Crazy Love: Horizontal Living the Glorifies the Vertical

For the last 2 weeks, we’ve been working through a sermon series entitled “Crazy Love” We began the series by focusing on God’s relentless love for us - love that can’t be stopped. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around this - Nothing compares to His love nor will we ever be able to fully comprehend it on this side of heaven - It’s Crazy Love.

Last week, we dug a little deeper, and looked into our hearts at our own love for God. Are we loving God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, as Scripture instructs us? We could stop right there & have our work cut out for us until we see Him face to face.

But Scripture doesn’t stop with God’s love for us, or our love for Him. In fact, Jesus connected our love for Him to our love for others. That will be our focus for today - learning how our love for others reflects our love for Him.

Have you ever wondered what kind of friend you are? How many of you have, at some time, found it difficult to get along with others? That’s just human nature - conflicts & disagreements are to be expected.

C.W. Vanderbergh wrote:

“To love the whole world for me is no chore. My only real problem is my neighbor next door.”

          Sometimes loving those within our immediate reach can be the hardest thing to do - it’s too much work. It’s much easier to love generically - I mean, loving in word and not in action. Kind of like the person who LOVES puppies. That love is put to the test when your favorite shoes are chewed up. Or you keep searching for the source of that horrible odor in your home

Sometimes it’s easier to say we love, than to live it out!

Jesus told us that “Love is the distinctive mark of Christian community”.

Let’s take another look at last week’s passage for today’s lesson - loving your neighbor

Matthew 22: 35-40 (NKJV)

35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Last week I mentioned something that struck me pretty forcefully… If the greatest thing in this life is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, then the greatest sin in the world must be not doing that. While working on this week’s lesson, that though came back to me again, and I applied it to today’s focus:  If the second greatest commandment is to love my neighbor as myself, then the second greatest sin in the world must be not doing it.

How often do we fall short of loving and caring for others the way we care for our own selves or our families. My question is:  What Is Love? It is silence--when your words would hurt?  It is patience--when your neighbor is curt?  It is deafness--when gossip flows?  It is thoughtfulness--for other’s woes?  It is promptness--when stern duty calls?  It is courage--when misfortune falls?  Love ever gives, and forgives…  What would our community look like if we treated everyone like the somebody God says they are?  I’ll ask that question again: What would our world look like if we treated everyone like the somebody God says they are?

I John 4:20 (NKJV) 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

·        First of All… Real Love Is From the Heart (How We Feel)

Last week we looked at the first half of that statement. We talked about loving God

We spoke about living vertically – love that is given to our Creator. It is vital to have a hunger for God - loving God more than the temporal things that fill and consume our lives. It’s in loving God that we are most fully alive. Out of this huge body of material called the Jewish Law, what is the most important commandment of all?

Jesus says, "Love"

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself."

Real love can only be found where there is freedom. “Where there is no freedom, there can be no love.” God gave us the freedom to choose whether we would follow Him, or push Him away and live for ourselves. Loving God, or really loving another person, is simply opening your life to that person. It’s sharing yourself with them, and allowing them to share with you. Knowing there is risk involved, because when we really love, it will always come with hurt but knowing the small hurts & disappointments are worth it because love outweighs them!

What is the bottom line that God wants for us? Having a life that is open to God and open to other people, real love - having an open life - is an attitude of the heart. It’s a choice we make every day—will I take the time and effort to love others? If it’s not heart-felt, it’s not real; I’ve got to believe it for it to be sincere and God-honoring

·        Not Only Is Real Love from the Heart….BUT…Secondly… Real Love Calls for Action - Doing Something

"Love your neighbor as yourself," is a very radical command. What I mean is that it cuts to the root of our sinfulness and exposes it. The root of our sinfulness is the desire to be happy apart from God and apart from the happiness of others in God.

Self-Love: What Humanity is Born With

Jesus says:

I start with your inborn, deep, defining human trait -- your love for yourself.

