First Lutheran Church of Little Rock

• Sermon for 10.31.21 (Reformation Day—Morning Service)
Text: Romans 10:5-15
Theme: Refor“mission”

• *In the Name of the Father…Amen.*

• *Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:*

• *We praise You, O Lord, for welcoming us through the
words of all those who bring to us the Good News of Your love. Place that
Word that creates faith on our lips, that we may speak to those who have
not yet heard or believed in Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.*

• *Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father
through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.*

• *Today’s Scripture text: Romans 10:5-15*

*For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that
the person who does the commandments shall live by them. (6) But the
righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will
ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) (7) “or ‘Who will
descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).
(8) But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in
your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); (9) because,
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart
that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (10) For with the
heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and
is saved. (11) For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will
not be put to shame.” (12) For there is no distinction between Jew and
Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who
call on him. (13) For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be
saved.” (14) How then will they call on him in whom they have not
believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (15) And how are they
to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the
feet of those who preach the good news!”*

• *Introduction*

• A missionary in China once said:

*Every heart without Christ is a mission field. Every heart with
Christ is a missionary.*

• These two sentences sum up what this Bible passage
from Romans 10 is all about.

• Let us take a further look into what this all means.

• *1.1 Every Heart Without Christ is a Mission Field*

• *This phrase means that every person who does not
know Jesus Christ as his or her Savior, is lost. *

• A “mission field” is a person or people who do not
know the real God and who are, to put it bluntly, going to hell.

• *Now, that sounds like a very arrogant and intolerant
thing to say. *

• “Pastor, you mean that just because I don’t believe
like you do, I’m going to go to hell??” No.

• *1.2 Every Heart Without Christ is a Mission Field.*

• The reason people are in danger of going to hell is because
of a little three-letter word.

• It begins with “S” and ends with “N,” and has a great, big
“I” (as in “me, myself, I”) right in the middle.

• “Sin” is the problem.

• Sin means doing wrong or not doing what is right.

• There is not one of us here today who can claim that they
have never screwed up.

• Morally, we all stick our foot in the doo-doo every single
day.

• A nasty remark, an impure thought, a selfish refusal to help.

• Illustration: Mexico City, one of the world’s cities with the
highest amount of pollution:

• You could clean the house in the morning but by afternoon
once again there would be this gritty black dust all over.

• That’s how it is with us, morally.

• We are sin magnets. Not a day passes but that we get dirty.

• *1.3 **Every Heart Without Christ is a Mission Field.*

• *Now, at this point you may be saying, “Wait a minute,
pastor! *

• Sure, I’ve got my faults, but I’m not all that bad.

• At least I’m not as bad as so-and-so over there.

• At least I’m not as bad as the terrorists who have killed so
many people!”

• *Jesus had something to say about that. *

• He said, *“You have heard that it was said to the people long
ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’
But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to
judgment…, and anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ Will be in danger of the fire
of hell.” (Matthew 5:21-22)*

• According to Jesus, you can kill with your tongue as well as
with your hands.

• I have done it all too many times.

• *1.4 **Every Heart Without Christ is a Mission Field.*

• *It does no good to compare ourselves with other people. *

• *We need to compare ourselves with what God says in his Word. *

• When we do, we see how far short we have fallen.

• *Look at it this way. *

• If I let go of this book, it will fall to the ground.

• Because of gravity, it will not remain in the air or
float off. It will fall.

• This is what is known as the law of cause and effect.
Cause, I let go. Effect, it falls. Cause, effect. It will inevitably fall.

• It does not matter if so-and-so over there has a heavier
book than mine.

• If he lets go of his book, it will fall, and if I let go
of my book, it will fall.

• Well, there is also a moral law of cause and effect, as
verse 5 of our text says.

• If I do wrong (cause), I will suffer the consequences
and go to hell (effect).

• It doesn’t matter if so-and-so over there has sinned
more than me.

• He suffers the consequences of his own actions, and I
suffer the consequences of mine. Period.

• *1.5 **Every Heart Without Christ is a Mission Field.*

• *But let’s take this one step further.*

• *Suppose, when I let go of this book, one of you reaches out
your hand and catches the book before it hit the floor?*

• Aha! You, an outside force, have intervened in the law of
cause and effect!

