James Merritt - Yes, God Loves You
So I want you to take your Bibles right now, get 'em out, get your iPad, phone, whatever. I want you to turn to the book of Romans, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans. Lemme tell you about a guy you've never heard of. I didn't know about him. His name was Reynolds Price. He was a 20th century American novelist. He was a professor of English at Duke University. Pretty good school, Duke. Before he retired, the university gave Price its highest honor when it awarded him the University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Service. That's big.
Lemme tell you what that means. That is the educational equivalent of the Medal of Honor. A university cannot give a higher honor to a professor than that. Why was he so great? He was so revered because he had, number one, great command of the English language. And number two, he wrote some of the most fantastic novels. If you like literature and you like fiction, he wrote some of the most beautiful novels that's ever been written in the history of our country. And he said there's one sentence above any other sentence that people want to know when they read a story. If they read one thing in the story, that story will put a smile on their face. Join their heart, a bounce to their step. He said the one sentence that people want to read in some way in a book is this: "The maker of all things loves me and wants me".
See, I know something about all of us. We were all born with a need to be loved by somebody. And I believe we also hunger to know that the God that created us, loves us. And think about it. And I'll tell you why we do crave it. Because if there is no greater being in the universe than God, then there can be no greater love that anyone could have for us than the love that God has for us. The problem is there are multitudes of people all over this world who, even though they may believe in God, they have a hard time believing that God is love and they have a hard time believing that God loves them.
For example, some people blame God with their troubles. They just can't not reconcile that there's a loving God that lets them go through the hell that they're going through. We hear it all the time, "How can you say God loves me when this happened to me? How can you say God loved me when he could have kept this from happening, but he didn't? How can you really believe in a God that loves me"? So they blame God with the troubles. Then some people, they just blame themselves. They say, "You know what? You don't know how I live. You don't know my background, you don't know what I've done. You don't know the girl I slept with last night. You don't know the drugs that I did. You don't know the money I've stolen. There is no way that God could love me. I'm just not worthy for that God to love me".
As a matter of fact, in ancient times, back in the days of Jesus, the concept of a loving God was totally foreign. The Greco Roman gods were not loving gods. They were seen as gods that didn't give a rip about anybody. So now Jesus comes along and Paul comes along and he tells us, they tell us that God loves us. And if you'd been alive in that day, 2000 years ago, you would've said, you would've rolled your eyes, you said, "God doesn't love us". The fact that God loved anybody would've been a foreign constant. He would've been laughed at. It would've been dismissed. There's no such thing as a loving God. And I get it. And for the last, last 2000 years, we haven't gotten rid of that doubt. We're in a series that we're calling "I doubt it".
And if you're new today, we've been dealing with a series of doubts that people have. We're gonna right in the middle of it actually. We're dealing with people, both Christians and non-Christians who struggle with doubts, and they keep them from truly enjoying a relationship with God or they've got such doubts, they say, "I don't even want a relationship with God. If the God is the God that I think he is, he can have it, 'cause I'm just not interested". So we're gonna deal today with a major doubt that amazingly both Christians and non-Christians have. Does God really love us? And how can we really know that God loves us?
Well, I have some great news. I was nine years old and I finally discovered a place where anybody at any time could go under any circumstances, not beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're loved. And not only can they know they're loved, they can know that they're loved with the greatest love given by the greatest lover in all of the world. You say, "Man, do I need that. Where is that place"? It's the cross of Jesus Christ. You cannot go to the cross. I don't care what's happening in your life, what happened in your life, what may happen in your life, you cannot go to the cross and deny that there is a God that loves you because the cross said loudly and clearly to both believer and unbeliever, "Yes, God loves you".
Now lemme just kind of talk about love for a minute. You can express your love, there's two ways you can express love, right? You can say it and you can show it. But one thing you learn about love is this, and you learn it when you get married, actions speak louder than words. I told my wife on my second date, "I love you". She didn't believe me. I don't know why she didn't believe me. We'd known each other for two days. I don't know what the problem was. but I've told her I loved her. She didn't believe it, but she finally bought it. Six months later we got married. Do you know what I've been doing for the last 47 years of my life? Showing her I meant what I said.
