LOVE & GOODNESS…not two of the traits that are usually associated with men, but are completely true of God. They can be true of us as well as we spend time with Him. Great men become that way by being around a Greater God! See you at FORGE and let’s talk about it!
Hey guys good morning! Welcome to FORGE!
Alright…let me ask you a question: WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO IN THE WAY YOU DO IT?
WHY ARE YOU THE WAY YOU ARE?
HOW DID YOU BECOME THE WAY YOU ARE?
WHAT ARE YOU BECOMING?
IF YOU CONTINUE GOING THE WAY YOU’RE GOING, WHAT WILL YOU BECOME?
The truth is: Men become like those they are around! If men are isolationists then they will become the sum total of who they are in isolation…their own existing character shapes them the most…the good and bad and ugly of who they are shapes them.
If you have a group of people that you like to hang out with that group will inevitably affect your development!
If you spend time with the Great God of the Universe, by His grace you will become like Him.
And the world needs more men like the type God builds.
So that’s why we’re doing a study right now on the ATTRIBUTES OF GOD. God’s attributes are His perfections…His character…God’s attributes are what He is and cannot change from being.
We’ve talked about God’s:
- Self-Existence
- Omnipotence-El Shaddai- God Almighty
- Omnipresence-
- Omniscience
- Holiness
- Immutability
Today we’re going to talk about God’s LOVE AND GOODNESS. Our starting point are 2 key texts:
I John 4:8
“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
I John 4:16
“And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in Him.”
Here we see the reality in the Bible that GOD is Love.
If you were to ask most Americans what the Christian God is like, they would probably not mention the attributes of God that we’ve studied in the past several weeks…they would probably mention this one. God is love!
Ill Theologian J.I.Packer says That God is LOVE is one of the most tremendous and AT THE SAME TIME one of the most misunderstood truths of the Bible!
Let me read another text of Scripture: Turn to Romans 5:1-11
Romans 5:1-11 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
5 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; [d]though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
I want you to catch 3 truths about God’s love from v 5…
- God’s love has been POURED OUT in our hearts…POUR here is the same word as on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) when the Holy Spirit was poured out. Think: Think Flood. Think inundation. We haven’t had a little of the love of God given us, it’s been poured out!
- Notice the tense of the verb POURED OUT. In the original language it’s in the PERFECT TENSE which teaches us something important: God’s love has flooded in and it still remains. The Greek Perfect Tense is used to emphasize continuing results. There are lasting results of His love being firehosed into our hearts. Our hearts have received His love. Like a reservoir holds water.
- Notice that the Holy Spirit does this. This is the ORDINARY work of the Holy Spirit. Many people like the Corinthians want the really big and spectacular powers of the Holy Spirit…they want to heal the sick and see people throw away their crutches and raise the dead and speak in tongues, and the Holy Spirit does that sometimes.
But His Ordinary, everyday kind of work is to bring the Love of God into our hearts!
And this is something we should continue to pray becomes real to us:
Ephesians 3:14-19 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom [a]every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the [b]saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
Now I love what J.I.Packer says here about this in his book KNOWING GOD…it’s helped me out a lot:
- Obviously God’s Love is not His only attribute…
In His wisdom we see God’s MIND
In His Power we see God’s HAND
In His Word we see God’s MOUTH
In His Love we see God’s HEART
- That’s so good…because when we see a person’s heart we see their motivation and in a sense who they really are.
I have friends who are …
- Really introverted…you might think they’re arrogant and have a superiority complex, but when you get to know them you see their HEART! Ya, you see who they really are.
- Really extroverted…and you might think they are self-absorbed and self-focused and all about themselves, but when you see their generosity and what they do when no one’s looking, you see their heart. You see the motivation of love that emanates from them.
- Really strong, opinionated, quick thinking and quick speaking and with them you might think they are real jerks. But when you get to see their HEART you see that ya they’re strong, but they’re really good guys and want good for others.