Humanity has a powerful instinct of self-preservation and self-fulfillment. We all want to be happy. We want food for ourselves. We want a place to live. We want protection from violence. We want friends to like us and spend some time with us. We want our life to count in some way. Jesus might say I start with the issue of self-love in this portion of scripture because: It is common to all people. If you don’t believe me, go to the nursery right now - I imagine those 2 beautiful ones will demonstrate this for us!

Jesus’ call is based on that common feeling--Love Your Neighbor AS You Love Yourself

Which simply means: As you long for food when you are hungry, so long to feed your neighbor when he is hungry. As you strive for a comfortable place to live, so desire a comfortable place to for your neighbor to live. As you pursue safety and security from calamity & violence, so seek comfort & security for your neighbor. As you desire friends for yourself, so be a friend to your neighbor. As you want your life to count and be significant, so desire that same significance for your neighbor. This kind of love incorporates lots of different feelings and actions, from caring to calling, from laughing to forgiving.

Speaking of forgiveness… Can we find it in our hearts to really love by forgiving our neighbor?

Matthew 7:12 READS…

12 Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

In other words…make your self-seeking the measure of your self-giving. Measure your self-giving by the degree of your self-seeking. This is what is so interesting about this passage: The necessity of the First Commandment to fulfill the Second. Without fulfilling this Second Commandment, you can never fulfill the First, loving God. The Second Commandment is a visible expression of the First Commandment. This kind of love requires giving: of our time, energy, finances - all of who we are.

Mother Teresa stated:

"If you give what you do not need, it isn't giving."

Kind of like what my wife spoke of on Thursday night: When you donate things to the Salvation Army or Goodwill. Isn’t it usually just the junk you don’t want cluttering your house anymore? Giving must also come from the heart, WITHOUT expecting something in return

The same principle applies when we reserve our biggest smiles and kindest gestures for others who can repay us. But fail to show the same degree of love to others we deem unworthy.  Love people the way you love yourself. Jesus said that the love we have for each other will be the evidence to the world that we are truly following Him

Rick Warren has a vision statement for his church that relates to what we’re talking about: A Great Commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will grow a Great Church.

Loving people as God loves them happens when we apply & live out God’s Word.

·        Not Only Is Real Love from the Heart & Calls for Action…BUT Finally …. Real Love Fulfills God’s Purpose for Our Lives

What is our big purpose? To put it in a nut shell, our mission as a church must be: “To love God, and share that love with everyone around us” Jesus makes his feelings about this perfectly clear in the following passage:

Matthew 25:42-45 (NKJV):

42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; 43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’ 44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

Serving is love in action. One of the neatest things about ministering to others is the fact that the word’s origin has to do with serving others. As Christians, we are all called to be ministers because we’re all called to be servants.

Martin Luther King once said

“everyone can be great because everyone can serve”

A community of amazing love will be irresistible to an unbelieving world. Really, our neighbor is anyone we meet who has a need! Be KIND to people, for the Lord is KIND to us. Be PATIENT, for the Lord is PATIENT with us. Be FORGIVING, for the Lord is FORGIVING with us. Be UNDERSTANDING, for the Lord is UNDERSTANDING with us. You can’t tear someone down while you are building them up. You can’t focus on the bad when you are looking for the good.

This applies in the church as well as outside the church. We can’t treat our brothers & sisters well, but belittle others; nor can we be kind to those in the world, but gossip about our brothers & sisters BOTH ARE HYPOCRITICAL, and fall short of God’s commands. Christian love is more than what we do or say or believe – Christian love is a lifestyle. What an amazing witness to the world we can offer when we live a lifestyle of love.

About one third of the American population are unchurched - some 65 million. That means that 1 in 3 of the people you know have not attended church in the last six months.The interesting thing is that 25 % of your unchurched friends would attend church on any given Sunday if a friend invited them

Dave Mittelberg, author of building a contagious congregation asks a burning question:

“Do we sincerely believe that knowing Christ is the best way to live and the only way to die?

