Understanding God's Love - Tony Evans Sermon

a father was having devotions with his family and they were talking about the love of God and the love of Jesus while the mother was fixing the pancakes when they finished devotions the mother then came and took the first batch of pancakes and handed to one of the two sons the other son who didn't get the first bathroom pancakes said did you hear what daddy said he said that Jesus says that we ought to consider others better than ourselves but some of the pancakes said well then you be Jesus because it's easy to talk about this word love that not even know what it is or know what to do with it we use the word love with regard to fuzzy feelings sometimes we feel in our tummy toward a certain person place or thing we use love to reflect on caring for something or someone we use it very broadly to refer to anything we have good feelings about I love chocolate cake I love ice cream I love this person I love that person I love this show I love this job we speak of the word very very casually because it speaks of our emotive or connection to to a now none of some sort of person place or thing but I want to take you on a journey with regard to that word that may be a little different than you're used to because we're talking about the attributes of God we're talking about the perfections of God the things that make him who he is we've looked at his nature we looked at sovereignty we've looked at glory we looked at holiness but in two verses verses 8 and verse 16 we find this phrase in first John 4 god is love God is love in other words any discussion about love has to start with God well that's who he is that's not just what he does it is the self definition it's like me saying I am black or I am african-american somebody saying I am white or somebody else think I am Hispanic they are clarifying their identity it's an unchangeable reality so when God says he is love in verse 8 and in verse 16 he wants you to look at love as defining at least one part of how he defines himself therefore if you really want to understand the word and you really want to understand where it comes from and you really want to understand how it works it's best to talk to somebody who is defined by that word God says you can define me by the word love because God is love well let's discuss that a little deeper God is an eternal being if this is who he is that he must have been this forever he didn't become love he didn't start loving he is identified with the word so as long as he's been around this has been his self definition god is love that means love didn't start with you and love didn't start with me because God was love before there was a you or me in fact God was love before there was time in space because if he is love then he's always been loved before there was anything outside of himself to love because that's it that's who he is God is love but wait a minute if God is eternal and God is love therefore God being love is eternal then we've got to ask who in the world that God loved when there was nobody to love but God well if there's nobody to love but God and God is loved and the only one God could love was him because before there was time and space there was only God because he exists in a reality outside of ourselves well that sounds a little self-serving that sound little selfishness we may God you gonna love and the only one you gonna love is you come on you tell us not to be selfish aren't you being a little selfish when you are loved and you are only loving you because there's nobody outside of you to love so how in the world do you love you since there's nobody outside of you before you created anything else alright let's rewind remember God exists in three co-equal persons God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit so when we talk about God we're not talking about somebody who's ever been by himself God never has been lonely God never has been alone God never has been in isolation God never has been in singularity because the doctrine of Trinity means one God composed a three co-equal persons who is one in essence but distinct in personality the father's not the son the son is not the spirit but all three together make up the one Godhead that we deem or term the Trinity so God has always had somebody to love but the somebody that love was in him because in him were three persons and since in him was three persons he had good practice in loving because they could love on each other they made up the family called in the scripture the Godhead so when God the Bible says God is love he is operating in a context of love within himself because there are three who can love on each other so what you have in God since he is love is a lovefest within himself God is loving himself but he has other people or other persons rather in himself to love okay it's time now for us to go deep-sea diving how in the world is God being loved loving himself if I can refer you to st. John we're in first John but I want to take you to st. John chapter 5 verse 17 it says jesus answered them my father works until now and I myself and working for this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Jesus kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he also called God his own father making himself equal to God they understood he was saying I'm equal to God I got all the nature of deity therefore jesus answered and said to them truly truly I say unto you the son can do nothing of himself unless it is something he sees the father doing for whatever the father does these things the son also does in like manner for the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself is doing and the father will show him greater works than these so that you can marvel Jesus so just as the father raises the dead and gives life to them even so the son also gives life to whom he pleases for not even the father judges anyone but he's given all judgment to the son so that all will honor the son even as they honor the father he who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him now just from a casual reading something going on in the Trinity the son says whatever daddy does I do and I don't do anything that I do until daddy gives me permission to do it because the son only does what the