Greater Than: God's Love Is Greater Than Anything - Message Only

[Applause] let's pray dear heavenly father if somehow some way we could understand how great your love is how high and how wide and how deep and how long your love is and how you are for us it would change everything we would no longer be anxious we would no longer feel like we have to perform for you to earn your love we could actually just relax in your love relax in your unconditional grace and your unconditional mercy lord i pray that we would have an aha moment today that something that would be said would spark something inside our soul that would realize how much you love us and lord that we could relax and enjoy the relationship that you offered to us lord please your will be done in this moment we ask this in jesus name amen i want to welcome everybody here today and also everybody who's online this past week was easter week and a lot of exciting things happened as a result of that we kind of put a compilation video together to kind of show you some of the things that we think are worthy of celebrating of so take a look at this god's love is the greatest kind of love there is and the greatest example of his love was shown through jesus's life death and resurrection on good friday over 10 400 people from across the globe took part in a special online service to remember what jesus went through for each of us more than 5 000 people across six campuses experienced jesus's journey to easter sunday giving us all a new appreciation for the days leading up to the day that changed human history forever on easter weekend 138 people went public with their decision to follow jesus by getting baptized while tens of thousands experienced god's greater love online and on tv and those that have experienced god's greater love can't help but show that love to others in return motivated by a greater love the people of sagebrush donated 14 587 pounds of food to help feed the hungry in their communities but god's greater love isn't isolated locally sagebrushers from all across the united states banded together to provide over 22 000 meals to feed my starving children that's enough food to feed 61 people for an entire year love like this has the power to change lives jesus is making an impact from major cities and rural communities in the heart of the southwestern united states to the hearts of people in belize and around the world god's love is greater isn't that great news that's some good stuff seems like every week i get a letter from somebody in some little remote part of new mexico or someplace around the world thanking us for what we're trying to do with our stream and for our television stuff it's just very exciting to see how the message of jesus is spreading now you know that we were praying that we would see about 150 000 people either stream or watch on tv our easter service and we didn't able to put the numbers in as to how many people got to watch us on easter because we didn't get the arbitron ratings in in time when the video was being produced but i'll have you know that we didn't have 150 000 people tune in we had 290 000 people tune in so once again you might be new to this age brush family we're just glad that you're a part and we're glad that you're tuning in we're glad that you're participating we hope that this has been helpful uh to you we're starting a brand new series called greater than and today we're talking about the fact that god's love is greater than anything we've ever dreamed or ever imagined now when i was a little boy i loved to play baseball that was kind of my sport i absolutely loved the game here's a picture of me and my brother playing a little baseball uh we were on different teams because my brother was two and a half years older than me he's the one standing up i'm the one kneeling down there in the picture my dad had to alternate each year one year he'd coach my brother's team and the next year he coached my team and being able to play for my dad was a real treat my dad was a great encourager he was an absolute great coach he gone sportsman of the year several years in a row he was always encouraging us right down that old alley rocking fire he'd say stuff like that from the dugout you just wanted to play well for him now i don't know if you know this about me or not but i am a highly competitive person highly competitive for the last 24 years i have beat my wife and my kids in just about every sport known and available to man i don't let anybody win if you beat me you have earned the victory i've beat my kids it's hard all the way back in candyland they call me king candy that's my nickname right there and then shoots and ladders nobody could come up and down those ladders faster than i could i tell you what and then you got games like you know i trashed them in tennis and i beat them in basketball and uno well that's my nickname cause i am number one you understand what i'm saying right now i am a highly competitive person well a few years ago we bought this little game to play in the backyard and my family was all together and we're playing it's where you throw a bean bag into a hole i think they call it corn hole i don't know why they call it corn hole and corn's got nothing to do with it but you throw these little bean bags in these little holes and so i beat my youngest daughter and i beat my middle daughter and i beat my oldest daughter and i beat my wife i beat them all once twice three times third time around i'm playing against my oldest daughter once again and somehow someway god must have intervened but in triple overtime she beat me well i was not happy about the fact that she had beat me and i certainly wasn't happy about the fact in her reaction because she raised her arms like she had just won an olympic gold medal she said i won i won i won and trying to take the steam out of her just a little bit for her stupid victory of a beanbag toss game i said this is a this is a beanbag oh well you beat your your old man throwing a beanbag that's not even a real sport right there you know what she said to me she looked at me and she said i'll take it i'll tell you i've been beaten down for 24 years and i finally have a victory she's in therapy now my oldest daughter is also pregnant how do you like