You are listening to a message from Southwood Presbyterian Church in Huntsville, Alabama.
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! We're talking this summer about our union with Christ,
about this glorious truth that God has placed us in Christ and Christ in us
and how that reality impacts every aspect of our lives.
Each week so far as we've talked about being located in Christ,
being defined in Christ, being blessed in Christ,
we've mentioned every week the idea of being loved in Christ,
but it deserves a closer look.
One of the big life questions that we all ask is,
how can I find love?
So we're going to look at a bunch of passages this morning,
but I want to start in Romans 8.
If you've never read Romans 8, it's a magnificent chapter that begins with this declaration
that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Forgiveness, pardon in union with Christ.
But as Paul continues, he says, there's even more than that.
We're not merely pardoned, but we're truly adopted into God's family.
So that even when things are difficult in our lives,
we can know that he is working them all for our good, right?
We're going to pick up the reading at verse 31 of Romans 8,
as the crescendo peaks.
I could say this every week when we open God's Word,
but these words I'm about to read could change your life.
They could transform your eternity.
They could impact every day that you have between now and then.
Not my words, God's.
Listen to the wonder of his love.
What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all,
how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?
Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus is the one who died.
More than that, who was raised.
Who is at the right hand of God.
Who indeed is interceding for us.
So who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written, for your sake, we are being killed all the day long.
We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Father, thank you for love like that.
might we hear it and see it and feel it by your spirit.
Might we know more of it and share more of it today.
Come and work in each of our hearts.
We ask by your word in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Look at those last two verses again.
Secondly, I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation will be able to do what?
To separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There it is.
In Christ Jesus, living in that unbreakable union,
you can never be separated from God's love.
Inseparable.
Nothing can do it.
Not anything spiritual or physical.
Not your sin.
Not their sin against you,
as a derogates to tell these women.
Nothing.
That's really the takeaway today.
That's it.
I can give it to you right here up front in three words.
God loves you.
That's all I got.
God loves you.
And some of you may be wondering,
did he forget he's not talking to the nursery kids this morning?
Why do we need to hear this again?
I knew that before I came to church.
30 minutes for that?
It's going to take him that long?
It always takes him that long.
Well, some of us need this message
because in our particular tribe,
sometimes we skip over love
to focus on the legal realities of our salvation
because we know well the enormity of the debt of our sin.
And we see that.
And we calculate in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
We add in his imputed righteousness.
We carry the one.
And we conclude that God has to forgive us
and let us into heaven
because we receive Jesus by faith alone.
Now that is good stuff.
And those are important legal calculations to be made.
But sometimes we forget
that all of that glorious theology
is part of a love story
where the God who made you
for his own glory
is redeeming you
into relationship with him
that is to be eternally delightful,
full of love.
Others of us need this truth
because life is so bad
that most days
it feels like I must not be loved.
Maybe you can relate to some of the women
that Deer was sharing about.
Maybe your story is different
but life's hard enough and bad enough
that it doesn't feel like the one in charge loves me.
My kids are wandering away
from what I want for them.
My job is uncertain
and it's unfulfilling anyway.
My last doctor's appointment,
my last bank statement
was alarming.
Life is so hard
I'm not feeling the love, God.
Still others of us need to listen
because I know the reality of my heart.
I live with myself.
I'm deeply unlovable.
If anyone knew,
and God knows by the way,
no way could he love me.
For others,
the people supposed to show God's love to us
have been such a distorted reflection of it
that we're not sure anymore
about a loving God.
Others of us can sense
that we're living life
looking for a spouse
or a friend
or a career
to affirm us,
to fill up our love tank
and we keep coming up empty
and at the same time
crushing them in the process.
Still others of us
are living with a deep feeling
that we were made to love
God,
family,
neighbors,
enemies,
at least someone
and we're not sure
where to find resources
to do that.
We feel like we're empty
all the time.
I don't know where you are in that
but God wants
to look at every one of his children
to hold your face in his hands
and to say this morning,
I love you.
That means I have a deep affection for you,
a high value of you,
a deep commitment
that is unshakable
to work for your good.
In fact,
nothing can stop me
and nothing can ever
separate you
from my love.
Jesus didn't twist my arm
with salvation mathematics
when he went to the cross.
No,
it was because
of the great love
with which I loved you
that I united you
to Jesus
in the first place
that I made you alive
together with him.
It was because of my great love,
Ephesians 2.
And you remember last week,
Ephesians 1,
it was in love
that I predestined you
to be adopted,
that I set out
to welcome you
into my family
as a son
or a daughter.
Children of God
by faith
through
Jesus
Christ.
God says,
my love is not
a momentary feeling.
It's not a high value now
that may go down
when you have a bad day.
It's not a one-time gift
of grace,
but it's a permanent
commitment
that I am working
everything
for your
eternal good.
You remember what we read
earlier in this service?
Love
never
ends.
And you may think,
yeah,
not this love
never
ends.
When you are in Jesus,
nothing
can separate you
from God's
love.
Paul gets specific
for us,
not tribulation,
our suffering
and painful
circumstances,
not distress,
our fears
and anxieties,
not persecution,
Satan's attacks,
not famine
or nakedness,
threats to our
health and safety,
not danger
or sword,
our harm
or even
our death.
Nothing
can separate you
from God's
passionate,
personal,
persistent
love.
It's as Sally Lloyd-Jones
describes it so well,
a never stopping,
never giving up,
unbreaking,
always
and forever
love.
If you
and Jesus
are inseparable,
then you
and God's love
are inseparable.
Amen?
That's the truth.
truth.
I told you
that's the message.
That we need it
in so many ways.
That we
struggle to embrace it
for so many reasons.
So I want to spend
just a few minutes
together
asking God
to help it
sink deep
into our hearts.