father says so the son gives us well the father gives us well the son doesn't the the father says give life the son that whatever daddy says the son does cuz we flow like that we're hooked up like that whatever the father wants the son does but the son does what the father wants like the son can bring glory back to the father so the father wants to make a big deal about the Son and the son uses the big deal that the father made about him to bring a big deal back about the father because the father loves the son and the father loves the son so much that the father comes up with ways to make the son look good that means glory glory means to publicize advertise we'll make look good so my daddy loves me so much that he creates things that makes me look good so when you all see me doing the things I'm doing he said to the Jews it's because my daddy told me to do it because he wanted me to show off in front of you how great he is by giving me permission to do what you just saw so daddy is investing in me because daddy loves me the father loves the son in fact when you read the book of Saint John he says over and over and over again the father loves the son in John 335 he says the father loves the son in John 10:17 the father loves the son in john 59 the father loves the son in John 17 verse 23 and 24 the father loves the son so the father loves me so much that he moves and I can't help but which our collection is so tight this love affair that me and my daddy have is so tight that we live in love for God is love so we this is how we roll if you come into our environments Bammer Bammer Bammer Bammer bam bam bam bam bam it's all love cuz that's how we roll up in here up in here cuz that's our environment and so the way we love each other me and my daddy the way we love each other is by making each other look better so the father does something for me that makes me look better and then I roll it back to him so that he looks good by what I did that shows him off what he told me to do so we bouncing back then the Holy Spirit's gotta jump into the plan and the Holy Spirit comes in the plan and says I've only come to glorify the son so he jumps in and we got this Trinitarian love fest that we can't shake so since God has always said somebody didn't love you've never been alone they've always been loving on each other God comes up with an idea that idea stated in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 4 to 6 I read it to you just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself according to the kind intentions of his will to the praise of the glory of His grace watch this which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved the beloved meaning the person you love the beloved somebody call somebody their beloved the person they love the father is referring to the son as his beloved but then he throws a curveball he says but he chose us in the beloved okay let me explain the father and the son in the spirit they have in this lovefest but in the Trinity and they just love on each other 24 hours a day find out how they can bring greater glory to the other person cuz they love the other person that much and so the father comes up with an idea the father says son I love you so much that what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna create a whole race of people to send your praises I love you so much I want to show you how much I love you but I'm gonna use all my creative energy and I'm gonna create a group called humanity and this group called humanity has one job the sameness the praises of my son the son said daddy if you do that for me and all these folk that you create for me I'll singing my praises i'ma lead them in the singing your praises so when I tell them to pray I'm not gonna tell them to pray to me I'm gonna tell them to pray our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name so you're gonna do that for me you're gonna create a whole human race design let's sing my praises then I'm going I'm gonna get the spirit to work in them so that they spring it back to you so that you'll be glorified because I was glorified by your glory in my life and I just whipped that glory back around to you and we can keep this love fest going so the reason God created humanity was to create a group of people who would celebrate God's love for his son it's like a birthday party that you show and you invite a whole bunch of guests to celebrate the person who the birthday is for God loved his son so much that he created humanity to celebrate the glory with which he loved his son so that you have been he says chosen in the beloved you've been chosen because of his love for his boy now a problem sin enters into the picture Satan interferes with the party the men who were created because Jesus is in Genesis at chapter one it says when they walked with God in the garden that means they were walking with the second person of the Trinity the Bible says when God spoke the Bible says that was Jesus Christ talking in the beginning was the word Word was with God and the Word was God so back then Adam and Eve Jesus is all up in that he says before the foundation of the world he decided to create us so we weren't even there but he came up with a with an idea because of how much he loved his son so he comes now Satan comes in and he gets men to sin against God somebody has entered into the party uninvited to remove us from our created purpose to bring glory to God through our relationship with the son and he interferes with this love affair and men rebelled against the Living God so we got a problem I created these peoples son because of my love for you and now they didn't gone away from me and away from you they messing up what I did we gotta fix this we gotta fix this but the problem is I got to deal with their sin so first young for says God demonstrated his love toward us he sent Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins okay the propitiation means satisfaction he sent Jesus Christ to satisfy the problem that was to benefit him watch this I created them for you they didn't messed up on you but imma send you and hurt you to fix them which I made for you so when the Bible says in 1st John chapter 4 when it says that He gave His only begotten Son verse 9 that means one of a kind