I want to make that my mission – to proclaim Christ to the world around me! I sincerely believe that knowing Jesus is the best way to live and the only way to die. I am convinced of that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

True meaning and purpose in life for me is seeing a life transformed by the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ. It stirs my heart to watch that person continue to grow more faithful to Christ and then lead another person to find redemption in Jesus. Hearing the testimonies of Christians when they came to realize it was not about them. But it’s all about those without Christ energizes me to push aside the entanglements of this world to be more involved in what Jesus is doing.

Someone invited me to come and feel God’s love… I have never felt or looked at the world the same and I’ve never looked at other people the same since.

         Jesus is the answer to our deepest yearnings and toughest questions. Can we seek God right now, to give us that kind of compassion for others, that we could truly love them the way He wants us to love them?

Crazy Love: Living Vertical

Last week, we began a sermon series entitled “Crazy Love” with Valentine’s Day coming up, you may be thinking that love is making you crazy - What gift to get, how do I show how much I care… Especially at this time of year, we hear about the importance of love as we mentioned last week, love is the reason for existence, and without it, nothing would make sense

We began the series by focusing on God’s relentless love for us - love that can’t be stopped. Over this past week, I hope that concept has been able to sink in some for you. When we look at the greatest earthly love we can experience - for your spouse or child? It still cannot compare to God’s love for us and we’ll never be able to understand why He loves us, even when we push Him away… That, my friends, is truly a crazy love. This week, we’ll dig a little deeper in our pursuit of crazy love by putting a mirror in front of our hearts and looking at the love we give back to God. Are we loving God with all our hearts, souls, and minds, as Scripture instructs us?

“The biggest test we will ever face is, loving a God whose letters we have read, whose heart we have come to know, but whose face we have never seen.”

                   ~ Victor Knowles

By God’s grace, this morning we’ll push deeper in our pursuit of Him & live out that crazy love He has called us to.

                 Matthew 22: 35-40

35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

I want us to think for a while about what it means to love God – what Jesus called the most important commandment. Loving God, loving one another, and loving the world. It’s a short description of what God wants His church to do and it all begins with a singular foundation:  loving God.

This exchange took place during the last week of Jesus’ life, just before His crucifixion. The Pharisees asked Jesus a question to trap Him with His own words. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? These men were experts in the law of Moses; they were the best lawyers of their day. They must have thought he could out smart this humble carpenter’s son. Instead of being sucked in to their trap, Jesus exposed their lack of spirituality. He answered that it was fine to give others what belonged to them, but for the most important matters of life, those all belonged to God alone. They asked Him what commandment was the greatest. Jesus responded by telling them that there is no other commandment greater than these 2: loving God and loving others.

From this we can see that Scripture clearly defines our purpose in life: To fully engage our hearts in love for God, that we may serve others. The love Christ speaks of is one of absolute devotion. We can’t love someone we don’t take time to simply enjoy. Husbands can’t love our wives well if we never see them – if we’re never home. We can’t love God if life is consumed with activity and stuff – even good stuff.

 “The real problem of the Christian life comes…the moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. The first job each morning is simply shoving them all back; AND listening to that other voice—That still small voice.”
                                               ~ C.S. Lewis observed and share

Why did Jesus choose this as the greatest commandment? Because it fulfills all of them! What is the basis of our love for God? It’s based on relationship. Loving & serving, not out of obligation, but out of a pure desire to grow closer to God. The difference is: One who loves God says “what is the maximum I can do for my love?” Versus "What’s the least I have to do to make it to heaven?” God doesn’t want us to live for Him merely out of obligation. He wants our commitment to Him to be out of a love response.