• Just so, Jesus Christ has intervened in the *moral* law of
cause and effect.

• On the cross, Jesus suffered for our wrong doing.

• We have failed, but Jesus suffered the consequences for us.

• And having suffered, he then rose from the dead. [lift
book].

• Even though I have sinned, I know that I will not go to hell
because Jesus has caught me and Jesus will raise me up to be with him.

• *Romans 10:9 says, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is
Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved.”*

• *1.6 **Every Heart Without Christ is a Mission Field.*

• *It is only Jesus who can make this difference. *

• Without Jesus, there is nothing to stop you or me from
suffering the consequences of our moral failures.

• That is why, more than anything else in the world, we
need Jesus Christ.

• Every heart without Christ is a mission field.

• *But then remember the second sentence:*

• *2.1 Every Heart With Christ is a Missionary*

• *This means that every person who does know Jesus Christ as
his or her Savior, is Christ’s representative, his ambassador. *

• It is our job, our mission in life to bring Jesus’ love
to the people that God has placed around us.

• *“How can they believe in the one of whom they have not
heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can
they preach unless they are sent?” (Romans 10:14-15) *

• *2.2 **Every Heart With Christ is a Missionary*

• *All of you who know Christ are missionaries, sent by God to
bring good news. *

• God has sent you as his representative in your family,
in your place of work, among your friends and acquaintances.

• *At the time of the Reformation, Martin Luther
understood this very well. *

• When Luther came to understand that he was saved
through Jesus Christ, he could not keep this to himself.

• He talked about it all the time, in his university
classes, in church, on the street, with his family.

• Even when powerful people told him to shut up or die,
Luther said, in effect, “Even if it costs me my life, I must tell people
about this!”

• In the words of Pastor Steve Hughey, there was not
only a “Reformation,” there was a “Refor-mission!”

• *2.3 **Every Heart With Christ is a Missionary*

• *We Lutherans need to follow in Luther’s footsteps.*

• *Luther brought the message of salvation in the language of
the people, in German for the Germans, not in Latin. *

• *We also need to bring the message of salvation in the
languages of the people whom God has brought to our doorstep. *

• *2.4 **Every Heart With Christ is a Missionary*

• *The fact is that today, we need a “Refor-mission.” *

• We all need to support our own church, because the very
purpose of being together in a church is to preach about Christ.

• We need to pray for our church, be here on Sundays,
help out when we can, and make our offering a priority.

• In these difficult economic times, it is tempting to
keep our money for ourselves and let God’s mission fend for itself.

• Be encouraged to trust in the Lord, that he will
provide, and make God’s mission a priority.

• God is giving us an opportunity to be partners!

• Everything that this church does, is a result of all of
us working together as partners in God’s mission by the power of the Holy
Spirit.

• *2.5 Every Heart With Christ is a Missionary*

• *We need to show Christ’s love not only as a church but also
as individuals.*

• It is not only the pastor who is a missionary.

• As pastors, we have our jobs, but each of us also has
a task.

• Every day, God puts us in contact with people who do
not know Jesus Christ as Savior, who are our “mission field.”

• These are opportunities to *show* Jesus’ love and to
*speak* about Jesus’ love.

• Do our neighbors and friends see us reading the Bible,
putting it into practice, ready to discuss our faith or to help out as
needed?

• Or are we lazy Bible-readers, angels in church but
grumpy devils during the week, hoping the subject of God never comes up
because it embarrasses us to talk about faith, hoping nobody comes along
asking for help because we are too busy?

• *2.6** Every Heart With Christ is a Missionary*

• *You do not need to be a Billy Graham or a professional church
worker to share the love of Christ.*

• The fact is that most people do not come to trust in
Jesus as their Savior because of the pastor.

• What reaches people’s hearts most is the love of Christ
shown by ordinary Christians with whom they have personal contact.

• *2.7 Every Heart with Christ is a Missionary*

• *In Venezuela, was a missionary, who for many years was
working at a church, and the church secretary, Dyna, became a Christian
because her mother Dinorah, talked with her about Jesus.*

• Dinorah became a Christian because her neighbor Carmen
spoke with her about Jesus.

• Carmen became a Christian because her aunt spoke with
her about Jesus.