I've been 47 years showing her that I love her. Well, guess what? The creator of the universe is no different from us. He says, "I know that I love you and I want you to know that I love you and I'm gonna do it in two ways. I'm gonna say it and I'm gonna show it". So how did he say it? Well, he says it in a book called the Bible. In the Bible he tells us that he loves us. But in the greatest thing he could ever do for us, he has shown us that he loves us. Lemme tell you how this works. Many of us are gonna remember a little song. It may be the first song you ever learned as a child as grew up in church. First song I ever learned. And it goes like this. I'm gonna say the first three words and I want you to finish it with me. Everybody ready?
Jesus loves me, this I know... Learnt that as a child. Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. Yeah, but talk's cheap. Actions speak louder than words. So even though you're the creator of the universe, show me that you love me. So now I'm gonna give you my sermon in a sentence. Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. But God loves me, this I know for the cross shows me so. Let's say that together. God loves me, this I know for the cross shows me so.
And in a book called Romans, an apostle named Paul wrote one of the most incredible statements in the entire Bible, which forever puts the rest of the question as to whether or not God loves us in a way that simply cannot be denied or disputed. You're in the book of Romans 5. We're gonna look at one simple powerful verse. You ready? Here we go. By the way, this is a verse every Christian ought to memorize, y'all to know it. But God demonstrated his own love for us that while we were still, what's that word? sinners, Christ died for us. See, God's love is not just a say so love. God's love is a show so love. And it's shown for the entire world to see at the cross.
So I can stand up here today and I can say to every one of you that are listening to me right now, people that will be listening around the world later on the television, I can say to every person that I've ever come in contact with, "God loves you". And I can say that with 100% confidence because of three things we learned in this verse. Number one, the cross demonstrates that God loves us uniquely. The cross demonstrates that God loves us uniquely. Now look what Paul begins by saying, Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates his own love".
Now that word for demonstrate can also be translated prove. Because Paul knew something, as I told you a moment ago, when it comes to love, talk is cheap, right? Anybody can say they love you, but before you ever believe it, you've gotta ask this question: Where's the proof? I mean, how do I know that you love me? I mean, it kind of, you know, put up or shut up, because I told you, I remember the day I got married. I'll never forget it. I found it so hard to believe that Theresa would wanna spend the rest of her life with me. And, I'll have to be honest, for six months, I'll be honest, I was scared. I battled insecurity. I was fearful.
You say, "Well, why"? Because I'd only known her just a few months. And I had this bad dream that kept recurring over and over, that one morning she'd wake up and she'd say, "You know, I think I can do better than you". And so I had this fear. But the moment we exchanged those vows and the moment we exchanged those rings, at that exact moment, I knew she loved me. And we had spent the rest of our lives showing each other every day that we love each other. Now we tell each other, I don't know how many times a day we tell each other. I told her this three times when I left this morning. We tell each other several times a day that I love you. She tells me I love you. But we don't have to say it because we just know it. Because we've showed it.
Here's the good news. God has not given us a ring. Well, he's done better than that. God gave his Son, God gave his Son to show you and to show me that he loves us. He gave his son on a cross. That cross was a tangible, visible demonstration proving beyond a shadow of a doubt, no matter what else happens, we know God loves us. Now, lemme just be very honest. I understand as well as anybody can, that there are certain things that happen in life that will make you doubt God's love. It'll make you wonder, does you really care for me or not?
And all I can tell you is this, when those times come and they will come, I don't care how much you go to church, how much you read your Bible, how much you pray, how much financially the gift of God's work, I don't care how many I's you dot, how many t's you cross, I don't care how many verses you memorize, those times are going to come to you. And when they do, I want you to remember this one thing. You ready? The cross trumps everything. The cross trumps everything. God prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, you can never look at the cross again and doubt that God loves you.
