The following is a sermon by Eric Bland on God's wondrous love for us. I
hope it brings you encouragement and enlightenment.

The following is a sermon by Eric Bland on God's wondrous love for us. I
hope it brings you encouragement and enlightenment.

May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/

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How Much Does God Love You?
by Eric Bland

Today's scripture comes from the book of 1st John. "God is love." This
scripture was written by John the apostle. One of Jesus' disciples and was
one of the three core members that went everywhere with Jesus. He is noted
for writing five of the New Testament books; which are John, first, second,
and third John, and the book of Revelation.

The interesting thing about John though, is not just the fact that he was
with Christ and a part of the core and also a writer in the Bible, though
those are all fantastic things but the thing that catches my attention the
most is the fact that John is someone that you can see grow right before
your very eyes as you read through the Bible.

For example, in the Gospel of Luke Jesus sent messengers ahead of Him to get
things ready for Him. Those messengers went into a Samaritan village but the
people there did not welcome Him. When the disciples James and John saw
this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from Heaven to
destroy them?"

This is where the transformation takes place from the John of old to the
John of new. Because in this verse that I just told you about was a John
that was on Fire for the Lord, and that is great but there was something
that John was missing. The love. Jesus said, I come unto this world not to
condemn it but to save it. And I believe by the time John wrote 1st John
chapter four he had a better understanding and practiced this term that we
will be discussing here today. Love.

How much does God love you? That is the question here on the table. How much
does God truly love you? Many of us know the correct response in church,
"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son" everyone knows
John 3:16. And though that is true, and I certainly do not want to take
anything from that very important point.

However, let us look into that a little more in depth. So again the question
is How much does God really love you. the Bible says that God is love. But
how much does He love us? The Bible says that God wants us love one another.
But how much does God love us? The Bible says he that loves not is not of
God. But how much does God love us? That is the question, HOW MUCH DOES GOD
LOVE YOU!?

Today we will be looking at three areas of Gods love.
Gods love through salvation
Gods love through forgivness
Gods love through restoration
Lets look at verse nine, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us,
because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might
live through him."

God loves you so much that He certainly did send His only begotten son to
die for us. Have you really considered the significance behind the fact that
God was willing to send His Son down here to earth to die for you and I?
Think about it for just a second. Jesus was already in Heaven, a perfect
place where everyone is desiring to be after they pass from this life and
enter into the next life.

Just think everyone including those who do not even believe in Heaven and
Hell, if they had a choice would choose to go to Heaven. But you see Jesus
was already in Heaven. He did not have to go through anything here on earth,
but he did for you and I.

So if we could use our imagination for a few minutes. Think about how Jesus
was sitting in heaven a perfect place, where there is no sin no darkness.
This a place where there is no pain no jealousy, no anger, no hatred, no
pride, no temptations. Nothing that is unpleasing to God was in heaven.
Angels all around just praising the Lord. Perfect.

Then all of a sudden God sees a problem in the world. Anyone have an idea as
to what the problem was? Sin. Sin was in the world. Anything that is
unpleasing to the Lord is sin, and there was a whole lot of sinning going
on.

So God says lets see, what shall I do (a rhetorical question obviously), I
already flooded the earth and I promised not to that again, people have been
told to offer sacrifices to cover their sins from me, but still I need to go
ahead and take care of this problem of sin once and for all. But who could I
send? And just at that moment Jesus stands up and says I will go.

Understand that Jesus knew what was going to take place. Jesus knew before
the creation of the world that only by Him being sent unto the world was the
penalty of sin going to be wiped away.

So if He knew before the creation of the world that he was going to die than
think about this, he surely knew that he was going to be tormented, spat
upon, beaten unmercifully, humiliated, scorned, yelled at, and hated. All by
the people that He was trying to save.

Jesus loved you and the people in the biblical days so much. And before He
came He already knew who would hurt Him, who would betray Him, and who would
deny Him.

And think about this, Jesus did not just know them by face or by the action
that they were going to carry out. Jesus knew them by name. Think, Jesus
knew before the creation of the world the mans name that made that crown of
thorns for Him, but Jesus says I love you so much that I am going to die for
you.

The person that yelled at Him saying get down off the cross if you are God,
He said I died for you.

The soldier that beat me till my face was swollen my eyes that I could
barely see out of. I love you.

Those who beat me, I love you.

Those who hated me even though I was doing everything that I did for you, I
love you.

Those of you that took the time to nail me to the cross, I love you.

The soldier who pieced my side I love you.

You that have hated me, I love you.

Those of you that say I want nothing to do with this Jesus, I love you.

Those who hate me because I am the only way to Heaven, I love you.

Those that confess me as Lord and Savior but still live the way you want, I
love you.

Those of you that refuse to pray to me, read my word, or serve me, I love
you.

That is how much God loves you. Regardless if you are White, Black, Latino,
Asian, Indian, American Indian.

Whether you are American, Mexican, Puertorican. From Turkey, Russia or Iraq.

Regardless if you are a racist, part of the skin heads, KKK, or Black
Panthers.

Whether you are Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or just a plain old ordinary sinner,
God loves you. So you see even after all that you have done His love is so
great that He is willing to forgive.

Jesus knew you were going to reject Him, He knew the sins that were going to
take place. Regardless of the circumstance, just as Christ knew that the
soldier was going to pierce him in the side Christ was still willing to
forgive, and just as you and I have fallen short of perfection Jesus is
willing to forgive.

His love for forgiveness. His love for you is so deep that He loves to
forgive. How many people here love to forgive? I know, I know, we as
Christians are supposed to forgive which is cool but my question is not who
will forgive but rather who loves to forgive? God loves you so much that
when you do sin He is willing to forgive you. That is strange because here
we are as people who put limits and guidelines on our forgivness.

