Love Without Measure | Shelley Quinn

free angels broadcasting network is pleased to bring you something better a faith-inspiring picture of a loving god from the book of hebrews welcome to 3abn's virtual homecoming camp meeting [Music] hello friends and welcome to the 3abn fall camp meeting 2021 my name is ryan day and we are so blessed that you're continuing to be with us and follow us through this exciting camp meeting weekend and during this hour we're going to hear from our sister shelly quinn she's going to be bringing a special message to us entitled love without measure i'm excited to hear it because i know shelley always brings a beautiful message of grace and love to remind us of who our savior is and our need for him but before we get to miss shelley quinn i'm going i've been selected to do the special music and uh after i sing this song shelley's gonna come out and deliver the message and she's gonna pray with us as well but the song i'm gonna sing at this time beautiful song beautiful gospel song and it is entitled the solid rock i hope it blesses you [Music] on christ the solid rock i stand all over the ground is sinking sand all of the ground is [Music] my hope is built on nothing less than jesus blood and righteousness i dared not trust the sweetest rain but holy lean on jesus name on christ the solemn rock i stand all of the grounded sinking sand all of the ground is sinking side [Music] when darkness fails his lovely face i rest on his unchanging grace in every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within [Music] the grounded sinking sides is all his word his blood support me in the flood when all around gives way he then is all my hope instead when he shall come [Music] dressed in his righteousness [Music] is [Music] rock i stand on christ the solid rock i stand all over the ground and sinking sand called christ the solid rock high stance [Applause] [Music] [Applause] amen oh mercy thank you ryan oh we've had church already haven't we i don't know about you but this has been such a blessed camp meeting to me i have loved james messages he's such a wonderful addition to the three abn team but every one of our group god has hand selected messages and put them in people's hearts and they dovetail together i just have two words for you and those words are infinity focus infinity focus if you are an amateur astronomer or an amateur camera photographer then you're familiar with this term infinity focus cameras telescopes and microscopes all have what is called an objective lens and it gathers the light from the object being observed and it focuses those light rays to produce a real image but you know as you look through the viewfinder if you're an amateur often you have a difficult time getting the correct infinity focus and this principle applies to our spiritual viewfinder as well what today's message is all about is to help us increase the focus our infinity focus on the love of god love without measure let me ask you three questions what is the most important thing about you what is the most important thing about you and what is love how do you measure it the third question is this do you realize that you are the object of god's love you are the object of god's love you may scorn the bible you may reject god's counsel you may even resist his authority in your life but whether you know it or not you are the object of god's love but this love however cannot save you if you continue to resist the power of his love so let's pray heavenly father and we pause again today to come before you in the name of jesus oh lord our prayer right now is that you will send your holy spirit to give us and give us ears to hear what the holy spirit has to say to us through your word oh father increase our infinity focus help us to see you for who you are lord i pray you will get me out of the way just lead me by the power of your holy spirit that the words i speak may line up with the scriptures we are presenting father help us to know your love in jesus name we pray thanking you for the answer to the prayer of faith amen what is the most important thing about you the thing that matters most in your life is how you see and understand the nature and the character of god why you ask because an accurate picture of god can prevent a wasted life you can achieve financial freedom you can have great fame in the world but you can live a wasted life i grew up in a new testament church and we had an out of perspective focus i was taught that the old testament didn't matter to christians i didn't see that both testaments were the unfolding progressive revelation of god of his everlasting covenant i didn't see that the new testament is contained in the old and the old testament is explained in the new i was taught that god the god of the old testament was stern and demanding and i couldn't see that both the old testament and the new testament present our creator god as a god of love i was also taught that i would spend if i was not perfect that i was going to spend eons of ages in unceasing torment in hell fire i didn't know that the scriptures taught that man was mortal and we didn't put on immortality this saved until jesus returned and that people who were sinners and rejected him would perish in hell fire as the second death so what happened i thought well lord you're impossible to please there's no way i can avoid hell and i turned my back on the lord but the best thing my mother ever taught me was this she said shelley don't believe something just because you hear it from a pulpit you focus on the word you get into the word of god and make sure that what you're hearing is correct and my blurred vision my beliefs were wrong they did