that isn't that crazy yeah gets married in the summer and doesn't want to wait at all and all of a sudden i'm going to only be a grandpa now so the question is is as was my grandchild going to call me and pretty much whatever they decide i think is what i'm going to be called but i like grand todd because i'm grand and i'm todd so grand todd and the mere fact that my oldest daughter hates the name grand todd so i'm for sure going to be called grand todd for that reason well i'm a highly highly competitive person sorry i'm on my dad's baseball team i don't want to let my dad down don't let my team down well one thing you need to know about baseball is that not every time you get up to the plate to swing the bat do you get a hit sometimes you actually strike out and i struck out quite a bit and every time i struck out i'm embarrassed to say this but i was the kind of kid who would kind of drag his bat behind him after he struck out and sit at the end of the bench and have his big bottom lip out and start crying a little bit because i let my team down i let my dad down well my dad was a little bit embarrassed by the way that i was acting he kind of saw me as a poor sport because probably that's what i was and he pulled me aside one day at the house after we had a bad game i think i'd struck out two or three times did the same thing again and my dad said hey son let me ask you a question he said who's your favorite baseball player of all time and i said well babe ruth the babe he's he's the best ever my dad said did you know that baberu struck out more times than he got a hit and i'll never forget what i said i was about eight nine years old i said not the babe dad not the babe he said yes son even the babe i said but dad i just feel like i let you down every time i just feel like every time i let the team down when i strike out and i'll never forget what my dad said to me it's been over 40 years he said son there's nothing you can do that would ever cause me to think less of you to cause me to believe that you're less than you know son i love you no matter what no matter if you strike out or if you get a hit my love for you is not based upon whether you can hit the ball or not you are my son i had a pretty good dad didn't i we got a pretty good heavenly father as well and so we're going to look at the passage of scripture today it's one of my favorite passages of scripture and i'm going to do my very best to try to describe for you the love of god even though it's so high and so wide and so long and so deep that you'll never be able to fathom it i'm just hoping that somehow some way you'll get a glimpse of how much he loves you and how much he cares for you now if you brought your bible today it's found in romans chapter eight where i start with verse 31 if you're on your phone you're looking up the scriptures make sure you highlight this one it's a great passage of scripture and if you're here and you didn't bring a phone and you didn't bring a bible the scriptures will be up on the screen all right let's look at it romans 8 31 it says this if god is for us who can be against us now i want you to think about that first phrase for just a second if god is for us this past week how many times did you think that god was for you did you have that thought because if you're anything like me you didn't have that thought at all remember we talked about this a few weeks ago the thoughts that run through our minds when it comes to our relationship with god are thoughts like this god's disappointed with me god wants to wash his hands of me god's shaken his head at me god's not proud of me god's not for me we never have this thought that god is for us that god believes in us that god sees things greater than ourselves and if we could just have that thought it would change everything wouldn't it if you could just walk around this next week and say god's for me god's for me in every way in every situation god is for me this next week you might find yourself at your job and you might find yourself in over your head maybe you're walking into a meeting with your boss maybe you're working on a project you're like i don't know what i'm gonna do can you remember this one truth god is for you some of you kids are gonna be having tests this next week and these tests are getting more and more difficult as the semester comes to an end and these tests are going to be the summation of your grade and you're a little stressed out you're a little anxious would you remember this this next week that god is for you some of you parents you're putting off that conversation that hard conversation that you have to have with your teenager can i just let you know god is for you once again your kids are fighting once again you're so sick of it you got to be kidding me right now you're so exhausted you're so overwhelmed never forget god is for you god is for your marriage god is for your future god is for that dream that he put inside of you he's for that dream becoming a reality because god is for you god is for you making the greatest impact you can for the kingdom of god and for the things of god and yet we have all these thoughts that run around in our mind that god has disappointed they got us angry they got us frustrated with us you've probably had this happen to you where you thought to yourself that your past is so ugly that it can never be forgiven right god can forgive that person god can forgive that person but for what i did god can't forgive me but the bible says in romans 8 1 that there therefore is no condemnation for those who are in christ jesus why because god is for you you've probably said to yourself i'm a loser and i'm never ever going to change but what does the bible say second corinthians 5 17 says therefore if anyone is in christ he's a new creation the old has gone the new has come god is for you maybe you've heard it said that there's no hope for someone like you but the bible says in jeremiah 29 11 for surely i know the plans i have for you says the lord plans for your welfare and not to harm you but to give you a future with hope why does god care about your life because he is for you in every way that you can conceive let me give you another one you say you can't do anything right but the bible says that you can do