God is Love

Sunday I practiced Pastoral piling on, as I said the same thing over and over in slightly different ways.
Sometimes the best outline for a talk looks like this:


Introduction – Tell everyone what you are going to tell them


Body – Tell them


Conclusion – Tell them what you told them
I followed this basic outline this past Sunday.


Transition Song: Rich Mullins the love of God “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy I can’t find in my own…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhKZn8gdN-E


Interview: Al and hear how he experienced God’s love in the midst of cancer


Introduction: Tell everyone that you are going to tell them that God loves them, and that they can not change the love God has for them


Body: Tell them that God loves them and that there is nothing they can do to make God love them more, and nothing they can do to make God love them less...


Conclusion: God loves you and there is nothing you can do to change that fact. Let Brennan Manning make the same point http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQi_IDV2bgM


Sing: The Love of God, Indescribable, Your Grace is enough, Amazing Grace and How He Loves


This is such a crucial message and really does bear repeating in as many different ways as possible. This message is central to understanding and following Jesus. Jesus (who perfectly represents God – see John 14) loves sinners (imperfect people like you and me), not on the basis of what we have done, just because he does. He looks for imperfect people. He strikes up conversations with them, eats with them, invites himself to their house, accepts their gifts, said he came looking for them, says he will welcome them to paradise (he says this while hanging on a cross), asks his Father to forgive them….


The verse that we used as a starting point was John 3:16. A verse that is probably familiar to a bunch of people simply from it frequently being displayed at baseball games. The verse says God loved the world and gave his son for the world.


The world includes all sorts of messed-up, sinful people like you and  me. So we asked the question in the talk: Is it true that God actually loves messed up people? Does he love porn addicts and pornographers? Porn stars? Coke addicts and coke pushers? Tax cheats and IRS agents? Republicans? Democrats? Libertarians? Anarchists and communists? Religious fanatics and atheists? Evolutionists and young earth creationists? Gossips and bigots? Liars, gambles and swindlers? Animal rights activists and hunters? Saints? Sinners?


It appears to me from looking closely at Jesus that the indisputable answer is:YES! 


This is so counter-cultural to the basic message of the world, which is that we are loved for our performance for our accomplishments, looks, talent, smarts, money.... Jesus says you are loved no matter what. You are stuck with Jesus loving you. If we get this it will change everything. And by get it, I mean something more that accept this as a fact in my head – I mean feel it in my gut and let Christ’s love consume me. http://www.biblica.com/bible/verse/index.php?q=ephesians3:14-20&tniv=yes