not line up with god's self-revelation in his word instead they reflected a demonic disinformation campaign that the devil has been spreading since he was in heaven but still you know what it's difficult to rid ourselves of preconceived opinions preconceived opinions will insulate our mind against truth and for me the turning point was one day as i read hebrews 1 3 and i saw in hebrews 1 3 that it says jesus is exact expression of the father the person of jesus christ who walked this earth as loving as he was as loving as he is jesus is the exact expression of the father so we see that the father is love and i read the bible with a new focus through the lens of love and i learned life-changing truths i want to read you a quote from c.h spurgeon he was a baptist preacher in the 1800s here's what he wrote quote when i thought god was hard i found it easy to sin but when i found god so kind so good so overflowing with compassion i smowed upon my breasts to think that i could ever have rebelled against one who loved me so and sought my good it is god's kindness that leads us to repentance unquote oh how i can relate to that scripture so what is love the bible defines love in first corinthians 13 4 through 8 and it says love suffers long and is kind love does not envy it does not parade itself it is not puffed up it does not behave rudely does not seek its own it is not provoked it thinks no evil does not rejoice in iniquity but always rejoices in the truth it bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things and then first corinthians 13 8 concludes this by saying love never fails you may be saying oh really see human love can waver and wane but this is talking about divine love agape love and we're going to take focus in on that in just a moment as i was contemplating this message you know what i realized we humans measure everything because measurements give us answers to our question but to measure anything the size or the amount or the degree of anything we must compare it to something that exists a standard unit of something we have standards by which we measure intelligence wealth civil justice social justice oh the the len the list is endless but biophysicist measure microscopic molecules and then astronomers measure the vast galaxies in our universe but how do we measure love how do we measure love love is measured by heartfelt commitment and self-sacrifice in first john 4 16 the bible says god is love can we measure god's love if to measure anything we have to have a standard unit by which we can compare it to i submit to you god's love is immeasurable because there is nothing to which it can be compared it is hard for the finite human mind to get to get the correct infinity focus on an infinite god god's love cannot be measured but it can be known through the truth that we find in scripture and through our personal experience in john 15 13 jesus said this greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for his friends now most often we associate this scripture with the cross with jesus sacrificial death on the cross when the supreme expression of god's love when he paid the penalty for our sins and you know jesus could at that moment of crucifixion he could have called a legion of angels to come and rescue him it wasn't nails that held jesus to the cross it was love love is self-sacrificing often we will hear of a parent dying in the place of a child or we will hear of a soldier who falls on a grenade to save his unit god did much more than falling on a grenade for us i want to read to you i have many favorite scriptures but one of my two most favorite scripture passages is found in philippians 2 verses 5 through 8. i'm going to read it to you from the amplified philippians 2 5 through 8 pictures a love that is without measure verse 5 says this let the same attitude and purpose and humble mind be in you which was in christ jesus let him be your example in humility who although being essentially one with god and in the form of god possessing the fullness of the attributes which make god god did not think this equality with god was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained but stripped himself of all the privileges and rightful dignity so as to assume the guise of a servant a slave in that he became like men and was born a human being and after he had appeared in human form verse 8 says he abased and humbled himself still further and carried out his obedience to the extreme of death even the death of the cross so what does philippians 2 5 through 8 say to us the second person of the godhead our creator god existed throughout eternity in the essential unchanging nature and character of god and our creator god didn't cling to his divine privileges but he emptied himself he stepped out of heaven he came to earth and god became a human in the person of jesus christ becoming like us in every way bible scholars refer to this not as his humility but his humiliation and then he humbled himself further and he took our sins upon him and he died as a criminal on a cross what amazes me is this plan that was in place to rescue us before the foundations of the world before we were even formed in anticipation of god being incarnated as a human being the bible says this about him and this is my most favorite scripture revelation 13 8 that he was is the lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world god had a plan to save us let me give you a quick recap of why this was necessary the first adam created in the garden of eden was the first human representative of all mankind adam sinned he fell and his fallen nature was passed on to us but from the moment that adam and eve sinned god began to shape