John 3:16; Rom 5:8
(Delivered on 3rd, Dec, 2017)
Today I am going to share with you –the greatest message of God which i considered as the greatest, not because of the content of my own message but because of God and the uniqueness of the message itself.
This message - though neglected and hardly hears in the midst of God’s people, is still one of the constant and central messages of the Bible.
To begin with the theme, I would like to share with you a story of Moorehouse, who was once a wild gambler and drinker, who at the later part of his life met God and has become a good preacher. He was known as one of the men who most influenced D. L. Moody, one of the greatest preachers. So, one day, Moody got a letter from Moorehouse that tells he would be in Chicago the next Thursday. Moody didn’t know what to do with him, so he told his deacons, “There is a man coming from England who wants to preach. I’m going to be gone Thursday and Friday. If you let him preach those days, I’ll be back Saturday and take him off your hands.” But when Moody returned back, the message he received from Moorhouse cached him up. It was so convincing that his heart began to thaw out and he even could not hold back his tears.
Then, on the final night, Moorhouse concluded his sermon by saying, “My friends, for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor stammering tongue. If I could borrow Jacob’s ladder, and climb up into Heaven, and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Almighty, if he could tell me how much love the Father has for the world, all he could say would be, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Therefore, friends the same and living message conveyed through the gospel of John and by Moorhouse – “The love of God” will be our chosen theme for this morning.
But since this human tongue can never tell how much deep and how measureless the love of God is, our message for this morning will also be very simple and at the same time ‘a humble one’.
However, as we move on to the theme, I first of all would like to tell you some reasons why I chose this theme. Why this message?
1. The world we live in is a world of confrontation, where we all together face diverse forms of confrontations – we are bombarded by various complex news (good and bad), new advertisements, innovative new technologies, and other desirable things which by no means we cannot simply avoided and rejected because of its irresistible powers and potentialities. Moreover, these things are being fabricated with the power of persuasion, and as a result we become enslaved by these powers. Our world, surrounding, environment became full of these diverse form of forces.
Therefore, in this situation – we, people of God need to make a repeated sound of the message of the love of God.
I contemplate and feel it necessary because, if we do not intended to do so, many people now begun to give more their interest in these forces than the core message of God.
IITim 4:3-4….For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
2. When I consider the chosen topic/subject– I realized thinking that, one of the greatest failures/ignorance I have committed during the past and present years was and is – I never tell ‘the sweetest story of the love of God’ to my students, to my colleagues. Of course, we have learned and being taught various subjects by our teachers from different areas of studies/aspect - doctrine and teachings of God, church and Christianity, etc. But we hardly receive direct message on the love of God.
Therefore, I feel it necessary to make a resounding voice of the love of God among the community of God’s people here.
But despite of this thing, the problem lays behind is - how shall we begin and how to tell this wonderful message of the love of God? Though the theme/phrase itself contain a lovely and wonderful message, it is not an easy topic to tell/convey. And moreover, when we talk about the message of the love of God, there are also serious unanswered and disturbing questions in many people’s minds.
Like these:
1. If God is love, why is the world in such a fear of tragedy and why are so many people suffering?
2. If God is love and if God is also sovereign and in charge, then why in the world would a loving God ever do these?
3. And not only that questions, there is even more penetrating – if God is love, why would he send people to hell to suffer forever?
What kind of love is it – that can control the world and allows the world to suffer? What kind of love is it, that is sovereign and in charge, and sent poor suffering people to eternal flame?
Of course, there can be appropriate answers to these questions from the belief and concept of - universalism, and other sources; nevertheless; forgetting/putting aside of all these nagging questions, we shall put our thought on the power and mightiness of the love of God.
Many years ago, the Swiss theologian Karl Barth visited the United States. At a question and answer session, someone asked him, “Dr. Barth, what is the greatest thought that has ever gone through your mind?” Barth thought about the question for a while and then replied; “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so” Barth was right on that answer! Because the ‘message of the love of God’ is always and always will be the greatest message that has ever gone through and could experience by human.