How Much Do We Really Love God? Our opening text sheds some light on 3 ways we must love God:

                        Matthew 22:37-38

37 Jesus replied: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

I.  First of All…We Must Love God With All Our HEARTS

          The Greek term is “kardia” (car-dee-uh), and we think of words like cardiac or words which deal with the physical heart. In the Bible the word “heart” or “kardia” refers to: The command center of all of life. The place where we experience all of our emotions: joy, sorrow, anger, and the like; Our will; our desires; our passions. It’s often where decisions are made and plans implemented. The heart is the hub of the wheel of humanity’s existence. The mainspring of all thought, words, and deeds

                        Proverbs 4:23

23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

The heart controls our feelings and emotions, our desires and passions. We purpose in our hearts what our commitments will be. The heart is the place where we decide for or against living in relationship with God.

                        Mark 7:6-8

6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “’These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 7 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ 8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.”

How do I love Him with all my heart.... By giving Him pure devotion –an undivided focus. Through giving Him first place in everything in my life - just like we spoke on Thursday, Jesus declared that We Must Love God With All our Heart.

II. We Must Love God With All Our SOULS.

          In the Greek: psuche [PSOO-KHAY]), it refers to: Breath. The vital, life-giving force which animates the body and shows itself in breathing regarded as a moral being designed for everlasting life the essence not dissolvable by death. The soul is that part that will live on forever, the essence of humanity that is eternal and was created in us so that we may worship God. Our souls were designed to commune with God and are what makes us different from the animals. Through loving God with our souls, we surrender our lives to the purpose for which they were created to love and worship Him, for eternity but it begins here and now.

How do I love God with all my soul? By experiencing his love through prayer and worship. When I pray, God’s Spirit transforms me to become more like Him. When I worship God, I am connecting with Him in a way that binds us together and opens the doors for relationship with Him through eternity. I bring my heart into submission to His will to make His wants and desires mine.

 “The man who does not love God is really in love with himself, his position, his success, & his pleasure.”

~ J.B. Phillips

When we surrender our souls to God, we move from the temporary, everyday realm to the eternal - where we will forever be in fellowship with God. Jesus commanded us to Love God With All our Heart & Soul.

III. We Must Love God With All Our MINDS

     In the Greek: dianoia [DEE-AN-OY-AH] refers to… Our understanding, feeling, or reasoning;  the intellectual component of human beings. It encompasses our thoughts—what we dwell on and what we allow to shape us

How do you love God with all your mind?

              Romans 12:2

… be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Having my thoughts align with His. Not being influenced by the world -- but BEING an influence. The mind is not only center of humanity’s intellectual life but also of our dispositions and attitudes.

The mind is where we battle to implement those things that are in our hearts. It’s often the place where our commitments stand or waver because we’ve focused on things that build up, or dwelled upon things that tear down. We control what we feed ourselves with, & those things effect our reason & understanding. That’s why we need the power of the Holy Spirit to renew our minds daily so we can be prepared to withstand everything we encounter. We live in an all-consuming, fast paced world that pulls on us in so many directions. We have become so concerned about our horizontal relationships we have forgotten what it means to live in the vertical.

When you get vertical you become radical for Jesus; watch out…because there is an impact which happens all around you. People look and take notice. Do you really love God?  Do you have a hunger for God?

                 Jesus says

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

The point of what Jesus was saying was not so much to emphasize the differences between our hearts, soul and mind but rather, to show that we must love God with our whole person, everything within us. He used these 3 overlapping aspects of our being to show us that there was no area of our lives that should not be dedicated to Him. He meant that we should love God with every capacity we possess.

I’ve wondered about the following statement, and shared it with you all before:

If the greatest thing is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind, then the greatest sin in the world must be to not do it.

 “It takes intentional commitment. You must want to (love), decide to (love), make an effort to (love) and persist in (loving)”. This is love that involves the will, the mind and the heart.

~ Rick Warren

How many of us have lost that appetite for God because we have gorged ourselves on other things?

Points to Ponder:

How often do I think of God during a typical day? When I make decisions, what role does the Word of God and the will of God play in my choices? How do we put that in action? By entering into relationship with Him, and living out His commandments, even when they are inconvenient or uncomfortable. By surrendering our thoughts and actions to Him each day, and pursuing His desires. Because God first loved us, so we should love Him.

