God Our Father - Part 10

Just like a mother smiles her baby into smiling God loves us into loving!!

God is love, it is not just something that He performs it is who He is.  This last Sunday we completed part 10 in our series "God Our Father."  I love teaching along this line of truth. The reason why is because it stirs such a great faith response in people when they hear and are open to the message.    

Before I review the message from Sunday I want to share some of the Scriptures we have looked at previously to remind you of God's heart toward you.  This is God's heart toward you whether you are saved or not!!  God's default attitude toward all humanity is redemptive.

Psalms 145:9 - The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works.
Luke 6:35 - Bur love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.  For He (God) is kind to the unthankful and evil.  
Romans 2:4 - Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance.  
2 Cor. 5:19 - That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  

God is love and it is His goodness through Jesus Christ that is being extended to all the world, believers and non-believers alike.  God is not holding people's sins against them.  

We see this clearly in 1 Cor. 13:5 which states, "love think no evil."  The Amplified translation states, "love takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]."  So what does this mean?  It means that God does not take inventory of evil, He is not counting over or calculating our sins against us.  Another translation of this verse says, that God is not brooding over injury.  As the previous passages have done this Scripture shows us the purity of God's love for us.  

As we have been doing, let's look to the ministry of Jesus to see this kind of love in action. Luke 23:34-43 gives us a powerful description of love that thinks no evil.  In these verses we repeatedly see Jesus acting in love even while He is hanging on the cross.  Jesus was totally redemptive all the way to His death.

In verse 34 of this chapter we read these words uttered by Jesus, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do."

• This is love that is  not thinking evil, it is not taking inventory of evil.  In the midst of all the pain Jesus was going through He declares Father forgive them, not Father kill them all.  Jesus chooses our salvation over His own!

In verses 35-37 we see where rulers in the group looking on sneered at Jesus saying, "He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God."  Then we see where the soldiers also mocked Him and said, "If you are the King of the Jews, save Yourself."  

• Wow, this again is God's love on display through Jesus.  Jesus could have saved Himself, He was innocent but instead of saving Himself He chose to save us!  Love thinks no evil.

The last verses that I would like you to consider in this passage of Scripture is the interaction between Jesus and the thief on the cross found in verses 39-43.  In these verses Jesus through the Love of God extends redemption to a man who is on a cross next to Jesus for crimes he committed.

• The love of God is operating so strongly in Jesus that in the midst of physically dying Jesus extends salvation to the criminal next to Him on a cross.  What a demonstration of love by the Lord!  What a demonstration of redemption!  Jesus is so wonderful and perfect, even in the midst of dying for the sins of humanity, in the midst of extreme pain physically, emotionally, and spiritually He never deviated in obedience to God.  God's love is absolutely flawless!

Galatians 5:6 tells us that "faith works by love."  Allow the Holy Spirit to minister to you concerning the love of God for you.  Remember what 1 John 4:16 states, "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us."  Know and believe God's love for you!

In Christ, Pastor Sean