But again, the question lays behind is - how can we say that this is the greatest message that has ever gone through human life? – How can we measure the power and mightiness of the love of God? Apparently is - this human tongue and mind can never measure, can never tell ‘the love’ that is in God
– however, let us try to put our thoughtful minds in these ways.
1. Rom 5:10 tells us – while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him... Eph 2:4ff – but because of his great love for us, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we are death in transgressions.
Therefore, for the first point what I would like to make known to all of us is – the love of God is stronger than enmity, even than death in transgression.
Enmity, heated, crime, and death, are something that over and over again separated lovely couples, human, families, friends, community and society. If enmity is already presented between either any one of these groups, it is not easy to unite people. Suppose, even if there is possibility to unite between enemies, yet there can be no chance to unite if someone, our love one die.
This is our previous condition totally engulfed to all by spiritual death due to human transgression. The glory of God that we inherited from God did no longer presented to us for we become spiritually death. And moreover, according to Paul – we become enemy of God. This is the condition of human because of the same transgression.
But in spite of all these, a very good tiding that comes to us is – while we are God’s enemies, God who is rich in mercy, showed his great love towards us, his enemies. So this great love became a powerful and greatest instrument that breaks all the barriers between enemies. Therefore, we are no longer the enemy of God; rather we become members of the family of God.
When I contemplate again and again the love of God, delightful things I found was/were – the love of God that shown upon us is strong enough for it could reach and cross the boundary to and of his enemy, he could share and make available his love to and for his enemy. Therefore, what we can say is - His love is much stronger than the power of enmity, or any antagonism.
Therefore friends, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you this – whether you are rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy, happy or sad, being known or neglected, financially sound or poor, academically strong or weak, etc God loves you. That means, God is at the side of you. He is always ready to help you; he is always ready to stand before and on behalf of us for his love conquered any forms of enmity. How fortunate and happy I am because I can tell you that - You are loved by God.
2. It can heal the brokenness: The love of God is also manifested through the gift of his begotten son that consequently restores and heals the brokenness between God and human.
Isaiah 59:2a says - “But your iniquities (sin) have made a separation between you and your God.” This is by far, and as all knows the biggest consequence of sin committed by the first man and woman. Since, sin becomes an offense to God; God cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore he drove them out of the garden. Their relationship was broken.
This brokenness as a result causes man;
- To isolate from God,
- To lost the glory and holiness of God,
- A fellowship that binds together God and human is no more,
- A wall, huge gap that separate God and man falls between them…
- In short, their relationship was broken.
But in spite of all these, God who is rich in mercy – is still willing to give his begotten son to heal and restore the brokenness.
The will of mine may accept to do the work of restoration between me and to someone who has significant importance in my life, who is good, who is rich, popular and lovely. But I don’t think, that I can go - with a man whom a considered as a sinner, hopeless, enemy, unholy, poor and rotten, etc.
But for God, who is rich in mercy, is willing to heal the brokenness. That means his love is stronger than anything else. His love is strong enough to give us his greatest treasure Jesus, though we do not deserve it. And moreover, as he weighed together ‘his love for sinners’ and ‘his begotten son’ on his own scale; his love for sinner is heavier and much stronger. This is the reason why God gave his begotten son, and this is how he demonstrated his love to us. (How wonderful and magnificent the love of God is?)
In resent year, Bill Gather, one of the best contemporary Christian song writers was asked - ‘what is the greatest lyric ever written…” therefore, without blinking his eyes, he immediately answered -
“The greatest lyric ever written is this –
"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky…"
Though I still have 2 more points…
i) His love is more precious than anything else
ii) His love endures forever…I rather will stop here, but we will continue our message by presenting a song, a song which as I belief is more interesting and has more effective power to tell us about the love of God.
Therefore, we will invite our friends (Ms. Ajungla, Ms. Lovitoli, Mr. Hmingsanga) to present this song in continuation of the message…
"The love of God is greater far,
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell…"
(Delivered on 3rd, Dec, 2017)
Today I am going to share with you –the greatest message of God which i considered as the greatest, not because of the content of my own message but because of God and the uniqueness of the message itself.
