Three Questions -- One More Time...

 This is what you have been waiting for all year, a chapter on rape and circumcision, and the vengeance of brothers upon every one of the Hivite men.  Just when you thought it was safe to go out in the water, here comes circumcision again.

We are going to save all of that for the next service.  There really are not two distinct stories here that deserve to be split between services, so I am going with an old favorite—three questions.

The questions are:

How long will God love you?

How much does God love you?

What are you going to do about it?

To the first question. How long will God love us?

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

    I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

Here it is in The Message translation.

God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will.

    Expect love, love, and more love!

It seems that our world is going absolutely bonkers, but our God just won’t stop loving us.  It’s not about how well the world is doing.  It’s not about our performance, though our very lives should be a living sacrifice—on ongoing offering—to God.  It’s not about how well we scored on our Law of Moses test.

It’s about love.  It’s all about love.  Why?

God is love!

God wants us to have his divine nature. He wants us to know love and to be love and to do that he just keeps on loving us. 

Evidently, he thinks that we are worth it.

Question 2.  How much does God love us? We know this answer by heart.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

I can comprehend my own child going into the service and perhaps risking his life for his country.  I get that.

I have a hard time comprehending the trust that Abraham had in God when he told him to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac. That’s some stuff right there.

Risk of death is one thing.  Giving your son over to death is another.  I am glad that God called me to be a Marine officer and to pastor a church in Burns Flat, America.

I don’t know if I would have it in me to sacrifice my own son.  As much as I preach trust in the Lord and as much as I try to live trust in the Lord, sacrificing your own son just seems like a bridge too far.

Yes, there were some teenage years when it might have been easier, but sacrificing your own son is too much.

When it came to loving us, God said that no price is too high. He paid the price in his own blood—the blood of Christ Jesus.

When you wonder how much God loves you, visualize Jesus on the cross.  His arms are stretched out wide to make it difficult to breathe.  The Romans were devious like that.  They built good roads and aqueducts, but they knew how to maximize pain as they killed you.

But as you visualize Jesus being executed on the cross think of his arms stretched out for you. How much does God love you?  More than you can imagine.

So now, to my favorite question.  What are you going to do about it?  What are you going to do in response to this fantastic, unbelievable love of God that we know in Christ Jesus?

Our salvation rests in our belief.  We believe in Jesus and the One who sent him.  In our profession of faith resides our salvation.

But we are promised more than just being saved from the flames of hell.  We are promised fullness. We are promised abundant life.

Our salvation is one thing. Our response to salvation is another.  Our response is our discipleship and our discipleship begs the question:  Do we realize how much God loves us?

How could our response be anything less than everything we have given willingly to God.  Yes, we tithe and make offerings and sing hymns of praise and sometimes stay awake for the sermon, but I am talking about more. 

I am talking about in everything we do, doing it for the Lord.  Our jobs, our school, our time with our families, and our time alone is all meant to be an offering to God.

God wants to see us bring glory to his name and enjoy him while we do it.

Do we comprehend that?  God wants us to enjoy bringing glory to his name.  It’s not a gotta-do.  It’s a get-to-do—a blessed-to-do.

Even our loving response to God’s unfathomable love is designed to be a blessing to us.

Let’s respond to God’s love by living fully for him and enjoying him every step of the way!

Amen.