I said this on Thursday evening: It’s easy to live for God hard, but it’s hard to live for God easy.

Crazy Love: God’s Relentless Love for Us

Today we’ll begin a sermon series entitled “Crazy Love”

It’s been said that love makes the world go round. I would go further, to say that love is the reason for existence. Without love, nothing would matter and nothing would make sense. The very concept of love is one of the most permeating themes in the world today. The Beatles sang about it: Their message to a hurt and frightened world was, “love is all you need.”

According to Amazon.com, there are at least 32,000 books currently in print with the word “love” in the title. There are over 11,000 popular albums/CDs with “love” in the title.

If you were to do a Google-search on the internet, you’d discover at least 121,000,000 web-sites that that use the word “love” as one of their key words. That word sure does get thrown around a lot! But in spite of how much we mention it, love has become a very confusing subject. When I read the news, check the internet, or scan magazines in the checkout lines, it’s clear that our society has a very poor understanding of love. Love isn’t something we simply feel, but rather it’s a committed journey thru highs & lows. With so many confusing, mixed messages about love, who is to say what love is?

The answer is simple—God!  God is love

 “God is love” does not mean that “love is God.” In other words, love does not define God; rather, God defines love. Much of what we call “love” in modern North America bears no resemblance or relationship to the holy, spiritual love of God.But when we get a grasp on how truly matchless, how pursuing, how encompassing God’s love for us is, there is no other way to describe it than as “crazy love”. One of the simplest & yet most profound definitions of love is found in 1 John 4:7-11 As we begin this new series, it is important to understand that God began this process of loving us before we ever returned the favor to Him!

READ - 1 John 4:7-11

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Today’s title - Crazy Love: God’s Relentless Love for Us!

As we reflect upon this, it’s crucial to discuss John’s description of God’s love for us!

First of all, God’s Relentless Love For Us Is… A PERSONAL LOVE

I think that A.W. Tozer said it best: “The love of God is one of the great realities of the universe, a pillar upon which the hope of the world rests. But it is a personal, intimate thing too. God does not love opulations, He loves people. He loves not masses, but men.”

One of the most powerful messages we can take to people today is that God loves them. Every individual person is important to God, and He loves each one.

G.K. Chesterton understood this truth when he said, “All people matter. You matter. I matter. It’s the hardest thing in theology to believe.”

When teaching His disciples, Jesus said, in Luke 12: 6-7

⁶ “Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins?  And not one of them is forgotten before God.⁷ But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Isn’t that amazing!? There is not a single bird that falls from the sky without God’s notice;

And how much more important are we than a few birds? So much more import that God even knows every hair on your head. God’s love is universal, but it is also individual.

As Augustine put it, “He loves each one of us, as if there were only one of us.” The first characteristic of God’s love is that it is personal.

Secondly, God’s Relentless Love For Us Is… A PROVEN LOVE
God’s love for us was “manifested” (NKJV), or proven to us, through the life and death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary! You see, love is a verb; it requires actions, it’s demonstrated through behavior—and the love of God is no exception. It doesn’t do any good to talk about love & compassion without demonstrating it. God demonstrates His love. He’s proven His love for us. Do we stop to really reflect upon all that God did for us on the cross? Do any of us deserve that kind of love? We must understand that Jesus’ death was not the result of jealous Jews or hard hearted Romans. It was the result of a loving God, who in His wisdom, said there was no other way. Jesus chose the nails, to demonstrate just how far He was willing to go to win your heart. His love is an unconditional love; Love without strings… It is love without limits or bounds. It is selfless. It is love that builds the other up. It’s the selfless commitment to us, that Christ died for us before we chose Him (and even if we never do choose Him).