I love the way Max Lucado put it. He said it this way. "Don't you need a fountain of love that won't run dry? You will find one on a stone cropped hill outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus hangs, cross-nailed and thorn-crowned. When you feel unloved, ascend this mount. Meditate long and hard on heaven's love for you. The definitive God sanctioned gauge of God's love is not a good day or a bad break, but the dying hours of his Son".
Every time I read my Bible through every year and every time I to the last chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and every time I read about what Jesus Christ went through all the way to the cross, every single time I do that, I'm reminded: you love me, you care for me. I know I'm in your heart, 'cause true love doesn't just say I love you. That's just rap music. True love is always visibly expressed. It is tangibly demonstrated. Jesus Christ hanging on the cross is God's love for everyone to see.
And so the cross tells us loudly and clearly: God loves you. And oh by the way, I told you he loves you uniquely. God doesn't just love you. You kids listen to me. Students listen to me. Nobody loves you like God does. Your mama doesn't love you like God does. Your daddy doesn't love you like God does. Your Pap and Nana don't love you like God does. Your pastor doesn't love you like God does. There's nobody that loves you like God does. The love of a mother for a child, the love of a husband for a wife, the love of a child for a parent does not compare to the love that God has for us. And there are broken hearted young men and women around the world who cried themselves to sleep last night because somebody said these words to them, "I don't love you anymore".
Marriages have been dissolved, destroyed, broken up, Families have been decimated because one of the other spouse got up one day and said, "You know what? I don't love you anymore". Let me tell you something. God will never say that to you. I don't care what you do. I don't care how bad you mess up. I don't care how bad you blow it. God will never look at you and say, "I don't love you anymore". See, the cross demonstrates God loves us uniquely. But Paul says something else. He says, "The cross declares that God loves us unconditionally". He loves us unconditionally.
Now these three words, I love you, lemme tell you something about those three words. There's one word you can put after those three words. One word that will always tell you if somebody says I love you. If they put one word after those three words, they just told you they really don't love you. They really don't love you the way you ought to be loved. Okay, you know what that little word is? That little word is the word if. For example, a single boy says to a single girl, "If you love me, you'll sleep with me". They don't love you. You put the word if, I love you goes out the window. Oh, I love you if you'll go to bed with me, I love you if you will change your lifestyle. I love you if you'll always agree with me. I love you if you always meet my standards.
Lemme tell you something, God will never put that word after those three words. God will never say to you, God will never say to me, I love you if. So, how do you know he won't? Keep reading. But God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we were still, say it out loud... sinners. Now you understand exactly what that means. So lemme make it plain if you don't. God does not love us because we deserve his love. He loves us in spite of the fact that we don't. God does not love us because we're lovable. He loves us in spite of the fact that we're not. God doesn't love us because we love him, because there was a time when none of us loved him.
So as sinners, long before we became saints, God loved us. Listen, lemme tell you what that means. God didn't love us when we were for him. God loved us when we were against him. God didn't love us just when we put our focus on him. God loved us when he wasn't even on our radar screen. Lemme tell you what that means. This is great news. That means his love for me is not dependent on what I do. It's not dependent on how I act. It's not dependent on whether I reciprocate his love or not. His love never changes. So lemme tell you what that means. God's love is not tied to the worth of the people that he loves. I told you, God doesn't love us because we're worthy.
Can I be honest: If God loved us because we were worthy, nobody in this room would be loved because nobody's worthy. So we'd be outta luck, up the creek without a paddle. He doesn't love us because we're worthy. By the way, God doesn't wait till we get better. God doesn't wait till we straighten ourselves out. God doesn't wait till we get our act together. He says, you know what, "I loved you while you were yet," a what? "I loved you". I love the way one great biblical scholar put it. Listen to this. Listen to every word.