• It is the same with us.

• If you are a Christian, it is probably because someone –
a parent or a friend or a neighbor – someone showed you Christ’s love and
spoke with you about him.

• Now, what if they had not done that?

• *2.8 **Every Heart With Christ is a Missionary*

• *Unfortunately, sometimes we have not been the best
missionaries in the world. *

• Manny, a student at a school for missionary studies,
once went to another Lutheran church.

• He told his pastor the other day, “Pastor, I feel so
bad for the visitors at that church.

• The pastor is the only one who welcomes visitors and
talks with them.

• How can we possibly have people come into the doors of
our church and not talk with them about Jesus?”

• It’s true. Sometimes we have missed opportunities.

• So what can we do?

• *2.9 **Every Heart With Christ is a Missionary*

• *We go back to Christ, of course, confessing our sins,
repenting of the wrongs we have committed, and ask for forgiveness.*

• Jesus died and rose again also for our failures to be
good missionaries.

• He forgives us, he cleanses our hearts, he gives us the
desire to do better.

• This forgiveness is the wonderful thing about being a
Christian.

• It is precisely what the non-Christian does not have,
and needs.

•

*Conclusion *

• *We all need Jesus Christ.*

• We have often failed, but Jesus has intervened.

• And now Jesus is giving us opportunities to share his
love and forgiveness with others.

• We Lutherans have not only a Reformation but a
Refor-mission!

• Every heart without Christ is a mission field.

• Every heart with Christ is a missionary. Amen.

• *Let us pray:*

• Almighty and gracious Lord, pour out Your Holy Spirit on Your
faithful people. Keep us steadfast in Your grace and truth, protect and
deliver us in times of temptation, defend us against all enemies, and grant
to Your Church Your saving peace; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
forever. Amen.

• *Prayer*

• *2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with
you all.*

• *The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. *

• *In the Name of the Father…Amen.*

Sermon for 10.24.21
Text: John 14:1-6
Theme: Christ Alone

• *In the Name of the Father…Amen.*

• *The text for our consideration this morning comes from the
Gospel of John, chapter 14:1-6, which reads as follows:*

(1) “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
(2) In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have
told you that I go to prepare a place for you? (3) And if I go and prepare
a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where
I am you may be also. (4) And you know the way to where I am going.” (5)
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we
know the way?” (6) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and
the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

• *This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Amen.*

• *Introduction*

• *Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray:*

• In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

• In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied –
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

• *Introduction*

• *An American pilot was flying over Burma when his plane
began to break down. (This was back when Myanmar was still called Burma.)*

• The pilot had to bail out of his plane and parachute
down.

• He managed to land safe and sound in the jungle far
from civilization.

• A native Burmese man found the pilot there, lost in
the jungle.

• The Burmese man was cutting a crude road through the
brush with a machete.

• The pilot, now desperate, yelled, “How can I find the
way out of here?”

• The Burmese man, in his poor English, answered, “I am
way. Just follow me and you will be safe.”

• *Introduction*

*B. There are many people and many philosophies in this world that
represent themselves as the truth and the way for those who are lost and
confused.*

• However, according to Jesus there is only one way and
only one truth.

• Only through Jesus can we reach the true God.

*I. **Christ Alone is Our Savior *

• *Today many people believe that all roads lead to Rome
and all religions lead to the same God in the end. *

• Regrettably, they are dead wrong.

• The city of Rome is south of the city of Venice.

• If you are in Venice and get on the highway heading
north, you are never going to reach Rome.

• It just isn’t true that all roads lead to Rome.

• *I. Christ Alone is Our Savior *

*B. It is also not true that all religions lead to the same God.*

• There are many “alternate routes” that will get you to
hell, but there is only one road to get to the true God.

• Jesus said, *“I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NIV) *

• He also said, *“Enter through the narrow gate. For
wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many
enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to
life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14, NIV)*

• *I. Christ Alone is Our Savior *

Brothers and sisters in Christ, any person with a working brain can see
that the different religions take you to a destination that is far from the
true God.

• Some religions – like the Hindus – believe that many
“gods” exist.

• Other religions – like some Buddhists – believe in a
cosmic, impersonal force that guides things.

