he loves you as he loves Jesus. And he will never stop loving you. But

Now we have the opportunity to respond to that love and we see our response to that love here in 1 John chapter 4 and our response to that love is to love others as God loves us.

And I would encourage you to walk out with this thought this morning, to love other people in the way that God loves you. In 1 John 4, verse 9, it says, "'In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. 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.'"

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. John here says something similar to the Apostle Paul. He says, God revealed his love for us in sending his only begotten son that we might have life. And this is what love is. He says, not that we loved God, not that we had given God some reason to love us, not that we initiated this love relationship, but God initiated it. He reached out and loved us

When there was nothing deserving in our lives and he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, to take care of our sin problem, he met our need when we didn't care, when we didn't want to know him, when we were enemies against God. But now in verse 11, he says, "'Beloved, if God's loved us this way, "'then we ought to love one another.'" This is how we are to love one another.

The Lord revealed his love. The Father revealed his love by sending Jesus. And check it out. Now God continues to reveal his love to the world around us by sending you. So that the world knows that the Father loves them because you're in their life. That's how it's meant to be. That we continue to be the demonstration of God's love to the world around us. And so the call is for us to love people because God loves them.

And how does God love them? How does God love us? How are we to love other people? Well, God loved you when he should not have. And so the call for you is to go love people who shouldn't be loved.

who have no good reason for you to love them. There's no good thing in their life that should cause you to love them, but you will choose to love them because God loves them. Love people who were in the condition you were before God got a hold of your life. Love people who are incapable of loving you back. Go love the unlovable before there's any reason to love them. And God loves you as he loves Jesus. Who is most precious to you in this life?

Go love people the way that you love them. Love each other like that. Choose to care for one another. Love them as much as God loves them. And God loves, or God will never stop loving you. So as you go to love people, don't give up. When they fight against it, don't give up. When they hate it, don't give up. Never give up, just as God never gives up on loving you. Don't stop loving them. Now, if you want to maintain an appreciation for God's love,

Go try to love like this. And as you try to love the unlovable, as you try to love in the same way that the Father loves Jesus, as you try to maintain and never stop loving people, you'll begin to appreciate once more, wow, God, you loved me in this condition. You loved me this way. And you'll appreciate his love for you. And so this is how God has loved us. And he's called us now to love one another, to love people around us in the same way.

And so that's the exhortation for us. Love others as God loves you. And you'll appreciate, you'll be amazed at how much God loves you as you do. God bless you. You're dismissed. Have a great week as you go love one another. 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.