Unconditional Love | Nicky Gumbel

I want to talk to all of you today about loving unconditionally what does it mean to love unconditionally in a time of terrorist attacks political division and unrest in our society unconditional love is what this world needs more than anything at this time unconditional love does not mean it doesn't matter what you believe years ago people used to say it doesn't matter what you believe as long as you're sincere nowadays you don't hear people saying that so often because people recognize you can be sincerely wrong and do a great deal of harm so what does it mean to love unconditionally some Paul wrote this God has poured his love God's love is unconditional God has poured his unconditional love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us before I was a Christian I think I basically divided people into three categories first categories people I like and people I liked tended to be people my age my stage in life my friends my family second category people I didn't like and it was quite a big category it was people I filled out with people who I disagree with politically people who I just didn't like I didn't really feel like I needed a reason to dislike people and the third category is people I didn't really care about people I didn't know might didn't want to get to know a whole lot of people exist in different parts of the world wasn't interested in and then I encountered Jesus and Jesus said if you love people you only love people who love you what crazy said to you that's what everybody does he said love your neighbor as much as you love yourself and he said love your enemies in other words he said love everyone loved unconditionally what does that mean I've never seen a finer example of that but when a year ago Peter and I went to the last community we wanted to interview Jean Vanier Jean Vanier at the age of 35 went into an institution for people with severe developmental disabilities and he took two of them to his home and he lived with them and he developed a large community and he's now 88 years of age he's been doing this for 53 years it's spread all over all over the world and we made this little video as an introduction to the interview which we showed that the Leadership Conference and in this video you'll see a man called Sebastian who people and I met when we went to dinner in one of the houses so take a look at this I'm living with people who are fragile Oboro fragile let's face it but we've found ways of hiding our fragility the big human problem is just to accept all people as they are they might have a capacities or incapacity but they're a person and of course what I found here in Nash is for everybody so Amy I thought is on top of the Padonia versa with a beaucoup see the wise and the powerful are up in the head whereas the week of in the dirt we then become the transmission of a cry and the end of the tribe is a coming together is a risky visible even when also granted addition a little can you bro we're going to throw but these are people who are at the bottom of the ladder of social status and they've taught me about what it means to be really a human person and to learn to love and let the barriers down [Music] give a number Tim um beaucoup mmm boo-boo the school degree speak bubbles but as I see now is not a utopia it's a hope [Music] [Applause] unconditional love but how how do we love like that the answer is on the day of Pentecost which we celebrate today and it's not just a historical event we're expecting it to be repeated in history today right here in Brompton Road and in on so square that God will pour out his spirit because the love of God God's unconditional love for us is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit and the first thing is that we understand God's love through the Holy Spirit we understand how much we are loved by God you are loved by God you individually you add on to square you are loved individually by God I remember hearing a pastor called Alec Buckhannon elderly man as himself actually quite severely disabled saying this saying God loves you unconditionally wholeheartedly and continuously and I was listening to the talk and at the end of it he came up to me and he said do you believe that God loves you unconditionally wholeheartedly and continuously that he approves of you and I said I shall find that really hard to believe because I know things about myself that other people don't know and I actually was easy to believe everybody else but I don't find it easy to believe myself and he said God wants you to know he wants you to know you and on Foursquare any what you hit in the gallery all of you individually it's not just your neighbor he loves it's you he loves just for the moment think about that believe it take it in god loves you unconditionally wholeheartedly continuously he approves of you he delights in you he wants your happiness because he loves you and Paul gives the evidence of that the essence of loving is giving the more the gift costs and the less the person deserves it the greater the love involved I have a Indian friend called Susie John and on 9/11 2001 he was in the Twin Towers in New York on the 81st floor when the airplane went into it and that explosion took place he went out with thousands of others down the stairway took him an hour and 20 minutes to get down from the 81st floor to the bottom before the towers collapsed when he hit the thirty 43rd floor he describes he saw hundreds of people going up the other way who are they they were the farman the emergency services the police every one of them gave their life in an attempt to save the lives of other people that was always happening last night some people were running away as they were told to do but the emergency services were moving in to the danger why out of love and some Paul writes this in verse six he says you see at just the right time when we were still powerless Christ died for the ungodly very rarely will a person die for a righteous person though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die as they did on 9/11 as they offered they were willing to do last night but God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still