• Still other religions – like the Muslims – believe in
one god, but it is not the God of the Bible.

• It is not the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the God who
has saved us.

• *I. Christ Alone is Our Savior *

• So there are plenty of false roads and wrong turns, but
only one way to get to the God who is real.

• *As Deuteronomy 4 says: Acknowledge and take to heart
this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There
is no other. (verse 39, NIV) *

• Out of the 10 Commandments, the first is: You shall
have no other gods.

• *I. Christ Alone is Our Savior *

• Anyone who bothers to read the Bible will see that God
is a jealous God.

• The Lord hates it when people worship false gods.

• In ancient times, God got very angry with the
Israelites when they fell into worshiping idols, false gods.

• Why should we think that idolatry is all right today?

• *I. Christ Alone is Our Savior *

• There is just one God and one way to God.

• Jesus is the only route to God because he is the only
one who has saved us.

• Jesus said to his disciples in our sermon text for
this morning: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God;
believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not
so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to
be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3, NIV)

• *I. Christ Alone is Our Savior *

• Jesus has reserved a place in heaven for us.

• You should know that almost all the different religions
accept that a person should do what is right.

• Almost all the religions have laws that you should
keep.

• Every human being has a natural sense of what is right
and what is wrong.

• *I. Christ Alone is Our Savior *

• The problem is that we repeatedly fail to keep God’s
laws.

• We stumble a lot.

• And if we haven’t done what is right, then we’re
stuck.

• Almost all the different religions try to get out of
this problem by assuring their followers that they aren’t all that bad, or
by telling them that if they do this or that, they can pay for their
wrongdoing.

• For example, the Muslims have to keep the “5 pillars”
of Islam,

• the Jews have to keep the rules of the Talmud,

• every group has its requirements.

• But none of them can truly obtain real forgiveness.

• *I. Christ Alone is Our Savior *

• By contrast, Jesus has prepared for us a place in his
Father’s house, a place that we do not deserve.

• Jesus prepared for us a place in heaven, because he
took our place here on earth.

• In our place, Jesus lived a perfect life. In our place,
Jesus died to pay for our sins.

• Mohammed did not die for our sins.

• Neither did the Buddha. Neither did Krishna or anyone
else.

• Jesus said: Believe in me… I am going there to prepare
a place for you.

• For those who are trusting in Jesus, God has erased our
sins!

• *II. Christ Alone Deserves Our Heart*

• Now, if Christ alone saves us, it is logical that
Christ alone deserves our loyalty, our heart.

• We trust in him alone.

• Unfortunately it doesn’t always work that way.

• Even if we avoid all the false gods, all too often we
trust in ourselves, at least a little.

• *II. Christ Alone Deserves Our Heart*

• For example, when we go to a funeral, many times we
comfort ourselves by affirming: “He or she was such a good person,” as if
we can know that they are in heaven because of his behavior.

• Instead, we should comfort ourselves with the words of
Jesus, who said: “I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

• It is because of Jesus that we have the assurance of
eternal life.

• When are we going to stop trusting in our own goodness
and trust in Jesus alone?

• *II. Christ Alone Deserves Our Heart*

• The Bible says that all of us are sinners.

• And yet so often we try to justify ourselves instead of
admitting to what we have done wrong.

• We think that our sins aren’t “that” bad.

• At least we are better than lots of other people.

• We’ve done more good than bad.

• *II. Christ Alone Deserves Our Heart*

• These are just excuses.

• All of us have done wrong and we need to admit it, not
justify it.

• We need to say, “Lord, I’m a sinner and what I have
done makes me ashamed.

• Forgive me.” And because of Jesus, because of Jesus
alone, God does forgive us.

• *II. Christ Alone Deserves Our Heart*

• Today, Jesus is speaking to us in this Bible passage.

• These words from John 14 were not just for Peter and
the other apostles.

• They are for us too.

• Jesus is encouraging us, because in spite of all of our
sins, he has prepared a place for us with the Father.

• He is the way, the truth, and the life.

• When we think about Jesus’ words, the wrong roads don’t
seem so attractive anymore.

• *II. Christ Alone Deserves Our Heart*

• None of the non-Christian religions can save us,
because they don’t have Jesus.