Listen to this. "We reject God's authority, distrust God's word, mock God's love, break God's law and trash God's world. In the process we deceive, cheat, exploit, brutalize, crush, and kill one another. We twist everything God made good and we think good what God calls evil. We bless what God has cursed and curse what God has blessed. We claim we have no need of God and yet we worship fault gods and that's just the faintest whisper of what we are. And yet, Jesus died for us. But why? Because God loves us". He loves us. He loves you. He loves me The God. Yeah, the holy God, the righteous God, the perfect God, the can-do-no-wrong God, the God who hates every sinful thought you think and the God who hate every single deed you do nevertheless loves the sinners who thinks those thoughts and loves the sinners who do those deeds. By the way, notice something that Paul wrote just before this verse back up in verse seven.
Listen to this. He said, very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. He said, yo, I understand if you die for a good person, I understand if you die for a noble person, I understand if you die for a great person, I get that. Maybe. Some of you who served in the military will appreciate this. The battle of Iwo Jima was the most ferocious and bloodiest battle of World War II. It was so ferocious, it was so horrific, more than 20 medal of honors were given to marines in that battle. Many of them were killed. Lemme tell you about one medal of honor that was given to private first class Jack Lucas. He lived to tell about it. He lived to receive the medal.
Lemme tell you what this man did. Not on one occasion, but on two occasions, he died on a live grenade to protect his fellow soldiers. Not once but twice. Not one grenade, but two. Amazingly, he survived. When they ask him why he did it, he just made one simple statement. They ask him, "Why would you fall on one grenade much less two"? And here's what he said, "I did it to save my buddies". I did it to save my buddies. I think we will all agree how noble, how wonderful, how loving, how awesome, how sacrificial. I think all of us would say that man does deserve a medal of honor. Maybe deserves two. And I would be glad to depending on him. And I agree with that. We ought to reward those who sacrifice their lives for their friends and people that they love. But lemme give you a pop quiz.
How many men do you think received the medal of honor because they fell on a grenade to save a Japanese soldier? Zero. Nobody got a medal of honor for falling on the grenade to save the enemy. But God sent his Son to die for us while we were still Japanese soldiers. God died for us. Jesus died for us while we were still enemies. I mean, think about that, enemies. You see, here's the problem. You know why we find that hard to understand how much God loves us? Here's why. And you're not gonna like this. I'm just telling you it's true. You will never understand how much God loves you, you understand how sinful you are. As long as you think, "Yeah, you know I'm not perfect, but I've never robbed a bank. I've never murdered anybody. I've never committed adultery. I've never looked pornography. I've never done drugs".
If that's the way you look at yourself, you'll never understand the love of God. You won't ever get it. Because here's what you're really saying when you say that: "I'm not perfect, but, you know, really I'm a pretty lovable teddy bear". Bad grammar, good theology: no, you ain't. You're a sinner just as much as someone on death row. And it took just as much of the grace of God to save you as it does to save them. And it takes just as much of the love of God to love you as it does to love them. And you'll never understand the love of God to you, understand he loved us while we were set sinners. And oh, by the way, that verb demonstrated, it sounds like it's in the past tense.
This is why y'all know this is good to know the Greek language. That verb is translated in the past tense. It's not in the past tense, it's in the present tense. Here's what the verse literally says, but God demonstrates his love. You say, why is that such a big deal? Lemme tell you why. This encourages me. I am not what I was now that I'm saved before I got saved. And I hate to break the news to you. I'm not always what I ought to be after I got saved before I got saved. I screw up just like everybody else. But here's the good news. No matter how many times I fall flat on my face, no matter how many times I fail to do his will, here's what I know. I can't do anything so good that God will love me more than he loves me now.
And I can't do anything so bad that God will love me less than he loves me now, 'cause it's not dependent on what I do for him. It's dependent on what he's done for me. So the cross declares: God loves us unconditionally. I don't care if you got a prison record. I don't care if you're going to jail. I don't care whatever you did last night. Didn't affect one thing: God loves you. God declares that he loves us unconditionally. God demonstrates he loves us uniquely. But then the last thing, the cross displays that God loves us universally. Now listen to what Paul says, listen to this verse again, all the way to the end: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we're still sinners, let's say those four words together. Ready?
