The Supremacy of God's Love

Does your love for others surpass your? Family, children, wife, husband, friends, you church family to name a few. Do you have a sacrificial love? What do you mean by that Mike? Are you willing to sacrifice whatever it takes to please another? Better yet would you be willing to give up your own life, so that someone else could have life? Before we can answer these questions we need to understand what love means. The world defines Love this way; to have a deep, tender, unspeakable feeling of affection and solicitude toward (a person): We love our parents. I love my friends, to have a feeling of intense desire and attraction toward (a person). To have an intense emotional attachment to: loves his house, to embrace or caress. The world looks at the word love and turns it into a physical or emotional experience. That's a wrong definition of what love really means. Why? emotions and feeling are always changing constantly. They are always coming and going with every situation or experience in one's life, which really in the end focuses all on self. To have a proper balance that never changes we need to see how the bible defines love: "whether exercised toward the brethren, or toward men generally, is not an impulse from the feelings, it does not always run with the natural inclinations, nor does it spend itself only upon those for whom some affinity is discovered. Love seeks the welfare of all." The Bible declares that God is love.

The bible defines His love this way:
1. It’s in His Character (2 Cor 13:11)
2. Its Everlasting (Jer 31:3)
3. Its Unfailing (Is 49:15-16)
4. Its Great (Eph 2:4)
5. His love is Constraining (Hos 11:4)
6. A Special object of His Affection (John 15:9)
7. A Sending Love (Rom 5:8) (1John 4:10)
8. Is a Giving Love (Rom 5:8)
The bible says “but God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. This is what biblical love is. The best example is found in John’s Gospel "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved". John 3:16-17. The Father is going to demonstrate this love through His only begotten Son[Jesus Christ]. All things stem from this surpassing love. How important is this Love?

1. It’s a Love of Sacrifice, verse 16 (His only Son)
2. It’s a Love for all Humanity, verse16-17 (Salvation is for the whole world)
3. It’s a Love of Forgiveness, verse 17 (Salvation is provided through the Son)
4. It’s a Love that Overcomes Evil, verse 18-19 (The bondage of Mankind's flesh)

This Love is the ONLY way you will ever see the Kingdom. Jesus told Nicodemus “You must Be Born Again!” Today is the day of salvation loved ones! I ask the question every pastor should ask. Have you made that chose to embrace this gift of Love which only comes through the Son? Our gracious and Loving Father loved us so much that He desired, willed, decreed that He would send His only Son to pay the penalty that each and every one of us deserves. That penalty is death. But this no longer has to be for anyone, if you repent and believe by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The bible says if you confess with your mouth, if you repent, if you deny yourself, if you follow Him by faith you will be born again by His wondrous love. A love which surpasses all understanding. Why I say that listen to what Paul wrote; If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom 10:9). Paul also said For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1Thess 5:9). Have you made that decision to deny self and believe by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Whether you do or you don't, He still took your place as your sin sacrifice. Why? To please the Father, and show each and every one of us His love which never fails. John MacArthur says “there are no words in human language that can adequately express the magnitude of God’s saving gift to the world.” We must understand this wonderful truth if we ever going to understand God’s love for humanity. Please embrace this truth today! Your soul depends on it. Read the remaining verses in this chapter and you will find out what happens to those who deny that Jesus is the way the truth the life (verse 18-22). Jesus Christ gave His life sacrificially so that we could live with Him for all eternity in the presence of His glory and splendor. That's what it means to love some one above self. It's not a feeling or emotion, its genuine love and concern that supercedes everything else in one's life. We must love one another with that kind of love. We must love and tell others about this great love for all the world to embrace. To Him Be the Glory!