everything through christ who gives you strength maybe you've heard this one here oh you're only give up in the end what does the bible say surely god is my help and that good god is my help the lord is the one who will sustain me maybe you've thought to yourself god will abandon me like everybody else has but what does the bible say jesus speaking here and surely i'm with you always to the very end of the age god is for you god is fiercely loyal to you years ago i was working at this church no one getting paid a whole lot of money up 150 bucks a week and working about 30 hours i'm making about five bucks an hour a little bit more the minimum wage was at the time and i was i already had my master's degree and that's what i was getting paid serving there and uh i couldn't afford anything i couldn't afford apartment i couldn't i couldn't afford shoes i i couldn't afford anything so my mom and my dad were so gracious they let me stay living in their house and they bought me clothes and they got me birthday gifts and and one year i i got some new shoes new tennis shoes and i was so excited for these shoes they're only really the thing that i really wanted from my birthday and they were sixty seventy dollars they were which in today's money would be about a hundred fifty dollars so it's a really nice pair of shoes and i wore those shoes everywhere that i live well my parents went to the same church that i did and and i'm serving there and i've got these nice shoes on and somebody in the church thought my shoes were too nice now why someone would look at my shoes and think we're paying this kid too much money because he's got such a nice pair of shoes without maybe even thinking that maybe his mom and dad or how about this why are you even looking at my shoes in the first place you know but he had shoe envy i guess for some reason i don't really understand preachers and sneakers you look it up it's a thing you know so uh so here he comes up and he goes to my dad and it's right before worship service out in the foyer right before the service was supposed to begin and he pulled my my dad aside and he said i think our church is paying your son too much money do you see his nice shoes now my dad was a christian he loved the lord but sometimes his christianity didn't come out of his mouth you know uh sometimes he said things he you know should shouldn't say and so this made my dad really mad because somebody was attacking his son and nobody attacks his son nobody attacks his family so i'll never forget i'm standing out there and the guy's talking about how expensive my shoes are my dad's like yeah i know i paid for them and my dad he didn't cuss which was still shocking to me to this day because normally in this situation he would have but because we were by the worship center where god lives he used every substitute cuss word i've ever heard in one sentence it was quite an impressive thing to see and chewed that guy up one side down the other and i never felt more loved by my dad than in that moment in time you mess with my son you mess with me now now that's the way god is about you you've asked him into your life he's forgiven you of your sin he's made you a son or a daughter you're a prince or a princess and when somebody messes with you god says well they've messed with me too that's how fiercely loyal god is because look at that first phrase if god is forced then it asks the question who can be against us so what's the answer to that one who can be against us well the obvious answer is everybody isn't that true i mean he's not saying if god's for you it doesn't matter what anyone says who can be against you well i can give you a list your wife can be against you your husband can be against you your kids can be against you your parents can be against you your classmates can be against you your co-workers can be against you anybody feeling paranoid right now i always feel like somebody's watching me right yeah i think this is what he's trying to say he's saying listen if i'm for you don't worry about that if i'm for you you and me together will always be the majority you stay on my plan you stay on my page you stay with me i am for you don't worry about what they do to you don't worry about what they say to you don't worry about all the ways in which they come against you because even when they do evil against you even when they bring bad things to your house i'll change it for something good i have this amazing ability god says to turn that which is evil turn that which is bad into something that's beautiful and that what he says just a couple of verses earlier in romans chapter 8 verse 28 says we know that in all things god works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose god says don't sweat it i'm for you yeah i know there's people against you but we'll even take that and we'll make something beautiful out of those ashes i'm for you i'm fiercely loyal to you kyle eidelman shares a story in one of his books about a guy who would uh became an alcoholic and he had destroyed his life just lost everything lost his wife lost his kids lost his livelihood just just lost it all and finally when he hits rock bottom he realizes the air of his ways and he comes to his senses and he turns his life over to jesus christ so he starts going to alcoholics anonymous and they have steps that you take through the alcoholics anonymous program and you got to that step where you have to make amends well the only way you can make amends is to admit to what you've done and the damage that you brought along the way so he calls his dad dad lives in another state calls his dad on the phone says hey dad you know i've hurt my wife i've hurt my kids i've hurt you i've just made a complete mess of my life and this next week at the uh a meeting i've got to stand up and i've got to share all the damage that i've done and i and i'm not looking forward to it it's going to be really hard it's going to be really difficult the dad said you do fine son you'll do fine well they hung up the phone what the son didn't know was that the dad immediately bought a ticket to be there for that meeting so his dad shows up son is absolutely blown away he thinks this is great this is wonderful my dad's here and then he thinks oh no my dad's here because