Thirdly, God’s Relentless Love For Us Is… A PERFECTING LOVE

The Apostle John goes on to say, in 1 John 4:12

¹² No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

Since God’s love is already perfect, the phrase “His love is made perfect in us” actually has to do with perfecting us. Another translation says, (New Living Translation) “But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us”

The word translated perfect actually means maturity or completion. In other words, God’s love completes us; It makes us whole, and gives significance to our lives. Without the love of God, we would never be complete. There would always be something missing. God’s love—as with all true love—is meant to foster the personal growth & development of the one He loves. That also tells us that God’s love is not selfish; He is genuinely looking out for our best interests.

One of the most powerful & hope-filled promises of the Bible comes from Romans 8:28

Everything that God does or allows in your life & mine is for our own good. That’s what agape love is all about—wanting and doing what is best for another person. And remember, God’s goal for your life is to make you like Him, To give you a heart like His, And transform you into the best possible version of yourself. And that’s what God’s love does when we let it into our lives—It changes us from the inside & makes us better than we ever could have ever imagined. In reality there is no other relationship we can have on earth that will truly make us complete; None other than the love of God. Truly, God’s love never lets go. It lifts us out of the muck & mire of sin, to reach unimaginable spiritual heights.

Finally, God’s Relentless Love For Us Is… A PRESERVING LOVE

Jesus did not die on the cross just to prove that He loves us, But that love compelled Him to that cross to save us & give us life! Jesus, driven by his limitless love, came into this world to pay that price of sin for us!

Colossians 1:21-23

From the very moment of creation, God let us know that he had something special in mind for men and women. Have you ever considered how beautiful this world must have been before our sin, greed and pollution marred it? We were created to be stewards or managers of the resources given to us at Creation. Sin separated us from God as well as eternity with Him! He died to save us from that sin. The price of sin was too great to overcome on our own strength we needed to be saved from ourselves and freed from the prison of sin!

Thankfully, we don’t have to look to our own merits to be freed. God’s perfect love PERFECTS us, then it keeps us no matter what we may face we can stand in faith knowing God’s will preserve us, because that is what He does. God’s love is the most powerful agent on earth, and is an unstoppable force for keeping us safe in His arms and His will.

Conclusion:

Would you like to know what the Bible has to say about God’s love for us?

·        Since I care for you so much don't worry about getting your needs met and don't worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:25-34).

·        Give your burdens to me and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).

·        I've given you my Holy Spirit to be your Comforter and Counselor (John 14-16).

·        So don't walk alone; walk in my Spirit (Galatians 5:25) and trust in me and I will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:4-5) and bless you with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3).

We’re talking about crazy love—bless me? With every spiritual blessing?

Please know that as my child you are safe in my hands (John 10:28).

·        I am a refuge for you (Psalm 9:9).

·        Like a mother bird I cover you with my feathers in my nest (Psalm 91:1-4).

·        When you pass through rivers of difficulty you will not be swept away.

·        When you walk through fiery trials you will not be burned (Isaiah 43:2).

·        So when you must walk through the valley of the shadow of death don't be afraid because I am with you, comforting and protecting you (Psalm 23:4).

·        I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5).

·        When you are brokenhearted I will draw close to you (Psalm 34:18).

·        I'll cry with you (John 11:35).

Crazy love—He will cry with me? He cares that much for me? With so many different concepts of love — so many distortions of this powerful concept it is comforting to know that Christians need not be confused: “God is love.” God’s love is personal, proven, perfecting, and preserving — It’s crazy, unexplainable, undeserved, unsurpassable.

If something’s been missing in your life, or you sometimes feel unloved, Jesus invites you to experience the soul-changing love of God. It is only by the love of God that this life takes on real meaning, And we can find purpose in living. Wherever you are in life, know that God’s love is available to you, right here this morning. Please don’t leave today without experiencing His relentless pursuit of you Let Him into your heart—tear down the walls you’ve built and open up to Him Let His grace flood into your soul, and His mercy wraps its arms around You You’ll never be the same after you experience His crazy love