God on the other hand says that he will forgive us if we confess our sin.
And not only will He forgive us but He will cleanse us of all impurities. My
favorite word in that scripture is ALL. Everything that you and I have done
past, present, and future, has been thrown out the window. That is true love
when you can forgive no matter what comes down the pike.

But you know what? This part of the sermon that explains that no matter what
you have done Jesus is willing and desires to forgive you. He loves to
forgive.

So the question is what have you done that makes you think that God is
either unable to or unwilling to forgive. If we remember that heaven is not
earned or deserved than we would be able to see that no matter what you have
done God is able to forgive.

Lets look at some of the Biblical people that flawed but were still able to
be forgiven. Adam, a man that is usually noticed as being the guy that
messed everything up along with Eve, but guess what Jesus came from the
bloodline of Adam.

Moses was a murderer. He killed an Egyptian soldier and then ran. Yet Moses
led the Hebrews out of Egypt.

David, an adulterer and a murderer, is noted to have a heart after God.

And finally who could ever forget about Paul, or in his B.C. days known as
Saul. Here is man that was persecuting Christians so horrifically that when
Jesus did save him people were still afraid of him because of his bad rap.
But yet he wrote most of the New Testament.

So you see, there are just a few people that have done horrible things in
the eyes of the Lord yet the Lord was still able and willing to forgive. And
not only did He forgive but He was also willing and able to use them to
bring glory to the Lord.

And because we know that the Lord loves to forgive than we should also know
how it is that God is able to forgive us.

You see a long time ago God demanded that our sins be covered, or in other
words our sin had to be paid for. That is why in the old testament people
had to sacrifice animals, to cover themselves of all sin.

But God in all of his sovereignty decided to send a sacrifice that would pay
the penalty of sin, which is death, once and for all.

Hebrews 10:5 says, "Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said,
'Here I am-it is written about me in the scroll-I have come to do your will,
O God.'"

The Bible goes on to say that He set aside the first to establish the
second. In plain English He set aside the slaughtering of the animals which
just covered our sins and moved to an ultimate sacrifice that was able to do
more than just cover our sin and instead washed away our sin.

Micah 7:19 says that He will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. Let
me give you an example of what I mean by that. When I was younger my family
took a trip to the ocean. While we were there, my brother and I started to
play with our frisbee. One particular time my brother cranked back and let
the frisbee fly. The frisbee came towards me, sailing over my head and
landing into the cold water. At that point, the tide pulled my frisbee out
and away from me, never to be seen again. And that is how our sins are in
the eyes of God. Once we ask for forgiveness, our sins are cast into the
depths of the sea never to be found again.

My frisbee, where is it? Somewhere in the ocean. Where is my sins? All I
know is that they are in the sea somewhere, gone forever never to be brought
up again.

God loves to forgive so much so that regardless of the things that you have
done He is willing to throw them into the depths of the sea never to be seen
again, never be brought to the surface.

The greatest thing is that God loves you so much that when you have decided
to make a change in your life and start to live the way that He has desired
you to do from the beginning that He still accepts you and will receive you.

God wants you. He wants you so bad that he sent his son for you. The Bible
talks about the love of God being so deep that you can't go under it, so
wide you can't go around it, and so high you can't go over it.

That is amazing because it goes to show that you can't get away from the
love of God. No matter where you are or what you are in, God still loves
you! He may hate the sin that you are in but He always loves you. Think
about this.

If Gods love is so deep than those coal miners that were trapped in the
shaft, do you think that Gods love was there with them?

If Gods love is so wide do you think that Gods love is with all the troops
in the middle east?

If Gods love is so high do you think that His love was with those astronauts
as they were re-entering the earth's atmosphere?

His love is everywhere! His love brought you here today,

His love saved you from that accident that you were in.

His love provided for you when you had no clue as to where your next meal
was coming from.

Truth be told, you should be dead because of the things that you have done
and for some of you the things that you are doing.

Gods love has kept it together for you even though , you should have been
put in the crazy house years ago.

Gods love allowed His Son to come to earth, His love allowed His Son to be
put on the cross.

Gods love allowed the sacrifice of His Son to be the payment for all sin.

Gods love allows you to accept Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.

His love is so unimaginable that when you tell people that you can not get
to Heaven by the good things that you have done, are doing, or will do, but
rather by the free gift that God gave to us, which is Jesus Christ. People
think that your crazy. God loves you so much that all He wants for you to do
is to reach out your hand accept the free gift of eternal life through the
person of Jesus Christ, and follow after Him!

Devote your life to Him. Practical application is a must here. And this is
it.

If you are here today and do not know Jesus as your personal Savior, which
is to say that you have yet to decide to live your life for Jesus but rather
you still are living the way the world does than the application is for you
to decide, make up your mind to live for Jesus.

And after you have decided to live for Jesus stand up and come to the front
to make a public confession of Christ. He loves you so much that He wants
you to come. He wants you to accept Him. He wants to have a relationship
with you and He is waiting for you.

Have you ever played a sport or a game and you were the last one to be
picked? Well that will never happen with God. He wants you now and He wants
you real bad. But just as in those sports or games where you were picked you
were picked based upon what? Your talent. How fast did you run, or how far
could you kick the ball. How hard and fast can you throw the ball. But guess
what you don't get Gods attention by how good you are but rather you got
Gods attention by being you, a sinner. Don't you see that's why Jesus came
because you are a sinner. And because you can do nothing to get the
attention of God lets stop trying to get everything in order before you come
to Jesus. He's ready for you, are you ready for him?