sinners or in the couple of verses only two so as been God's enemies while we still in EM nity with God Christ died for us that's how much he loves but right the son of God love me love me you individually and gave himself for you that's how much he loves you his blood was poured out for you and He loves us in spite of my flaws my weaknesses my mistakes he doesn't love a cleaned-up version of us he loves us as we are unconditionally Scott's unconditional love for us and you see this with a parent and a child we have actually five grandchildren and yesterday we were done in Brighton because our son was doing it was involved in a wedding and he and his daughter my daughter Laura asked us to look after their three children for the day and our eldest grandson is five and a half and they get down from there and they are adorable it is just such a privilege to look after them from 11 o'clock in the morning till 7 o'clock at night but they have the children have not developed the sophistication we have at hiding their flaws and frustrations which come out from time to time and did several times during the day but it was a wonderful joy being with them and then in the afternoon my daughter and her husband came to join us with their two children and we went over to the the playground there was a place called the level in Brighton it was a sunny afternoon and so a half-time weekend there were just thousands and thousands of people there the place was really really overcrowded and as we walked in there were there were four adults and five children we should have been fine but as we load around suddenly there were four adults and four children and one had totally disappeared and we started to search search for him I nowhere to be found and you know what it feels like start enough to lose your own children but some else's children so I was in a complete panic so it's it you gotta look after the four that are there that's one each but then you also got to find the fifth one and we started this act could not find him anywhere we were all sets were nowhere to be found and that's a rising sense of panic what could have happened and then what did you do so you start to fear the worst and eventually I think it was Pippa who found he had gone behind some bushes and sort of hidden behind them and she found him standing there and what what are you doing here he said I just wanted some peace which I sympathize with there dies when I like that I just want some peace but there was no sense of crossness when he was found it was just relief and joy that this child who was lost had been found and Jesus tells his story since that's what God is like he's not cross with you he's looking for you maybe you've wandered away from God maybe you've never really had a relationship with God Jesus tells this story of the prodigal son and he says when the son comes home he wants to say look I've made a real mess and God's not cross with him he loves him he he says look this is my son who was lost and he's found and he embraces him and hugs him and that's what God does to you today whatever you've done you may come here today and you may say well I've really messed up this week this month this year I messed up my marriage I messed up my relationship I messed up my job I missed up today maybe you say Oh yesterday I sent an email I press send when I didn't really mean to press send and I regretted in the moment they did it we all had things mistakes flaws things in our lives that we regret but God loves you unconditionally he embraces you he puts his arms around you and he says you're my child you were lost and you're found welcome home that is God's unconditional love for you and God's love is the scrub described in the Bible in these terms it reaches to the heavens it's everlasting it's enduring it's unfailing it surpasses knowledge it's abounding and nothing can separate you from God's love and Paul writes here in Romans 5 verse 1 that we are set right with God we're justified by faith you have peace with God that's what that grant I was looking for peace but we're all looking for peace and doesn't matter how much money you have how many possessions you have nothing can buy you peace but Jesus has brought us peace we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ that we have access to his presence that's what the unconditional love of God has made possible for you there's no barrier between you and God understand that's what the Holy Spirit enables you to understand that that's how much God loves you he gave the most expensive thing him most expensive gifts if it was possible to give his own life for you and that leads on to the second thing is through the Holy Spirit we can show unconditional love we love because He first loved us our love is a response to his love God loves you as you are but he loves you too much to leave you as you are so it says that Paul says here we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character other words it's the difficult stuff in our lives maybe you're going through a really hard time in your life I know for me it's the hard times that when I look back are the most important in producing perseverance and perseverance producing character and what is character the number one characteristic the Holy Spirit brings is love that's the number one fruit of the Holy Spirit love that's what Paul says it's the great a thing of the world love unconditional love that's what we're meant to show to those around us and all says character produces hope that is a confident and positive expectation and hope does not disappoint us so I don't know me maybe you've been disappointed by your boss maybe you've been disappointed I even by your marriage maybe you've been disappointed by a relationship maybe you've been disappointed by something in your life well we all are disappointed by things in life and speaking for myself i disappoint people I know that as a leader I disappoint people if you saw my emails you know how much i disappoint people and I'm really sorry that I am not as good as I should be and of course I am conscious of my flaws and weaknesses and I I do disappoint people but Paul says this hope will not