history toward reconciling adam and eve and all of their children to himself he took him on himself our flesh to become humankind's new representatives to become in the person of jesus christ the new covenant son of god through whom all the blessings of the covenant would be passed on god's government is based on his ten commandment law of love and you know what that law of love does it puts boundaries around behaviors to show our love for god and our love for humankind but unfortunately man has broken god's ten commandment law of love since the fall and you know what the bible identifies that as sin god set the penalty for sin it was death but god paid the penalty for sin in the person of jesus christ he became our human substitute sacrifice he had to become a human to stand in as a substitute for the human and he paid the full penalty of our sins i'm sure if you're a christian you will agree with that but let me give you a little thought if the penalty for our sin is unceasing torment then christ didn't pay the full penalty something to think on but on the cross something amazing happened god imputed or credited all of our sins were taken from our account and they were put on our saviors bleeding back he carried the burden of our sins but he did that so that there could be this exchange and he took christ's righteousness and he imputed or credited to our account in second corinthians 5 21 it says he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of god in him but he offers more than forgiveness of sin he offers us reconciliation he offers us righteousness by faith for those who accept the lord as jesus christ as their savior he restores our relationship with himself he restores us in second corinthians 5 19 paul says god was in christ restoring the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them you know what's amazing he ascended in this human flesh yes it was glorified human flesh but he ascended to heaven he took our flesh nature back to heaven he was forever changed when we understand that our creator became one of us and he will retain our human nature throughout eternity so that he can be completely man and completely god you talk about a life-changing infinity focus on his love now he serves as our high priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses oh it's so much more than falling on a grenade not only did he die for us but he lives for us hebrews 7 25 says he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to god through him since he always lives to make intercession for them can you clearly see this picture of his love there's no human standard by which we can or which we can use to compare this god's love is immeasurable it is love without measure and paul explains that the only way that we can know this love is by the power of the holy spirit listen to what he says to you in ephesians 3 16-19 you must be strengthened with might through the spirit in the inner man that christ may dwell in your hearts through faith that's the only way christ can dwell in our hearts is through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth and the height to know the love of christ which passes knowledge paul's resorting to language of cosmic dimensions to explain this immeasurable love the width includes all peoples every nation tongue tribe and people the length extends to all ages of earth's history the depth of his love reaches down to the lowest need of humanity and the height of this love goes beyond the highest heavens you know it amazes me astronomers have measured hundreds of billions of galaxies but no one can measure god's love it is measureless but yet his love can be known by experience romans 5 5 says god pours his love into our hearts by the holy spirit so what does this scripture mean god is love i'm going to tell you the english word love is overused we say oh i love the color blue i love pizza i love my friends i love my family but a quick study of the word love in the original languages of the bible provides a sharper focus the new testament employed the writers employed several greek words to describe the kinds of love that god expresses and we're just going to focus on one all three of these words are just merely love in english but we're going to focus on the greek word that is used most often of god to describe his nature and that word is a cape agape in first john 4 16 it says god is love in the greek it's saying god is agapeo it is used to define the essential nature of god god is not just loving god is love his nature the essence of his being is love now christians have a familiar definition for agape we say it's unconditional love but we need to focus our objective lens just a little bit more so that we can produce a real image of god agape recognizes the worth of every individual it seeks opportunity to do good for all it esteems people highly and it has it's a commitment that's not an impulsive feeling but a commitment to the welfare of all in james 1 17 the bible says god is the giver of every good and perfect gift his gift of common grace is made known to all mankind the rain falls on the just and the unjust and his gift of saving grace is given to all who will accept him as savior so this agape unconditional love is a matter of principle and duty it's unselfish love that is ready to serve that's who our god is how's love manifested how is love made known love is made known by the actions that it prompts god's nature of self-sacrifice love was made clearly known to us when god came down from heaven and became a man to die for us in john 3 16 the bible says for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son the person of jesus christ the covenant