unique in a class by himself cuz there's nobody who fits the description of deity but God's Son Jesus Christ he says I'm going to send you to die for them to get them back to you so that we can keep this party going so God said the person that the party was for to pay the price for the folk who messed up the party God demonstrated his love toward us Romans 5:8 in that while we were yet sinners he did not wait till we got right he loved us when we were totally wrong he didn't wait for us to fix it I'm going somewhere with this he didn't wait for us to get it right he says you messing with me loving my son I gotta get you back I love my son so much I'll sacrifice him to get you back because I am loved and I got to do something lovingly to fix this even if it means killing my own son even if it means breaking up my own unity so that he can have what I made for him that's gotten broken I'm gonna do that and I can't help myself cuz I am loved so I got to figure out a loving way to fix this problem cuz that's who I am I can't Matt nah I cannot not do it cuz then I would like a person trying to change their race that I can do that cuz that's and so it is in this context a concept of God's love John chapter 13 puts it this way verse 31 says now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified in him if God is glorified in him God will also be glorified in himself and will glorify him immediately okay you got that God is glorified in him and when I get glorified in him I'm glorifying me when I glorify me he gets glorified and when he gets glorified I'm well so I'm gonna fix this thing so that he gets more glory when this thing is over and then he's gonna give me more glory when this thing is over cuz he got more glory when this thing is over so what I'm trying to tell you is that you caught up in something bigger you're not just caught up in this general God is love stuff you caught up in a love fest you caught up in a Trinitarian love fest and that's why Jesus told his father in his prayer in John 17 helped them to learn the love like we love each other when you are in eternity and there is no blockages related to sin God is going to spend all eternity giving you a love you can feel because there will be no interruptions in it because that's who he is and that's how he rolls so now what's the point is the point he says in verse eight the one who does not love does not know God for god is love verse 11 beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another now stay with me God says I am love can't help it that's my nature love is seeking the best for another seeking the best for another I'm seeking the best from my son and seeking the best for my son I created a human race to seek the best for him when the human race seeks the best for him then my son is gonna give me more glory because he's gonna seek the best for me when my son seeks the best for me I'm gonna come up with new ways to seek something even better for him then he gonna try to outdo me by seeking something to give me more glory then I'm gonna try to outdo him for what he tried to outdo me and you get wrapped up in it huh how do you get wrapped up in this lovefest that existed before we were ever born that existed before there was ever time in space a heaven and earth how did we get caught up in it and experience it he says in verse 11 first John for if we so loved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another I watch this if you hang out in a flower shop you can start smelling like flowers you hang out in a flower shop you know that smell gonna rub off on you if you hanging out in a perfume shop or area of a store with perfume and cologne you can start smelling like cologne cuz that's where you hang it out in other words your environment affects how you look or smell god says watch this I am caught up in a love fest and I am loved if you are not lovey it's cuz you ain't hanging out in my shop you answer my else's shop cuz I am loved that's my store my stores called love if you are hanging out in that store love is rubbing off on you so if you are a loveless Christian you shopping at the wrong store let me put it another way God will determine how much he deals with you by how much you deal with others please notice the words here this is serious business he says in verse eight the one who doesn't love doesn't know me he says in verse 12 God if we love one another god abides in US and his love is perfected in us he says in verse 16 if the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him he says in verse 20 the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen so he says forget about it you cannot have an intimate experience with me if others can't have an intimate experience with you if you do not know how to love or refuse to love you won't feel my love he's restricts the experience of himself to believers who are functioning in love as a lifestyle okay you're not getting this god is love that's who he is so he only hangs out with love so since he is love and he only hangs out with love if that's not how you roll he can't hang out you cuz he would then be hanging out with something that's not like him that you who you are and who I am even though you're my child could he's talking to Christians that's why it says one another he's he's not talk about the world right here he's talking about love within the family of God that's why it's a devil can make you selfish the devil can make you hateful the devil can make you mean and Honore and nasty and unforgiving if he can put all that stuff in you he knows God gonna leave you alone cuz you not hanging out where he's hanging out he only hangs out with that which is consistent with who he is and he's already told you who he is he is love the word abide means to hang out he says if you're not abiding in love you're not hanging out with me so the more you love the more you're in his hangout the more you love the more you're in the environment that he's comfortable with and so if it's only about me myself and I if it's only about being blessed and not being a blessing that's why every time God talks about being blessed he wants to know how you gonna be a blessing or is it only about you cuz if it's only about you you not with me cuz I don't make it only about me I'm making