disappoint you why not because God has poured out his love into your hearts by the Holy Spirit and you can be absolutely confident and therefore we should respond with love the evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit is unconditional love so we need to take off our judgemental glasses get rid of the critical spirit it's not our job to judge it's God's Judge job to judge our job is to love unconditionally we've got to love people who are different we don't understand who don't agree with us different lifestyles different doctrines different politics they're all made in the image of God and what I'm long for is that this church on Foursquare Brompton Road all of us should be famous for love famous for our unconditional love I love it that this is a church that embraces everyone it has wide open arms and that welcomes people here I know that you as the people of this church I know this congregation you are the most loving congregation you welcome everybody here old and young rich and poor black and white African and Asian gay and straight Muslim and atheist anyone who comes to this joke whatever it is whatever whether your labor or conservative or liberal Democrat whether you're Manchester United or Chelsea whether you are a meat-eater or a vegetarian or a vegan whether you are for breaks it or against breakfast with whatever you are whoever you are you are welcome here because of God's unconditional love and third so third through the Holy Spirit we understand we show and then we thirdly experience God's unconditional love how do you know that you're loved by God there are two ways that you can be absolutely sure that you you are loved by God the first one is objective its historical it happened on the cross God demonstrated his love for us for rights by the fact that Jesus died for us that is an objective historical fact in history on the cross Jesus poured out his blood for you but that words that used for Jesus pouring out his blood is the same word that is used by Paul here for God pouring out his love God Jesus poured out his blood and he also pulled out his love when the sword went into Jesus side out came blood and water the blood of the Cross is the objective way in which we know that we're loved by God the water of the Holy Spirit is the subjective experience contemporary right now you can experience it today you would on to ask where can experience this today the spirit experientially giving us an experience of how much God loves us that's what the Holy Spirit did on the day of Pentecost that's what he's going to do today in your hearts by his Spirit this is everyone has the Spirit whom the Spirit whom He has given us but what does the spirit do he pours out God's love he's constantly pouring out God's love for you so that you know deep down that you are loved by God it's like that pure water crystal clear deep and refreshing making us aware of God's love giving us a vivid heightened intense overwhelming assurance of God's presence love for us we the Spirit testifies that's how Paul puts it he testifies that were God's children and knowing that you're a child is indispensable for the healthy development of a child it's the secret of joy peace freedom confidence and self respect you want a way to remember it what the Holy Spirit does he helps us to understand you he helps us to show God's unconditional love s and he helps us to experience it us he used the gift that God has given you the gift of the Holy Spirit who is there to give you an experience and knowledge and assurance of God's unconditional love for you and it's different for everyone God has a tailor-made experience just for you there's no off-the-shelf experience it's tailor-made just for you it's different for everyone because He loves us all equally but he loves us all differently and the way that you experience it will be different different times different places different people back 23 years ago around this time of year 23rd of May I got a phone call qu the morning that someone could le a couple of alien John Mumford wanted assist they were a part of the South West London vineyard and they'd been out to Toronto in Canada and they'd seen a great outpouring of the Holy Spirit and they wanted to tell us about it so pepper and I and Nikki and sillily went to this room on a high street in South London and there was a room absolutely packed with people who had come to hear what had happened and Ellie recounted some of the stories and but it was very quick she said I don't want to waste any time I want to pray for you and immediately she prayed this prayer come her Lisa as well pray later in this service come Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit came on the people in the room I never forget sillily was on one side of the room where when when she prayed the prayer and seconds later she was shot across the other side of the room the spirit came upon her and in such a powerful way and one after another the Spirit of God came upon the people in that I think I was the last to receive but I did I experienced again the love of God God's love for me personally being poured into my heart by the Holy Spirit it was an overwhelming experience of God's love and I found myself just lying on the floor basking in the love of God and I totally lost track of time I just when I looked at my watch I was horrified it was it was I missed so many meetings kept phoning but I did know that the Archdeacon from New Zealand had been sent over by the Archbishop of New Zealand and was coming here at 2 o'clock and I had to get back for that meeting so we we got in Canton we rushed back here and we got back at 5 to 2 and there was a meeting that I miss was was at the meeting to plan the services so I went into that meeting and I said I'm so sorry I've missed the missed the meeting and they said well how was your meeting I said oh it's great thank you so much and they said well we decided to close would you close the meeting with the prayer so I just said Lord thank you so much everything that's happening and we just pray bless everyone here with your Holy Spirit Jesus name I mean I was just about to go at the door when what had happened early in that