son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life god is a savior by nature god is not hostile he is not indifferent in romans 5 8 it says that god demonstrates his love for us in that while we were still sinners christ died for us see a god they love is not partial god's nature is just he cannot be partial he cannot show partiality romans 2 11 says there is no partiality with god he loves all of humanity not because we're deserving but because his nature is love are you getting a clearer infinity focus on the love of god his inherent essential essence his nature is unconditional unselfish other centered love and i have to add this his nature of love establishes his character of perfect holiness love cannot sin divine love and divine holiness are inseparable god is holy he is morally pure he is just he is righteous god is completely separated from sin god cannot sin he cannot lie and use the weapons of satan's warfare god's attributes and his character must be viewed as compatible with his nature of love including his holy anger and his wrath against sin sin is an offense against love and it invokes god's holy sense of justice his justice is rooted and grounded in love and his justice was satisfied at the cross psalm 85 10 says mercy and grace have met together righteousness and peace have kissed god revealed this truth at the cross when mercy pardon and truth met god's righteous justice and his peace embraced with a kiss of a loving friend don't let his love blur your vision of his holiness his plan of salvation is by grace through faith but his love his grace toward us is not sentimental hogwash that doesn't expect behavioral changes god doesn't put lipstick on a pig and say oh you're beautiful matthew 7 21 jesus said these words and he said not everyone who says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he who does the will of my father in heaven he who walks in obedience motivated by love jesus wants those who died for that he died for to be in heaven and i want you to listen to this message that he spoke to a luke warm half-hearted church of laodicea in revelation 3 19. jesus says as many as i love i rebuke and chasten therefore be zealous and repent he's talking to complacent self-satisfied church folk but his love and his concern is still with them he seeks to bring their conviction of sin by his rebuke and he seeks to bring them to repentance through his chastening both his rebuke and his chastening are an expression of fatherly love not anger and we see that in the very next verse here he's talking to these people and then he says suddenly to them behold this is revelation 3 20. i stand at the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door i will come in and dine with him and he with me whether you're out of the church or in the church god seeks access to your heart first timothy 2 4 says god's heart wants all humanity to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth he seeks to save the lost and he rejoices every time someone repents changes their mind about sin and is converting turning away from sin and toward him for salvation god wants all to be saved you are the object of his agape love now is the god of the old testament different than the god of the new testament let me tell you something god's nature of love is unchanging god says i'm unchanging in malachi 3 6 in the old testament he says i am the lord i change not and then the new testament in hebrews 13 8 says jesus is the same yesterday today and forever so his loving concern the generosity and care of god is consistent it's same in both the old and new testaments so we've looked at agape from the new testament let's look at one of the hebrew words that expresses god's love in the old testament and this is there's several but we're going to look at this hebrew word we're going to focus on has said h-e-s-e-d sometimes you see it spelled with a c generally they just h-e-s-e-d it is used 250 times in the old testament it is a rich word it has layers of meaning and it's a window into the heart and the nature of god has said is the old testament equivalent of agape love plus grace in the new testament has said is the equivalent of first john 4 16 has said in the old testament is saying god is love just as first john 4 16 says god is a guppy god is love has said is such a unique hebrew word it cannot be translated into a single english word in fact this is troubled translators for generations who've been trying to come up with a way to translate has said some translate it as steadfast love goodness loving-kindness mercy grace and it particularly indicates god's covenant loyalty and faithfulness the most famous use of the word has said is when god used it of himself not once but twice in exodus 34 moses had asked the lord he said oh lord show me your glory show me your glory and god hid moses in the cleft of the rock and god passed by and as god passed by he spoke proclaiming his character his character is his glory this is what the lord said the lord the lord god merciful and gracious longsuffering and abounding in goodness that's a sad steadfast love grace mercy loving-kindness abounding in has said in truth and verse seven he says keeping mercy that's has said mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin but by no means clearing the guilty those who don't come to him in repentance aren't going to be saved but god says i am sad this is my nature i have steadfast love grace and goodness and loving kindness and mercy that's who i am now god's love is not a matter of covenant obligation only it's freely given to all listen to deuteronomy 10 17-19 this is what the bible says deuteronomy 10 17-19 for the lord your god is god of gods and lord