Christ died for us. Alright, wait a minute. Time out. That really tells us all I need to know about the love of God, Christ died for us. Well, who's us? Well, us are sinners. Anybody care to tell me? Lemme get a little feedback here. How many people in the world are sinners? Somebody just take a wild guess. Yeah, all of them. Right? So when the Bible says Christ died for us, he's talking about sinners. We're all sinners. What does that mean? Christ died for everybody. So lemme tell you what all that means. Apart from the cross of Jesus Christ, we'll never know what true love is.
You know why Hollywood doesn't get what love is? They don't understand the cross. Do you know why we got a lot of politicians today that don't understand what love is? Because they don't get the cross. Do you know why so many people and so many false religions don't really understand the love of God? Because they don't get the cross. Because no human love is absolutely perfect. 'Cause let's just get real honest. You may say, "Well, I'm a loving person," you may think I'm a loving person, but let's just be honest. A lot of times we love people because they love us back.
Now don't look at me like you're so holy. You know what I'm talking about. We love people because they love us back. Or you know what? We love people who love us more. Anyway, I know there's some people, some people, let's be all, some of you think, "I just don't understand why everybody doesn't love me". Mean that may be you. But the love that God shows us as unlike any other love, it is universally given to everyone unconditionally. That's why I've told some people in conversations I've had, "Hey, if you wanna know what the real definition of love is, don't go to the dictionary, look at the cross". That's all you need to just look at the cross. That tells you what real love is. Lemme tell you why. You can measure the value of a gift in two ways.
Think about this, what it cost the person who gave it and by the worthiness of the person that received it. In other words, the more a gift calls someone and the less the recipient deserves it, the greater that love is. That's why when you measure the love of God by those two standards, the love of God has declared and demonstrated and displayed that there is no love that's so unique, so unconditional and so universal. Lemme tell you why. So what did the love of God cost? It cost the death of his own Son. And who are the recipients of the gift? Sinners who deserved just the opposite.
And that's why sharing the gospel with people one on one, that's why I love to do it, it is the greatest, most exciting privilege in the world, because every time you share the gospel with anyone, I've shared it with men on death row, I've shared it in prisons, I've shared it in Muslim countries, I've shared it in communist countries. And I'll tell you why it's just so absolutely fantastic. Because it allows you to say to everybody that one line that Reynolds Price said we all want to hear. Hey, the maker of all things loves you and wants you. The God that created you, the God that puts you here, the God that gives you life, the God gives you breath in your lungs and the beat to your heart that God is crazy about you. He adores you. He loves you. 'Cause every human wants to be loved.
And anytime any place you look at anybody, anywhere, right in the eye, never blink, never hesitate, never equivocate, never stammer, never stutter. And you can say to them, yes, God loves you. And the same is true for you. No matter who you are, what you've done, God will take you where you are. He will accept you, pour out his love on you, change you, adopt you, transform you. He will take your guilt. He will give you his grace. He'll take your sin and give you his salvation. And he does it all for one reason. He loves you. He adores you. He's crazy about you. Loves you like nobody else can. You parents and grandparents appreciate this.
I read a story about a dad and he was tucking in his 6-year-old son for the night. And the dad asked the little boy this question. He said, "Son, when does daddy love you the most? Does he love you the most when you've been fighting with your sister and getting into a lot of real trouble when you're real..? Or does he love you the most when you're real helpful to mommy and you're real nice to everybody"? The little boy thought for a moment. He said, "I know when you love me". He said, "When"? He said, "Both times". Dad said, "that's right. Do you know why"? And the boy thought for a moment again, he says, "I'll tell you why, Dad, because I'm your special guy". That was his daddy's nickname for him. Daddy's special guy.