morning happened again spontaneously in that room downstairs the Spirit of God came on the people there Emmy Wilson was the first to receive she started go oh Jesus and then she just goes as you are Jesus I love you so much she was just filled with this this overwhelming love of Jesus and she carried on for weeks and months afterwards whoa Jesus I love you so much just filled to overflowing with God's unconditional love for her and then one after another the Spirit came on the people in that room I remember Fraser who was our accountant at the time he was walking past a room with a pile of accounts like this I said Fraser leave those accounts they just come into the room the moment he came into the room the spear came on he was flat on his back with his legs in the air roaring with laughter for 45 minutes and it wasn't at the accounts that he was laughing one after another the spirit just came on everyone in that in that room it was the whole of the staff the downstairs lying on the floor laughing experiencing God's love being filled with the Holy Spirit I'd made a mistake about the timing I thought the Archdeacon from New Zealand was coming at 2:00 he actually came at 3:00 the receptionist it was the only person not lying on the floor came and tells the Archdeacon from New Zealand has arrived I thought oh my goodness this man's come over to find out about Alfa and he's going to see all these bodies lying downstairs what am I gonna tell him so I thought I better warn him so I said to him the spirit has come I think he thought it was some kind of Anglican greeting because he replied and so he has I said no I don't mean just on the day of Pentecost I mean right now here the Holy Spirit has come on all the people well those people were in connect groups they went home to their connect groups and that evening the Spirit of God came in the connected people's experience the love of God being poured into their hearts the following day Wednesday when I arrived for alpha for the team meeting downstairs the people on the team couldn't even get to the room the moment they walked in the door downstairs the spirit came on them the moment they walked through those doors they're on the way down through there were bodies all the way from there right the way through to the spring as the spirit came on by Sunday we only had three services I think three main services at that time now we have ten that's why we had ten because there were the they were accused by Sunday there were queues people start to queue for two or three hours to get into the services that's why we had to go to multiple services because people were experiencing this outpouring of God's love in their hearts this is transformational this changes people's lives you see any was then invited to go into the prisons she's had this amazing experience and she went into extra Prison Alford never been in a prison before but she went in there and the Spirit of God came upon Michael Emmet and his father brand who were two well-known gangsters Emme prayed you next to the prison come Holy Spirit and the Spirit came on them and they were filled with God's love they were roaring with laughter Michael sitting his dad who was a friend of the Krays and a an apprentice that great train robbers never seen his dad laugh before he was just roaring with laughter the spirit God filled him transformed him now these two guys I didn't really you know about this in the criminal world but the criminal world is very hierarchical and these guys were the top of the criminal world they did alpha and when they said to the other prisoners you're doing alpha they did outside and then they moved from prison to prison and every prison they went to they said to the other prisoners you're doing alpha and alpha spread from prison to prison so now it's in in over half the prisons in this UK and in in prisons all over in 80 countries around the world this is a move of the Holy Spirit which started then and what is that the prisons what do you need in the prisons unconditional love and I think it's so interesting that Amy who was the first down there to be filled with the Holy Spirit she was the one who took God's unconditional love into the prisons and that's continues to grow and in the last 23 years we've seen this amazing move of God and I think it's it's not as noisy as it was there it's not as dramatic as it was there but it's so much more powerful and it's so much wider it's now millions of people who've done alpha around the world twenty-nine million people we're out for weekend so many people that people here I can look around I can see I remember the moment when you were filled with the Holy Spirit on an alpha weekend you experienced God's unconditional love for you and this is growing look what's happened in the last 23 years with the number of services we had that the millions of people doing alpha around the world the millions of people doing the marriage course that the start of the leadership college the Leadership Conference the growth of focus all these things this amazing move of the Holy Spirit and it / yet there's a new move of the Holy Spirit happening right now I know what's going to happen in the next 23 years what could happen but what all of us need again all of I need you need we need all of us need is again to experience to know God pouring his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that's what going to pray for today because we believe that all of us at the God towards his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit as we're filled with His Holy Spirit as we go out together to show this world the unconditional love it so desperately needs we will see the evangelization of this nation the revitalization of the church and the transformation of our society in Jesus name Amen I'm Bear Grylls my favor way to start the day the Bible in one year that's how wild I am find out more at Bible in one year org or download the Bible in one year app you

Channel: HTB Church

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Keywords: nicky gumbel, htb, htb church, london, love

Id: IEZFyGEBLf0

Length: 31min 40sec (1900 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 06 2017