of lords the great god mighty and awesome who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe he administers justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the stranger god loves the stranger giving him food and clothing and then moses says therefore you love the stranger did you know that god loves the unlovely have you ever wondered why it took noah 120 years to build the ark because he was witnessing he was preaching to the hard core sinners of his society and something that i love i love the book of deuteronomy this is a covenant document the book of the law what moses was doing was renewing the old covenant with the hebrew children as they stood at the land of the edge of the promised land getting ready to go in and so he's repeating the civil and ceremonial laws it's kind of a repeat and enlarge based on the moral law he expounds on god's blessings for obedience and god's curses for disobedience does that sound stern that there's curses for disobedience let me let me share something in deuteronomy 4 1-27 this is what moses is doing oh god is good he's going to bless you oh if you do this though you're in trouble but there's a sudden shift when we reach verse 28. deuteronomy 4 28 it shows god knew these people were going to apostasize turn away from him after they crossed over into the promised land god knew that what did god say listen deuteronomy 4 28 there in the promised land you will serve god's the work of men's hands wood and stone which neither see hear eat nor smell but from there you will seek the lord your god and you will find him if you will seek him with all of your heart and with all of your soul verse 30 when you are in distress and all these things come upon you in the latter days all these warnings that god told them would happen if they disobeyed listen it says when you turn to the lord your god and obey his voice for the lord your god is a merciful god he will not forsake you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant of your fathers which he swore to them can you believe that i mean to me this is i i just love this you're reading along and god's telling israel you're going to violate my covenant and you're going to suffer the consequences of your own actions because you won't listen to me but still he says i will not betray my faithfulness i won't cut you off from my love i won't cut you off from my promises if you will return to me what love god loves the unlovely he sent a reluctant prophet jonah to the city of nineveh and i'll tell you what nineveh was sin city the the inhabitants of nineveh were a cruel people they were the enemies of god's people but god sends a prophet to warn them repent or be destroyed and what happened nineveh repented and god relented god loves the unlovely my mother used to read jeremiah and she didn't read the old testament through the lens of understanding god's love so she thought god was extremely harsh but now i read jeremiah you know what i see god sent jeremiah jeremiah prophesied for over 40 years of god's impending judgment on the wicked kingdom of judah if they would not repent oh they were flagrant idol worshipers they practiced grotesque pagan rituals and practices even sacrificing their children to the fire god graciously offered these people opportunity after opportunity to repent but they weren't like nineveh they would not repent they scorned his prophet and god's wrath against sin was finally executed he removed his hand of protection and the babylonians conquered judah and took god's people captive now here's the amazing thing jeremiah is an eye witness to this divine judgment yet as jeremiah is looking out over the rubble of the destruction he writes the book of lamentations and he is still confident in god's faithfulness god's mercy god's has said listen to lamentations 3 22 and 23 lamentations three jeremiah writes after the destruction he writes through the lord's mercies the word said through god's has said we are not consumed because his compassions fail not they are new every morning and he breaks out in praise and says oh great is your faithfulness you talk about an infinity focus then he continues in lamentations three just a few verses down 31. listen lamentations 3 31 for the lord will not cast off forever i guess he'd read deuteronomy 4 though he causes grief yet he will show compassion according to the multitude of his mercies his has said for he does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men god's consuming commitment to his creatures is one of compassion because god is love god is has said god is agape you know king david sinned against the lord he repented he was restored he experienced god's compassion he had an accurate infinity focus listen to what david writes in psalm 139 1-6 psalm 139 oh lord you have searched me and know me you know my sitting down am i rising up you understand my thought from afar off you comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways for there is not a word on my tongue but behold the lord you know it all together you have hedged me behind and before and you've laid your hand upon me such knowledge is too wonderful for me it is high i cannot attain it see god's omniscience his ability to know all that's beyond human comprehension god watches over the entire universe without sleeping or slumbering and yet he is intimately personally involved with every creature god knows you he knows your thoughts he knows your behavior now that's either comforting or concerning god knows your junk he knows your wounds he knows your insecurities he knows your heart god observes and understands and god's loving correction is part of his plan what happens to you matters to god in first