Lemme tell you what that daddy did. He took his son face in his hands and he put him up real close and he said, "Son, always remember I love you not because of what you do. I love you because of who you are. I don't love you because of what you do. I love you because of who you are". Can I tell you what God did at the cross. It's exactly what he did. He took your face and he took my face in his hands and he said to all of us men, "You're my special guy". He took every lady in his hands. He said, "You're my special girl. I love you in the bad times. I love you in the good times. I love you when you get it right. I love you when you don't. I love you when you succeed. I love you when you fail. You're my special guy. You're my special girl".
So I wanna close with a man you may have not heard about, but you should know him. His name was Brennan Manning. He wrote a book called "The Ragamuffin Gospel". Brendan Manning was a catholic priest, a priest in the Catholic church, but he finally gave up the priesthood and he left the church because he wanted to get married. That was a big deal for a priest. I mean, you're excommunicated from a church, they think you put your soul on the line. But he loved this woman. Well, unfortunately, the marriage didn't last, and he got divorced. So now he has no church, he has no marriage. So he starts drinking and becomes an alcoholic. We went through a cycle. He'd relapse, he'd rehab, he'd relapse, he'd rehab, he'd relapse, he'd rehab, and he' relapsed again.
He'd tried so hard to please God, but he constantly struggled with a feeling he just never could and he never did. He was about to take his own life. And he finally realized that came the realization of the greatest truth of God he had missed all those years as a priest and all those years when he was trying to get it right. And all those years when he was trying to make sure he did what he needed to do to make God love him. And just before he died, these are the words he wrote.
"Why is Brennan manning lovable in the eyes of God? Because on February the 8th of 1956, in a shattering life-changing experience, I committed my life to Jesus. Does God love me because ever since I was ordained a priest in 1963, because I roam the country and lately all over the world proclaiming the good news of the gospel of grace? Does God love me because I tithe to the poor? Does he love me because back in New Orleans I worked on skid-row with alcoholics, addicts and those who suffer with AIDS? Does God love me because I spend two hours every day in prayer? If I believed that stuff, I am a Pharisee! Then, I feel I'm entitled to be comfortably close to Christ because of all my good works, but the gospel of grace says, 'Brennan, you're lovable for one reason only, because God loves you, period.'"
Y'all give the Lord a hand. You see, I know something about the worst of us and I know something about the best of us. This will make you feel good. I don't preach a lot of feel good sermons, but let's take a shot at it. Every one of you in this room are very, very, very lovable. "So you don't know me". I don't have to know you. "You don't know what I've done". Doesn't matter. "You don't know my background". Don't care. Every one of us are lovable. Why? Because God loves us. He loves you. He loves me. And there's not a thing you could do to stop him. So what's the answer to the question? Does God really love us? Yes, God loves you. And if you doubt it, just close your eyes, in your mind go back 2000 years and go to a foot of a cross.
Remember who died on that cross. Remember who he died for and remember why he did it. And when you open your eyes, you'll never have a reason to doubt ever again. This God that spoke a world into existence. This God who has a heavenly home waiting for all of us who want to live there, this God loves you. Would you pray with me? With heads bowed, with eyes closed, I just wonder who in this room today would say, "You know, I've had a hard time believing that, but I do today. I do believe it with all of my heart, all of my soul, all of my mind. I believe everything I just heard. And I want to know that love, I want to experience that love, and I wanna love that God that loves me".
And the way you show him, one thing tell God you love him. That's not enough. Here's the way you show God you love him by accepting his Son into your heart, by admitting you're a sinner who needs a savior, by telling him there's no way to eternal life except through Jesus. That's how you show him you love him. So I wonder how many of you today would make the greatest decision of your life? I wonder how many of you maybe today for the first time in your life, really receive the love of God, and by the way, receive the life of God by just simply saying those words.
Lord Jesus, I know nobody loves me like you do. You died for my sins. Even while I was a sinner, you died for me. I need a savior. I need you to become my savior. I'm asking you to become my savior today. Right now. I'm asking you to do that. I repent of my sin. I turn away from my sin. And I'm asking you today to become the Lord of my life. And I give all that I am right now. I give all that I am to all that you are.