• About 30 years ago, there was a big problem that Africa
was having with malaria medicine.

• The medicine itself was effective.

• However, there was too much fraud.

• *II. Christ Alone Deserves Our Heart*

• Some pharmaceutical companies in Africa did not bother
much with quality control.

• The medicine that they produced didn’t have the right
dosage to beat the malaria.

• Even worse, some people were putting that weak medicine
in bottles with false labels, claiming to be from other companies with good
reputations.

• For that reason, the article warned people traveling to
Africa to buy their malaria medicine in the U.S., not in Africa itself.

• *II. Christ Alone Deserves Our Heart*

• Well, Jesus is the “medicine” for our sins.

• That medicine saves lives – eternally.

• Too bad there is so much fraud.

• There are many religions that “sell” a fraudulent
medicine that doesn’t work.

• They use God’s name but they don’t have Jesus.

• *II. Christ Alone Deserves Our Heart*

• 1 John 4 says that if someone doesn’t acknowledge
Jesus, their spirit is not from God.

• In the same way, if we try to “medicate ourselves” by
trusting in our own good behavior, we won’t get anywhere.

• Only Jesus is the Savior.

• Jesus is the only way to heaven.

• *Conclusion*

• In the end, there are many roads – and many religions –
around us.

• But that doesn’t mean that they all lead us to God.

• Instead of blindly following the broad road that leads
to destruction, let’s pay attention to God’s GPS, his Word, and trust in
Jesus.

• Because only Jesus saves. Amen.

• Let us pray:

• *Prayer*

• There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine –
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

• *Prayer*

B. No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand:
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

• *Prayer*

• *2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with
you all.*

• *The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. *

• *In the Name of the Father…Amen.*

Sermon for 101021
Text: 1 John 4:7-10
Theme: “Grace Alone”

*In the Name of the Father…Amen. The sermon text for this morning come from
1 John, chapter 4, starting at verse 7: *(7) Beloved, let us love one
another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and
knows God.
(8) Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
(9) In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his
only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
(10) In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

*This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. *

*Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us pray: *566 By Grace I’m Saved
By grace I’m saved, grace free and boundless;
My soul, believe and doubt it not.
Why stagger at this word of promise?
Has Scripture ever falsehood taught?
No! Then this word must true remain:
By grace you too will life obtain.

By grace! None dare lay claim to merit;
Our works and conduct have no worth.
God in His love sent our Redeemer,
Christ Jesus, to this sinful earth;
His death did for our sins atone,
And we are saved by grace alone.

* Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God the Father through our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. *

*Introduction*

§ *God is love. *

ØJust about everybody agrees that God is love, if they believe in God at
all.

ØWe as Lutherans have many slogans: *Grace Alone!*

Ø“Grace” in this case means undeserved love.

ØGod loves us even though we haven’t done a thing to earn it.

ØGod is love.

§ *It is this “grace alone” we focus on this morning.*

* However, our love is often very wimpy. *We have some false
ideas about God’s love that keep us from receiving it and responding to it.

We tend to think about God as if he were just like us.

This is natural; all of us tend to project our own
characteristics on others.

For example, if someone is dishonest, he has a tendency to
think that most people are dishonest.

If someone is selfish, he figures that everyone else is, too.

So when we think about God, we figure that his love is the same
as our love.

However, if God’s love is like the light, our own love is like
the darkness in comparison.

God’s love is deep and high. It surpasses all understanding.

We need to ditch our misconceptions about God’s love and start
to open our eyes to the reality.

•

*False Idea # 1: If I am Good, God Will Love Me, but if I am Bad, God will
Hate Me *The first misconception is one we often learn when we are
children.

We think that God’s love depends on our good behavior.

If I am good, then God will love me.

If I am bad, God will hate me.

This is a natural way of thinking.

We ourselves love people who treat us well and hate people who treat us
badly.

There’s a bumper sticker that reads, “May God give you a double portion of
what you wish me.”

If a loved one hurts us badly, in just a moment all our love can turn into
resentment and bitterness.

•

*God, however, is different. *God loves us when we are good and also when
we are bad.

Of course, God detests sin, that is, when we do wrong or hurt others.

However, even while God hates sin, he still *loves* those who have fallen
into that wrongdoing.