This message - though neglected and hardly hears in the midst of God’s people, is still one of the constant and central messages of the Bible.
To begin with the theme, I would like to share with you a story of Moorehouse, who was once a wild gambler and drinker, who at the later part of his life met God and has become a good preacher. He was known as one of the men who most influenced D. L. Moody, one of the greatest preachers. So, one day, Moody got a letter from Moorehouse that tells he would be in Chicago the next Thursday. Moody didn’t know what to do with him, so he told his deacons, “There is a man coming from England who wants to preach. I’m going to be gone Thursday and Friday. If you let him preach those days, I’ll be back Saturday and take him off your hands.” But when Moody returned back, the message he received from Moorhouse cached him up. It was so convincing that his heart began to thaw out and he even could not hold back his tears.
Then, on the final night, Moorhouse concluded his sermon by saying, “My friends, for a whole week I have been trying to tell you how much God loves you, but I cannot do it with this poor stammering tongue. If I could borrow Jacob’s ladder, and climb up into Heaven, and ask Gabriel, who stands in the presence of the Almighty, if he could tell me how much love the Father has for the world, all he could say would be, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Therefore, friends the same and living message conveyed through the gospel of John and by Moorhouse – “The love of God” will be our chosen theme for this morning.
But since this human tongue can never tell how much deep and how measureless the love of God is, our message for this morning will also be very simple and at the same time ‘a humble one’.
However, as we move on to the theme, I first of all would like to tell you some reasons why I chose this theme. Why this message?
1. The world we live in is a world of confrontation, where we all together face diverse forms of confrontations – we are bombarded by various complex news (good and bad), new advertisements, innovative new technologies, and other desirable things which by no means we cannot simply avoided and rejected because of its irresistible powers and potentialities. Moreover, these things are being fabricated with the power of persuasion, and as a result we become enslaved by these powers. Our world, surrounding, environment became full of these diverse form of forces.
Therefore, in this situation – we, people of God need to make a repeated sound of the message of the love of God.
I contemplate and feel it necessary because, if we do not intended to do so, many people now begun to give more their interest in these forces than the core message of God.
IITim 4:3-4….For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths.
2. When I consider the chosen topic/subject– I realized thinking that, one of the greatest failures/ignorance I have committed during the past and present years was and is – I never tell ‘the sweetest story of the love of God’ to my students, to my colleagues. Of course, we have learned and being taught various subjects by our teachers from different areas of studies/aspect - doctrine and teachings of God, church and Christianity, etc. But we hardly receive direct message on the love of God.
Therefore, I feel it necessary to make a resounding voice of the love of God among the community of God’s people here.
But despite of this thing, the problem lays behind is - how shall we begin and how to tell this wonderful message of the love of God? Though the theme/phrase itself contain a lovely and wonderful message, it is not an easy topic to tell/convey. And moreover, when we talk about the message of the love of God, there are also serious unanswered and disturbing questions in many people’s minds.
Like these:
1. If God is love, why is the world in such a fear of tragedy and why are so many people suffering?
2. If God is love and if God is also sovereign and in charge, then why in the world would a loving God ever do these?
3. And not only that questions, there is even more penetrating – if God is love, why would he send people to hell to suffer forever?
What kind of love is it – that can control the world and allows the world to suffer? What kind of love is it, that is sovereign and in charge, and sent poor suffering people to eternal flame?
Of course, there can be appropriate answers to these questions from the belief and concept of - universalism, and other sources; nevertheless; forgetting/putting aside of all these nagging questions, we shall put our thought on the power and mightiness of the love of God.
Many years ago, the Swiss theologian Karl Barth visited the United States. At a question and answer session, someone asked him, “Dr. Barth, what is the greatest thought that has ever gone through your mind?” Barth thought about the question for a while and then replied; “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so” Barth was right on that answer! Because the ‘message of the love of God’ is always and always will be the greatest message that has ever gone through and could experience by human.