about my baby boy and my baby boy it makes it back about me so if you wanna hang out with us you got a role like we roll and so one of the reasons that many Christians aren't experiencing God is because they are loveless Saints they don't ask the question how can I love today who can I love today in the family of God what can I do today you can't love everybody but you can love somebody and that means what does it mean to love them to love means is the decision it is decision let me state that again let me clarify something because we we use these words wrongly we confuse love and like we confuse it so let's let's get this let me explain this okay like is a feeling I like you I don't like him don't say I love chocolate cake you like chocolate cake that's how you feel about it you like the taste you like so you'd like it that's okay cuz there's something you don't like biblical love agape is a decision regardless of any motion any motion you may love something you like but you can also love stuff you don't like in other words you don't feel good about it but you've made a decision regarding it okay you made a decision to eat vegetables you may not like it but you love healthy food and nutrition because you love that you choose and decide to eat what you don't like so love is the decision to compassionately righteously and responsibly seek the well-being of another God does that with his son to love God means to passionately seek his glory so the more glory of God you seek the more your loving God and the more compassion to others you give the more you loving people when God sees the compassion he translates that to passion so that his passion can refer to your compassion so that his love can enter your love so that you can get more of him look at this look what he says he says in chapter 3 of first John that if you love he says that we are to love little children verse 18 let us love not just in word and tongue but in deed and truth then he comes and he says and whatever verse 22 we asked from him because we keep his Commandments which involves love do the things that are pleasing what he says the way to get your prayers answered is to start loving you can go to church to you blue in the face if he doesn't see love forget your prayer meeting you can you can sing songs tell you blue in the face if he doesn't see love he says forget your prayers okay cuz you're talking to me different than Who I am I am love when I see you love that gets my mojo working because that's what I'm doing all the time 24 hours a day so when I see you plugged into Who I am I say oh he being like me if you don't think that's what he's saying all you got to do is read verse 17 but this love is perfected within us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment because as he is so also are we in the world how is he love what are you doing in the world being loving he says when he sees you being a loving Christian as a way of life he says you're being just like him in this world as he is in that world and when he sees that you have gotten his undivided attention the reason why more Christians aren't hearing from God more churches on seeing the transformation of the Spirit is they they are often loveless places no matter how good the preaching is you can't preach your way into this you can't sing your way into this you can't shout your way into this you can't wave your hand in the air like you just don't care enough in this this will only happen when God sees us individually and corporately the number one thing that should be said about you and should be said about our church should not be the preaching the preacher the sermons the choir the singing the gifts the one thing that should override everything else is wow look at how they of one another Jesus said in John 13 by this shall all men know that you're my disciples not by the preaching not by the singing but by the loving unless there is a love fest in this house we will not see miracles from heaven unless there is a love fest in your house you will not see miracles from heaven we can look you know I saw a lady again a few days ago and I embarrassed myself I said how far along are you she says she ain't pregnant that's embarrassing but she look pregnant to me she look pregnant to me simple parties you can you can look the part but have no life you can look the part you carry the Bible use the Christian words but the life that is bred by love if that is missing if that is missing it's like the prodigal son the prodigal son and remember God demonstrated his love to us when we didn't deserve it not with easy to love folk that you think deserve it but while we were yet sinners Christ died when we didn't deserve it okay the prodigal son was while he had wild out he now coming back home to Papa come back home to dad he said I have sinned daddy said okay now you've gotten right with me now you've confessed your sins now you may be doing right we gonna throw a party but then there was the older brother the older brother went to Papa and said what you doing what you doing you throwing the party for your meeting go on and act the fool and you throwing a party for him that ain't right you throw the party for him and I'm gonna hear with you all the time what you're doing daddy father looked at the older brother said this is your brother who was lost who has been found and he came home so I've gots to throw a party for because I don't know about you but I'm glad he's home what's interesting about Luke 15 and the prodigal son is the story ends right there you never know what the older brother does the point being you've got to decide man whether he gonna hang out with daddy or not because daddy is gonna hang out with the brother that's come home but see a lot of older Christians don't want to hang out with folk who've been forgiven who've been redeemed don't want to hang out with compassion for those whose lives have been broken and beaten when you see somebody walk through this door and life has not been good to them like they've been tore up from the floor you see somebody walk through this door and they're closed or raggedy and maybe they're ashamed by the history their background their lifestyle but they walk through because they want to hear a word from the Living God don't think you