one of the people he seems to apologize to is to the damage that he's done to his dad so it's his turn to speak and so he stands up and he shares about the damage he's done to his family and the damage he's done to his wife and he's lost everything and how he's hurt his dad he's just weeping he's just crying the entire time as he's getting one sentence after another out and finally he gets done and he sits down and he's just looking down at the floor and the dad immediately stands up and he says look at me and their son leans up and looks at his dad and then he says to everybody in the room look at me and every one of those alcoholics looked at that dad he said i want you to know that i've never been more proud of my son than i am right now and then he looked right at his son he said son there's nothing that would ever stop me from ever loving you no matter what and the man writes that it was an epiphany it was one of those moments that changed the trajectory of his life because he began to believe that maybe god could love him if his dad could love him like that that maybe just maybe he could trust in the unconditional love of god because he had seen so overwhelmingly the unconditional love of his dad and yet we still question it we still wonder about the love of god and is his love great enough and is his love unconditional and can he love somebody like me and god looks at us and says what more do i have to do for you look at the next verse verse 32 says he didn't spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also along with him give us all things paul's saying listen you question the love of god how much more does he have to do he sacrificed his own son you say well how does that show me that god loves me well can i talk to the parents for a second there's not a parent in this room that would do the same thing that god did not one of you would allow your child to suffer for sinners if you saw your child in pain or suffering what would you do parent you would intervene you would you would say that's that's got to stop how many times you think i've prayed for my kids when they're in physical agony i mean cami's getting ready to have her fourth back surgery because number three didn't work either kid constantly walks around in pain do you think i haven't beg god to give it to me watching your child suffer watching your child be in pain day after day do you think as a parent that you wouldn't say give that suffering to me i'll take that pain because the pain of watching them suffer is far greater than suffering for them do you understand how much god loves you that he allowed his son to suffer that means god got the front row seat that means god watched them make fun of him and laugh at him and spit at him and mock him the god the father was the one who watched them beat him beyond recognition god the father was the one who watched him be tied to a post and beaten with a cat of nine tails god the father watched him pick up the cross and take it to the place of the skull golgotha god the father listened as his son cried out my god my god why have you forsaken me it would have been much easier for god the father say i'll take it spare my son but he shows the depths of his love for us by allowing his son whose heart do you think was broken on that day who do you think endured the most pain on that day and yeah we still question the love of god we question the faithfulness of god and why because we question it based upon our circumstances we say if god's such a great god of love if he really cares about me then why did he allow this to happen in my life there was this guy his name's greg boyd he's a pastor his dad's name is ed boyd he wrote a book called letters to the critic it's a it's a compilation of letters that he and his dad exchanged back and forth back and forth greg's a pastor ed hi dad is an atheist he doesn't believe in god do you know why he doesn't believe in god because when greg was a little boy greg's mom passed away ed's wife passed away and he blamed god for it he said if god is such a good loving god then explain to me why in the world did he let your mother die and you talk to most people when they walk away from the faith when they walk away from god it's not because they have some theological question it's not because they're you know can't quite figure out whether the bible is inaccurate and infallible it's not that kind of stuff it's the mere fact that something tragic happened in their life and they blame god because they believe he could intervene he could have stopped it and they don't believe that a good loving god who would sit back and allow that to happen really cares about them you you talk to people they're going to tell you my son died my grandma died my aunt died some tragedy happened and they walked away from god because they can't seem to equate in their minds the two things so the book is a compilation of letters going back and forth and back and forth between the son and the dead at one point this is what the dad wrote he said okay greg if god is so good and so loving then why do you allow your mom to die when you were just a kid i mean i understand if god decided to turn a deaf ear to the prayers of a sinner like an adult like me but why didn't god hear your prayers why wouldn't he hear the prayers of a little child greg wrote back he said you know what dad that's a great question it's one i've wrestled with a lot especially in college one particular class i remember we were sitting there talking about the holocaust the jewish people and their plight and all about the and all that they went through i walked out of the parking lot out of the school and i just looked up to the sky and i said in a loud angry voice these words the only god that i can believe in is one that knows firsthand what it's like to be a jewish child buried alive he knows what it's like to be a jewish mother watching her child be buried and then he wrote this dad that's when it hit me that's exactly the kind of god that christianity proclaims there's no other belief that does this only the gospel the good news of jesus dares to proclaim that god enters smackdab into the middle of the hell that we created only the gospel the good news of jesus dares to proclaim that god was born a baby and