Welcome to Waymaker Church! We are so excited to have you join us today! We exist to Encounter, Live for, and Advance the Kingdom of God!

As we wrapped up our series on the parables of Jesus last week, I asked the Lord what was on His heart for his people. Almost immediately I heard to know the love of God.

The foundational element of the Christian faith is the Love of God.

Christ the word in our hearts by faith. Helps us to become rooted and grounded. We become unshakable in our faith, immoveable. We have confidence in God without become haughty or high minded. The result is that we are able to comprehend broader scope of the love of God. Moving us beyond head knowledge to revelation. Revelation producing in us the fullness of God.

The word fullness is the Greek word pleroma (play-row-mah) it speaks of completeness. Being fully equipped. An example it gives is a ship. Filled with sailors, rowers, and soldiers. The fullness of the ship is that it has everything it needs to navigate, defend, and fight.

Becoming rooted and grounded in the love of God brings the fullness of the presence and power of God. Remember that all things work by love. Faith, the gifts of the spirit, and even salvation was the result of love.

This morning let’s dig into the love of God.

As we begin let’s look at six characteristics of divine love. These six are characteristics are not the totality of love. In honesty we will spend the rest of eternity learning of the breadth, length, and depth of His love.

1. God’s love is infinite, limitless, unfathomable.
I don’t know that we will ever fully understand the totality of God’s love. 1 John 4:8 tells us that God is love. I don’t think any human being outside of Jesus has fully understood God. For those who have surrendered to Him we will spend eternity discovering the fulness of His love.

2. God’s Love is Eternal:
Jeremiah 31:3 “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”

Psalm 136:1-2 “Thanksgiving to God for His Enduring Mercy Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Oh, give thanks to the God of gods! For His mercy endures forever.”

The value of anything is determined largely by how long it endures. Gold and precious stones, for example, are more precious than wood or paper, which do not last. Mercy in this verse speaks of God’s love, or loving kindness, as the term used is hesed which means everlasting.

3. God’s Love is Immutable, Changeless.
The number one most important thing to remember about love when it comes to God is that it is not something He has, but who He is. His love is not merely an emotion. It’s not warm fuzzy feelings because He is fond of someone.

Remember, He is love. 1 John 4:8. Not only is He love, He also does not change. Malachi 3:6 ““For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” This is the phrase immutable. For God not to love He would have to deny himself.

4. God’s love is Holy.
God’s love is holy because He is Holy. It is pure absolutely flawless, having no selfishness, wickedness, or sin mixed in with it. That type of love is difficult for us to grasp because we do not see that kind of love in the world around us.

The purity of God’s love is seen in His nature. The description of love in 1 Corinthians 13 is a description of himself. Because He suffers long and is kind, he does not envy, he is not arrogant or proud, he does not behave rudely, does not seek his own, not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice iniquity, but He rejoices in the truth. He bears all things, believes all things, hopes in all things, endures all things, and he never fails.

So much of our experience in life is the polar opposite of that. Although our experience is opposite it doesn’t change who He is. We can be encouraged however because He doesn’t leave us hanging. He chooses to communicate His love to us through the Holy Spirit.

Romans 5:5 “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”

5. God’s Love is Sacrificial.
His love is not self-serving but sacrificial.

We see the sacrificial nature of His love in:
1. The gift of salvation.
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

I think it is important to remember that He didn’t have to redeem us if He didn’t want to. He simply chose to because He loves us.

2. The death of Christ.
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”

6. God’s Love is Personal and Individual.
Ephesians 1:4 “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,”
Did you see that? He chose us before the foundation of the world. After the fall He chose to make a way for us to receive salvation and restored relationship.

1 John 3:1 “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.”

So often I talk with people who don’t feel worthy of God’s love. His love for us it not based on our performance. It is simply an outflow of who He is. It is His gift to us.

God’s revelation to Jeremiah reveals the personal nature of God.

Jeremiah 1:5 ““Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”” He knows us!

Jesus in His teaching in Luke further reveals that God knows us. Luke 12:7.
Luke 12:7 “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

My question then this morning how do we respond to His love?
We should receive it and live through it.

1 John 4:9-11 says, “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. 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

This is what Paul is talking to the Church at Ephesus about.
Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.”

The “walk” of Ephesians 5:2 refers to our behavior and how we act. We walk in love when we act like God. When we behave like Jesus, we are walking in love. Just as children like to imitate their parents, we are to mimic God in the same way Jesus copied His Father’s behavior.

The Love mentioned in Ephesians 5:2 is the word Agape, which is the sacrificial, unselfish, unconditional love that proves itself through actions. It is a reflection of God’s nature. We are to learn to walk in love by living sacrificial, unselfish, and with love that is proved by our actions.

This sacrificial love carries with it the essence of John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”

The one who walks in love understands eternity by seeing beyond the here and now. They know that each day they inch closer to eternity. Not knowing when their final breath will be.

They choose to be patient and kind. They don’t walk in futility by being jealous of others or lusting after material things. They look beyond personal desire to serve the purposes of God. With patience and humility, they prefer others above themselves. The result of this is an overcoming faith.

The one who doesn’t walk in love succumbs to the futility of the world. Focusing their gaze on fleeting material gain and status. They are encompassed by a perpetual fight for self. Self-glorification, exaltation, and promotion. They argue and fight, irritably demanding their way. Filled with offense they meticulously keep track of every offense and suffered wrong. They love to get even and celebrate when their enemy is hurt. The result is a life of victimhood, and vanity.

My greatest desire is that we would become rooted and grounded in the love of God so that we might live a life of overcoming faith.

Romans 8:37-39 “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

My prayer for you today is found in Ephesians 3:16-21.
Ephesians 3:16-21 “that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

The limiting factor of increase in our lives will always be the measure of our Revelation of love. Can I challenge you this morning to go deep.

Do what Jesus instructed in Matthew 7:7-8 ““Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”