better ah cuz you will know better when Jesus died for you in fact if it wasn't for Jesus you would have been walking through the door looking like that because some of us have been dug out of some real dope heads maybe it wasn't that but it was something else you take the stand you never dumb down the Word of God but what you do is love people with a standard you love people with the standards who are willing to adjust to that standard and when you go to either one of those streams see when you love without truth when you love without truth then that becomes emotional sentimentalism but when you have truth without love then you have cold orthodox the idea is to speak the truth with love so that folk know we care but I got to tell you what God says I'm not going to change what God says but imma love you while I tell it to you it is the absence of love that has kept God's church separated and segregated it's the absence of love that's made a level of caca on Sunday morning the most segregated hour in America it is the absence of love that's got black Christians against white Christians against his faded Christians and it was the absence of love that created the civil war because if the church was the church you wouldn't have had a civil war because they would have stood up for the truth of God but because people leave the one in love without truth or have truth without love they do not live based on a biblical standard and it's time for Christians to stand up for the truth and not for the culture and and here's you know here's what God says he said look if I see you loving not accepting sin no we judge sin a sin but when we see you loving the sinner particularly in your who's your brother he says when I see you loving it's like it's like alka-seltzer plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is when I see you loving then I get all fizzy inside and I said I gotta do something I gotta fix something I gotta intervene something cuz those folks are doing something like me and I wanna i want to unveil myself to them let me give you some of the best news in the house best news in house his is one of the best news in house well not when I'm watching football learning kids were small number watching the Cowboys on I'm really into it and there's a great play like a great tackle I saw tackling the kids I start tackling the kids I see boom I hit BAM I bet big you know why I know right but I'm so into the game it's like I'm on the field sometimes I couldn't watch it too long cuz it was just just do something to me make me want to get out there again like I did in the old day it just does something to me and so so I would be hittin the kids they say oh I'll stop dad you know what what you doing what you do I'm just so into the game because I'm so much apart God says I want you so in the meter when I move you move when I react you yet I want you so in the meter that when you see me rollin you roll because we're that connected and then then it gives you the best news that our best news I can close with the day because the best news I can close with the day is in verse 17 he says that you may have confidence in the day of judgment whoo oh that's this is this is this is good he says when you stand before the Lord of the judgment seat of Christ and he reviews your tape from the time of your salvation to the time of your death and he rolls your tape here in your private booth and he says this is your life from the time of your conversion to the time of your diamond roll your take on everybody's tape that's gonna be good bad and ugly they're gonna be some things you're proud of they're gonna be some things you're ashamed of that you've either thought or acted or did and you're gonna go Oh Lord I'm so sorry how can you sit on the day of judgment he says and have confidence then I'm gonna come out of this this interview all right then I'm gonna come out of this interview with some rewards then I'm gonna come out of this interview having here well done my good and faithful servant how do I know that interview is gonna work on my behalf he says you will have confidence in the day of judgment because you were as me in the world and he says I that was his whole point in verse 18 so he's going to give you extra credit for every time he saw you loving somebody he's gonna give you extra credit every time he saw you reach out to somebody who could do nothing for you in return he's gonna give you extra credit by helping somebody who was sick that you didn't even know he's gonna give you extra credit by your service in the family of God to make it good for other people he's gonna give you extra credit that when he bless you you use your blessing to bless somebody else he says it on that day after you'll score comes in a twenty on the scale of one hundred but he looks at your extra credit you'll be able to sit there and say God check my extra credit you gave me an extra credit assignment and I won't you take my 80 over to my twenty and score me a hundred cuz I got a whole lot of extra credit love going on up in here up in here the other day I was on the highway and all the cars got backed up and I was stuck on the highway I look to my left and focal going down the HOV lanes just flying by the HOV Lane I'm stuck in traffic I can't go nowhere they just flying by they got their own private road flying by but the reason they could do that is because they weren't traveling by themselves there's somebody else with them that gave them special access to their destination God says if I can see somebody else with you and I can see that you've been used of me to touch somebody else I'll let you flow in answer prayers I'll let you float in powerful experience I'll let you abide in me cuz you're hanging out in mister guards neighborhood [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Tony Evans

Views: 249,525

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Keywords: sermon, sermons, Tony Evans sermons, Tony Evans sermon, Tony Evans, Christian sermons, dr tony evans, Dr. tony evans, Understanding God's love, understanding God's love sermon, sermon on God's love, sermon about God's love, sermons on love, sermons on God's love

Id: qnUlz1zHM3s

Length: 40min 27sec (2427 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 07 2019