So LovedNäide

Proved It: The World

Have you ever SO loved something? Your emotion towards that thing or that person feels like a wave crashing over you that you cannot contain or control. And a love like this leads us to do something about it. A love like this leads us to give to it, doesn’t it?

Maybe for you, you SO loved your college that you GAVE financially to the alumni association. Maybe you SO loved your boyfriend/ girlfriend that you GAVE them a ring.

The most famous verse of the whole Bible, John 3:16, seems to have lost its power, and it’s our fault. But the greatest news of all history lies in this one verse: “For God so loved the world, that he sent his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

God didn’t love us like he loves Stranger Things, or the University of Georgia, or even the rest of his creation. He SO loves us. And this love led him to GIVE us a gift. He hasn’t loved us just with empty promises- He proved it! He sent Jesus, His only Son, down from the perfection of Heaven to live here with us- to endure all the things we do, to live without flaw, and to suffer death on a cross as a substitute for us. Why? Is it because we deserve it? Is it because He needs us? No. It’s all because he SO loved us, that he couldn’t help but give us what we most desperately needed.

God longs for us to want him as much as he wants us. It says God loved and he gave, “that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is for you. This is for me. This is for WHOEVER believes. And the invitation is this: life to the full here on earth and eternal paradise in Heaven.

1. Have you watered down the gospel?
2. Do you believe that God’s gift is here and now, not just in eternity? What does it look like for you to live life to the full?
3. Have you received the gift God has offered you freely?