a bloody stable he lived a life befriending prostitutes and lepers that no one else would befriend he suffered firsthand the hellish death that is nightmarish in human existence then he goes on and says that i don't know why i don't know why i don't know why the pain i don't know why they're suffering but i do know this i know that god was with us that god was with mom that god was with you that god was with me he enters into our world he enters in to our pain he suffers with us suffers for us maybe you've heard the name johnny erickson tata before she had an accident in a pool when she was a a teenager left her a quadriplegic last few decades she's been a quadriplegic anybody understands pain and suffering and having questions about why god does the things that he does or allows the things that he does johnny erickson tattoo would have would have a pretty good understanding of that this is this is what she wrote in one of her books she says god does not give advice he doesn't does he he doesn't give us reasons or answers he gives us one better he gives himself god wrote a book on suffering and called it jesus that's why god is good he's good because he gives himself psalm 56 verse 8 david writes these words you've seen me tossing and turning through the night you've collected all my tears and you've preserved them in your bottle you have recorded every one of them in your book we have a god who literally goes to the pain with us who collects every tear you've ever shed in vials and will make it up to you for all of eternity not because he has to but because he wants to and according to verse 34 you know what he's doing right now for you he's praying for you he's interceding on your behalf he's praying for your courage he's praying for your boldness he's praying for your strength he's praying that you don't give up he's praying that you'll keep holding on to him with white knuckle intensity that you won't measure his love by the circumstances of your life but that you might measure his love by the expanse of the cross and so what's paul's conclusion to all this it's verse 35 who shall separate us from the love of christ shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword verse 37 no in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us because of what jesus did for us because the holy spirit lives inside of us we don't face anything alone i don't face anything this next week alone you don't face anything this next week alone god is for you and he didn't bring you this far to let you fall now look at verse 38 39 for i am convinced that neither death nor life neither angels or demons neither the present nor the future nor any powers neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of god that is in christ jesus our lord nothing will separate me from his love not hardship not trial not death not persecution nothing will separate his love from me stories told about a young boy in a small town his parents passed away left him as an orphan nobody in the small town wanted him a man finally came forward said he can live with me over the course of the next few months and years the man deeply loved the boy and everywhere he went he called the boy his son a few years goes by and there's a terrible fire at the man's house while he slept he woke up to the blazes he thought his son or the boy was already out of the house when he got outside he realized that he wasn't out there and realized that he was still inside so with no thought to himself what's the what's the man do he runs back into the house badly burns his hands finds the boy under the bed grabs him takes him out of the house but he severely damaged his hands scarred his hands up from the burns well news of what the man did to save the boy went in the paper and that paper picked up another paper and got into the big paper and wasn't too long that a foreign distant relative read the story and thought well we need to go get this boy that was our our daughters or our our daughter's son and so they they went to go and and get the child but the man wanted the child to stay with him because he loved that child as his own so they forced a judge to determine who would have custody over the child the distant relatives who never had anything to do with him or the man who had him living in his home the judge brought the man before him first and he said do you have any paperwork you know legal documentation that says that you adopted this child man said no i i don't have anything he said then how can i know as the judge that you'll care for the child that you'll love the child that you will provide for the child no matter what and the man stood there he didn't say a word he just showed him his scarred hands and the judge ruled and the man with the scarred hands kept his son how much does god love you look at his hands he is for you he not against you he loves you and if you want to know how wide and how deep and how long and how high the love of god is just look at his hands he did all that for you let me pray dear heavenly father for those of us who have pushed you away time and time again for those of us who have never allowed your love to overwhelm us for those of us who are still trying to perform because we think we've got to earn your love for those of us who think we're too far gone god i pray today we would understand that you're a god who loves because you are love and that you love us fiercely and that your love endures and it never fails and that nothing nothing can separate us from your love not our biggest sin not our greatest moment of rebellion not death not life not the angels or the demons nothing will be able to separate us from the love that you have for us in christ jesus and i pray god that we would we would embrace it that we would let your love so flow over us that this next week everywhere we go we would just think i have a god who loves me he is for me in every possible way in every possible scenario my god is for me who can be against me give us strength lord overwhelm us with your love i ask this in jesus name amen

Channel: Sagebrush Church

Views: 851

Rating: 5 out of 5

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Id: LNKIILYtmLM

Length: 34min 27sec (2067 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 12 2021