His deepest desire is that the sinner abandon his ways and turn back to the
Lord – back to his love.

•

*John 13:1 says, It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the
time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having
loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the last. *God’s love
has no end.

It doesn’t change.

Jesus knew that on that very evening, his disciples would all abandon him.

Peter would swear that he didn’t know Jesus.

Judas would betray him with a kiss.

Nevertheless, Jesus *loved them to the last.*

This incredible love broke Peter’s heart and when he realized what he had
done, Peter wept bitterly and later received Jesus’ forgiveness.

This incredible love should have broken Judas’ heart also. Instead, he took
his own life.

• *Jeremiah 31:3 says, I have loved you with an everlasting
love.*

God’s love never ends.

You can’t get to hell unless you run roughshod over God’s love in order to
get there.

God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son for us.

But many people prefer to go their own way and turn their backs to God and
to his love in Jesus Christ.

That’s why hell is such a terrible thing to think about, because it is the
absence of God’s loving presence, and you can only get there by rejecting
God and his love.

• *As you look at your life, do you sometimes wonder if God could
really love you?*

You think about all those times when you’ve messed up,

when you said things you shouldn’t have,

when your thoughts were not very Christian,

when you did something you regret,

when you failed to do something you knew you should.

Do you wonder if you’ve been good enough for God to love you?

Do you wonder if you’ve been good enough to get to heaven?

•

*If you wonder, just think about the cross for a moment. *That is the proof
that God loves you, just as you are.

God forgives you.

Because of Jesus, he wipes away whatever you have done wrong.

*Isaiah 38:17 says, You have put all my sins behind your back.*

How can anyone reach our sins if God has thrown them behind his back?

If God has made us clean, how can the devil accuse us of doing wrong?

The devil might be able to get behind *my* back, but not *God’s* back.

•

*And then there’s that little word “all” – all my sins are behind God’s
back! *Suppose someone speaks lies about me seven times; but later he
regrets what he did and he asks me to forgive him.

Suppose I were to say, “I can pass over 6 of those lies, but the seventh
was just too horrible, and I can’t forgive you that one.”

That wouldn’t help that person at all.

However, God forgives *everything*.

So God is not like us.

He doesn’t love us only when we’re good.

On the contrary, he loves us in spite of our wrongdoing.

He wants to forgive us. God loves us, simply because God is love.

*II. False Idea # 2: If God Loved Me, I Wouldn’t Have So Many Problems *In
the second place, we often falsely assume that God doesn’t love us because
we have to deal with problems and difficulties.

Again, we tend to think that God is just like us.

We ourselves tend to pay good with good and bad with bad.

So we think that if God allows something bad to happen to us, it must be
because he is mad at us for some reason.

• *That’s simply not true*.

*In John 15:9, Jesus says, As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Now remain in my love.*

God loves us with the same love that exists between the Father and Jesus
the Son.

Jesus had plenty of problems when he walked the earth – in fact, he
suffered a horrible and messy death on the cross.

That didn’t mean that the Father didn’t love Jesus.

•

*Bad things happen, not because God doesn’t love us, but because we live in
a sinful, corrupt world. *Sin has twisted just about everything around us.

Jesus willingly suffered hatred, pain, and even death because he wanted to
save people who are lost in this terrible situation.

And we, who are followers of Jesus, have been sent into this twisted world
to show Jesus’ love and to tell about Jesus’ love, so that more people can
come to trust in Jesus and have forgiveness and eternal life.

We know that we are going to have problems along the way.

But God is with us.

And even when things look terrible, God loves us so much that he even works
good out of the bad things that happen. (Romans 8:28)

•

*Sometimes, God permits bad things to happen in order to wake us up. *When
a person has good health, lots of money, and everything is going well,
often they forget about God.

Sometimes we need to be brought up short.

Even death itself can be an opportunity for God to wake someone up.

*Other times, God permits bad things to happen in order to discipline us. *As
a father, I sometimes had to discipline my children.

I didn’t like to scold them or have them suffer certain consequences.

However, I did have to set and enforce limits.

My children needed to learn good behavior.

If I didn’t love them, I wouldn’t care if they behaved well or not.

But since I do love them, I do care.