peter 5 7 we are invited to cast all of our cares upon god all of our concerns all of our anxieties cast them on him because he cares for you well that's new testament what does the old testament say zephaniah 3 17 zephaniah 3 17 the lord your god in your midst the mighty one will save he will rejoice over you with gladness he will quiet you with his love what a tinder picture he will rejoice over you with singing is that how you see god let me tell you something god longs to be known by his created beings god longs to be known by you why so that he can strike a responsive cord of love in your heart first john 4 19 says we love him because he first loved us he reveals himself to us through the creation he reveals his love to us through the word and by personal experience he reveals his love to us by the works that he has done in the lives of other people throughout the entire history of the world and his commitment his unfailing commitment to his promises when we think about this the entire bible is the unfolding revelation of god's love when the focal point when our infinity lens is focused on his nature of love we will read through the lens of love and the old testament read through the lens of love is correctly understood as the witness to god's everlasting gospel his eternal covenant salvation by messiah jesus christ his work and righteousness by faith he established the everlasting covenant everlasting eternal covenant hebrews 13 20 says christ's blood is the blood of the eternal covenant but he established that way back in genesis with abraham and abraham's seed in genesis 15 6 says abraham believed god and god credited to him as righteousness the covenant continued to grow and unfold and we see it as given with the hebrew children when they are in bondage in egypt and exodus 2 24 it says god heard their groaning and god remembered his covenant with abraham and isaac and jacob so even the old covenant was part of the unfolding of the everlasting covenant but now here's something that many christians do not realize would it surprise you to know that the new testament picks up on the revelation the progressive unfolding of god's everlasting covenant the new testament picks up with the abrahamic covenant in the new testament zacharias who is the father to be of john the baptist his wife elizabeth was pregnant well when her cousin mary comes to visit her and zacharias finds out that mary is going to give birth to the messiah he begins to prophesy and this is right in the gospels right at the beginning of the new testament listen to what he says in luke 1 72 and 73 he says god is performing the mercy promise to our fathers and remembering his holy covenant the oath to which he swore to our father abraham so the new testament is just a continuing unfolding of the everlasting covenant of grace even paul says in galatians 3 29 if you are christ then you are abraham seed and heirs according to the promise what is the promise the promise is salvation by grace through faith salvation that is because our sins were put on god and god credits his righteousness to us indeed the old testament contains the new and the new testament explains the old i'll tell you the more i study on god's love the more i realize i'll never understand it throughout eternity i'm going to be looking at my savior jesus christ and thinking i can't believe you took on humanity you took on my human flesh you became like me so that you could stand in as my substitute for my sins i don't think we'll ever grasp what christ had to give up to become a man god's nature of love is more magnificent then we can fathom and and it's really the brilliance of his love is almost blinding we've only glimpsed it here when i started this study i had over 40 pages of scripture and i had to reduce it down to 10. so i i cut it in half and i cut it in half again there's so much about god's love but the bottom line is this you you you brian you jay you karen you nancy you listening to my voice at home you are the object of god's love he knows you by name he wants to be the object of your love he wants you to be born again of his spirit and to become his child and first john 3 1 john just the apostle just breaks out and says behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of god god is the perfect father he he's someone you can trust and when you can't trace his hand trust his heart he promises he will never abandon us are you alienated from god then i ask you to pray as king david prayed in the old testament psalm 143 8-10 he says cause me to hear your loving-kindness oh lord i want to know your has said cause me in the morning to hear your loving-kindness for in you do i trust cause me to know the way by which i should walk for i lift up my soul to you oh teach me to do your will for you are my god your spirit is good and lead me in the land of a brightness you know it's clear to measure anything we have to have a standard unit to which we can compare it nothing can compare to god's love it is love without measure but love without measure is offered to you right now won't you quit resisting god's love won't you receive his love draw near to him and he will draw near to you confess your sins he will abundantly pardon if you turn to him he will break you free from the chains that bind you he'll bring you out of darkness into his marvelous light and change your infinity focus [Music] you

Channel: Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

Views: 3,008

Rating: 4.8867927 out of 5

Keywords: God is love, God's mercy, ABN Virtual Homecoming Camp Meeting 2021, Shelley Quinn

Id: yoYNm9VMg9w

Length: 57min 50sec (3470 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 25 2021