In God’s love we see His heart…that His heart is good and good toward us. This is different from His holiness and righteousness. Yes God is THE standard of right and wrong, He’s high and holy and lifted up and therefore what He teaches us and commands us is always RIGHT/RIGHTEOUS.
But in the love of God we see His heart and that His heart intentions toward us are always good. We men need to know that God’s intentions toward us are always good!
Now let me make another clarification in order to better understand the Love of God….then we’ll make some applications:
- Now let’s go back to what I said earlier: That God’s love is one of the most wonderful AND misunderstood teachings in the Bible:
- In John 4:24 Jesus said: GOD is Spirit. That is to say, God’s Being, His personhood, powers and qualities are perfectly INTEGRATED and without parts.
I have parts, you have parts.
God has no parts. He is perfectly integrated. He has integrity. All of Who He is works perfectly together.
- In I John 1: 5- “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
God is Righteous, perfectly pure
- In I John 4:8 & 16 as we saw earlier: God is Love
I John 4:8
“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
I John 4:16
So when the Bible says God is love we at the same time have to run it through our minds…”Yes, God is love, but God is also Spirit, thus without parts, and God is light, thus without unholiness and without any sin.”
We need to run God is Spirit, God is Light, God is love all together otherwise:
We end up with a bad calculation. Since God is Spirit, and Light and Love :
- His actions are never bad but always good.
- He’s not an indulgent, doddering old man who is afraid to stand up against right and wrong-in other words, God is loving when He stands against evil and says certain actions are evil and to be avoided.
- God doesn’t have a spineless and soft attitude toward sin.
- In fact God who is Spirit, Light and Love can be quite stern when He talks against Sin in the Bible.
- God’s love is not divorced from moral standards.
- God’s love is a holy love!
- In fact because God is Spirit, Light and Love He rightly and consistently HATES EVIL…The Bible says…and we should hate it too!
- Worst opiod epidemic in history
- Average child is exposed to porn at age 11 and that’s decreasing
- It’s difficult to find truth anymore in American Culture
- Sex trafficking is horrible
- We need to hate sin:
ILL Elie Wiesel: “We must take sides, neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim, silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
- This is important for us as Men/Disciples/Leaders to recognize in a world where there are few moral restraints. Yes God is love, but we shouldn’t be changing gender. Yes God is love and has perfect intentions toward us, but God doesn’t look the other way when candidates for public office authorize and approve of abortion, or same sex marriage.
- Yes God is gracious and loving and we should be too, but remember God is Spirit/Light/Love without any contradiction and we must follow imHHIS lead in this.
- We can say with those who struggle with gender confusion, “We genuinely can see that is a struggle for you, but it is not good for you or right to given in an change your gender.” We can hurt with the hurting without justifying violation of God’s light/truth in the name of His love.
For us as redeemed Children of the Most High God it is such a powerful truth to know that we are loved by a Holy God and that His intentions toward us are always good…
God’s cosmic generosity is always sent our way.
There is never a bad motive of God’s heart for us.
God is loving and therefore He is good!
In our CORE IDENTITY we need to know that as God’s Sons His intentions and actions toward us are always good.
In our work : we need seek to let God’s goodness motivate us in being good to other people.
In our leadership: we need to champion that God is always good. With our wives, children, grand children, at church, and even dealing with great tragedies like the shooting last week in South Florida…God is not bad, but good.
In our warrior role: we need to fight for what is good lovingly and kindly, with good intentions, and with the character of God.
CONCLUSION:
God delights in our welfare
God saw our need and did something about it in Jesus Christ.
We should continually emphasize to people who criticize God that He is perfectly loving and good, and that if we don’t understand something, it’s on our side, not His.
“The love and goodness of God finds expression in everything that He says and does” says J.I. Packer and I’ve lived long enough to concur with that truth.
ALRIGHT…TALK ABOUT THE LOVE AND GOODNESS OF GOD AROUND YOUR TABLES.
TEAM TALK
WRAP UP
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