Sometimes God does the same with us.

•

*Other times, God permits bad things to happen so that we grow in faith and
show his love, and especially so that we glorify God’s name in the midst of
trouble, so that other people may come to know his love. *However, no
matter what happens in our lives, we know that God love us.

*1 Corinthians 8:3 says, The man who loves God is known by God. *God knows
everything about us.

He knows our names, our addresses, what we are like, what we are doing.

The Bible says that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without God
noticing; but we are worth a lot more than sparrows!

The Bible says that God even has numbered the hairs of our heads.

There are many parents who dearly love their children, but none of them has
so much love that they have counted the hairs on their children’s heads.

God knows our situation, and he loves us.

•

*So if you are going through a hard time, if might be for different
reasons. *But it’s not because God doesn’t love you.

His love never fails.

He knows what we’re going through and he is there with us.

*III. False Idea # 3: If God is Love, I Can Do Whatever I Please *Again,
God is love.

God loves us even though we don’t deserve it, and he loves us even when we
go through hard times.

Does that mean that we can just do whatever we want?

Are there no consequences when we do what is wrong?

Sometimes we act as if that were the case.

With our lips we affirm, “Yes, God is love,” but where is that love in our
lives?

What difference does God’s love make?

If we really know that God is love, then where is our response to that love?

•

*1 John 4:11 says, Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to
love one another. *God’s love changes lives.

God’s love awakens our love.

You simply can’t really and truly open your eyes to God’s incredible love,
and then just go back to the same old sinful ways.

When you plug in a lamp, all of a sudden you have light where once there
was only darkness.

When you connect the gas line or plug the electrical cord into the outlet
of your stove, all of a sudden you’re cooking!

When you connect with God’s love, all of a sudden you yourself are loving!

• *There’s an old movie around titled, From Fury to Freedom. It
tells the true story of a young man named Raul who went around nursing
bitterness in his heart.*

In Raul’s home, his father drank and would hit his mother.

Raul hated his father for hurting his mother, and he hated his mother for
accepting that situation.

In turn, Raul went around picking fights with everyone.

After he got married, he himself began to beat up his wife and his
children.

In the end, full of hate, Raul sat down at home with a shotgun to wait for
his family, planning to kill them all and then kill himself.

However, while he waited, he happened to turn on the television and tune in
to a TV preacher.

The preacher happened to be speaking about God’s love.

•
*That is how God’s love works. *
The love of God changes our lives.

If you feel far from God or if you are nursing resentment towards someone
else, then focus on God’s love.

Grab your Bible and read about Jesus’ love and forgiveness.

If you try to do it yourself, if you say, “I’ll try real hard,” you
probably won’t succeed in changing your ways very much.

But when we focus on the incredible, undeserved love that God has for us,
loving others suddenly becomes much easier.

To err is human; to forgive is divine.

The more divine love you have in your life, the more you will be able to
forgive.

*Conclusion*

*During the time of Luther, most people in Europe thought about God as a
grumpy old guy up in heaven, angry, quick to punish people if they got out
of line.*

Luther himself despaired because he felt that God was angry with him.

He tried to do good to pay for his sins, but he never felt that he was good
enough.

However, as Luther prepared Bible classes at the university, he discovered
God’s incredible love.

He came to understand that God wanted to forgive him through Jesus Christ.

This love of God transformed Luther’s life and the lives of multitudes of
people in the Reformation.

This love can change our lives as well.

•

*The truth is that God’s love is not like our love. *God loves us in spite
of the sins we have committed.

He loves us even when bad things happen.

His love can warm our hearts so that we love others – even others who have
hurt us.

God *is* love and love is of God and comes from God!

God help us to see how wide and long and high and deep his love is, so that
we can say from the heart, with all Lutherans: *Grace alone!*

Amen.
Let us pray:
By grace to timid hearts that tremble,
In tribulation’s furnace tried,
By grace, in spite of fear and trouble,
The Father’s heart is open wide.
Where could I help and strength secure
If grace were not my anchor sure?

By grace! On this I’ll rest when dying;
In Jesus’ promise I rejoice;
For though I know my heart’s condition,
I also know my Savior’s voice.
My heart is glad, all grief has flown
Since I am saved by grace alone. Amen.