But again, the question lays behind is - how can we say that this is the greatest message that has ever gone through human life? – How can we measure the power and mightiness of the love of God? Apparently is - this human tongue and mind can never measure, can never tell ‘the love’ that is in God
– however, let us try to put our thoughtful minds in these ways.
1. Rom 5:10 tells us – while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him... Eph 2:4ff – but because of his great love for us, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we are death in transgressions.
Therefore, for the first point what I would like to make known to all of us is – the love of God is stronger than enmity, even than death in transgression.
Enmity, heated, crime, and death, are something that over and over again separated lovely couples, human, families, friends, community and society. If enmity is already presented between either any one of these groups, it is not easy to unite people. Suppose, even if there is possibility to unite between enemies, yet there can be no chance to unite if someone, our love one die.
This is our previous condition totally engulfed to all by spiritual death due to human transgression. The glory of God that we inherited from God did no longer presented to us for we become spiritually death. And moreover, according to Paul – we become enemy of God. This is the condition of human because of the same transgression.
But in spite of all these, a very good tiding that comes to us is – while we are God’s enemies, God who is rich in mercy, showed his great love towards us, his enemies. So this great love became a powerful and greatest instrument that breaks all the barriers between enemies. Therefore, we are no longer the enemy of God; rather we become members of the family of God.
When I contemplate again and again the love of God, delightful things I found was/were – the love of God that shown upon us is strong enough for it could reach and cross the boundary to and of his enemy, he could share and make available his love to and for his enemy. Therefore, what we can say is - His love is much stronger than the power of enmity, or any antagonism.
Therefore friends, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you this – whether you are rich or poor, healthy or unhealthy, happy or sad, being known or neglected, financially sound or poor, academically strong or weak, etc God loves you. That means, God is at the side of you. He is always ready to help you; he is always ready to stand before and on behalf of us for his love conquered any forms of enmity. How fortunate and happy I am because I can tell you that - You are loved by God.
2. It can heal the brokenness: The love of God is also manifested through the gift of his begotten son that consequently restores and heals the brokenness between God and human.
Isaiah 59:2a says - “But your iniquities (sin) have made a separation between you and your God.” This is by far, and as all knows the biggest consequence of sin committed by the first man and woman. Since, sin becomes an offense to God; God cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore he drove them out of the garden. Their relationship was broken.
This brokenness as a result causes man;
- To isolate from God,
- To lost the glory and holiness of God,
- A fellowship that binds together God and human is no more,
- A wall, huge gap that separate God and man falls between them…
- In short, their relationship was broken.
But in spite of all these, God who is rich in mercy – is still willing to give his begotten son to heal and restore the brokenness.
The will of mine may accept to do the work of restoration between me and to someone who has significant importance in my life, who is good, who is rich, popular and lovely. But I don’t think, that I can go - with a man whom a considered as a sinner, hopeless, enemy, unholy, poor and rotten, etc.
But for God, who is rich in mercy, is willing to heal the brokenness. That means his love is stronger than anything else. His love is strong enough to give us his greatest treasure Jesus, though we do not deserve it. And moreover, as he weighed together ‘his love for sinners’ and ‘his begotten son’ on his own scale; his love for sinner is heavier and much stronger. This is the reason why God gave his begotten son, and this is how he demonstrated his love to us. (How wonderful and magnificent the love of God is?)
In resent year, Bill Gather, one of the best contemporary Christian song writers was asked - ‘what is the greatest lyric ever written…” therefore, without blinking his eyes, he immediately answered -
“The greatest lyric ever written is this –
"Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky…"
Though I still have 2 more points…
i) His love is more precious than anything else
ii) His love endures forever…I rather will stop here, but we will continue our message by presenting a song, a song which as I belief is more interesting and has more effective power to tell us about the love of God.
Therefore, we will invite our friends (Ms. Ajungla, Ms. Lovitoli, Mr. Hmingsanga) to present this song in continuation of the message…
"The love of God is greater far,
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell…"
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