That's what He wants.
He wants us to know it
and believe it
and He's going to help us
with that this morning.
using many of our senses
to embrace His love.
First,
hear His love.
Hear it
straight
from the lips
of Jesus first.
John 17,
Jesus is praying.
He's talking to His Father
on His way
to the cross.
I in them
and you in me.
He's talking about
our union with Him.
I in them.
so that the world
may know
that You sent me
and loved them
even
as You loved me.
Father,
You love
them
even
as You love
me.
His one
and only
Son
begotten
and beloved
by the Father
before all worlds.
The perfect image
of the invisible God.
Oh,
how the Father
loves Him.
Can you even
imagine
how much
He loves Him?
He loves Him
to the moon
and back
and beyond
and listen,
listen,
so does
He love
you.
Jesus says it.
You're hidden
in Christ.
You're covered
by Christ.
You're united
to Christ.
so He loves
you
that way.
Maybe this will
help you a little
get at what we're
thinking here,
what the Bible's
describing.
When it speaks
of union with Christ,
the Bible speaks
of the analogy
of marriage,
right?
In particular,
that we,
God's people,
are the bride
of Christ.
So here,
we would be
loved by
our father-in-law
because He
loves His Son.
Let me very
carefully
preface this
example with
I love
my in-laws.
But I've got
to tell you,
if they met
me on my own,
I'm not sure
they would love
me.
I mean,
let's just be
honest,
I am an
extreme extrovert
who can talk
until I wear
them out.
I am a
planner with
a tight
schedule,
especially if
you travel with
me on a trip
where I've
created the
itinerary.
I often
don't love
their animals
the way
that they
do.
Theoretically,
hypothetically,
I could drive
them crazy.
Amen.
That was a
big mistake
on my part,
wasn't it?
Just softball.
Well done.
But they
have never
known me
apart from
their daughter.
never.
Never.
They have
loved Christy
since before
she was born.
So because
she loved
me,
married me,
is connected
to me,
they love
me.
And I really
do believe
that with
Bob and
Deb.
love
but that
loving
in-law
relationship
is certainly
not to be
taken for
granted,
is it?
In our
broken world,
sometimes in-laws
resent you.
Sometimes they
tolerate you
but they
honestly feel
that their
child could
have done
better.
No,
no show of
hands,
but you're
feeling it.
Some of you
know that
truth.
Not in
God's
family.
No,
no,
no.
Listen,
the bride
of Christ
is actually
a gift
given to
the Son
by the
Father.
Remember how
that kept
coming up
in our
study of
the Gospel
of John?
So God
loved us
but never
apart from
loving us
in Christ.
From the
very beginning
He united
us in
Him so
that He
could love
us and
we would
never drift
in and out
of His
good graces
based on
our failures.
We've been
connected to,
covered by
the perfect
Son.
Listen,
I'm not making
this up.
Listen to
Jesus again.
He is the
crown prince,
the heir to
heaven's throne,
the apple of
His Father's
eye.
You loved
them even
as you
loved me.
I've told you
every week
that union
with Christ
means whatever
happens to
Jesus happens
to you.
Now you
believe God
loves Jesus.
Won't you
believe that
God loves you
too?
That's what
He says.
You can hear
God's love for
you from the
lips of Jesus.
You can hear
God's love if
you listen to
the songs of
His people
in the Psalms
where His
steadfast love
that endures
forever is
sung of
hundreds and
hundreds of
times.
You can hear
God's love if
you listen to
His voice
to the
prophets.
They speak
to His
beloved people.
Jeremiah 31,
I have loved
you with an
everlasting love,
therefore I have
continued my
faithfulness to
you.
An everlasting
love because
you're precious
in my eyes,
Isaiah says,
honored and I
love you.
I give men
in return for
you, peoples,
in exchange for
your life.
Even when you
have run away,
that's what's
going on in
Isaiah, you've
turned your
back on me.
God says, I'm
going to run
after you and
bring you back.
Listen to chapter
54, God says,
with everlasting
love I will have
compassion on you.
For the mountains
may depart and the
hills be removed,
but my steadfast love
shall not depart
from you.
My covenant of
peace shall not
be removed,
says the Lord
who thinks you've
been perfect.
no.
Says the Lord
who has compassion
on you because
you need his
mercy and his
grace.
Do you hear his
voice this morning?
I love you.
I'll never stop.
Will you believe
what he says in
spite of what you
feel, in spite of
the circumstances
screaming at you?
I love you.
I love you with
an enduring,
everlasting love,
an unbreaking,
always and forever
love.
But most of us
need more than
just words,
don't we?
I told you I've
got plenty of
words, so Christy
hears I love you
from me more than
she can stand
some days.
Maybe you've
felt what I know
she has at times,
something like,
why don't you
stop talking about
it so much and
actually do
something about
it?
Show me!
God won't stop
telling us, but
he will show us
because he wants
us to see
his love
too.
How'd he do it?
He came in the
flesh, didn't he?
For sake of time,
let's just skip
straight to the
cross, okay?
Where we already
know we were
crucified with
Christ.
We were really
mysteriously united
to him in his
death, but he's
the one who
personally,
physically suffered
and died as he
showed us the
full extent of
his love, as he
loved us to the
very end.
Romans 5, 8
reminds us that
God shows his
love so we can
see it.
He shows his
love in that
Christ died for
us while we were
still sinners.
In other words,
God sent his
perfect son to
rescue very
imperfect people,
to die in
their place.
How deep the
father's love,
giving his only
son his treasure
in order to make
a wretch his
treasure.
The father turns
his face away from
the son of his
delight so that
wounds that mar the
chosen one bring
many sons to
glory.
See?
Look!
Behold what
manner of love the
father has given to
us that we should be
called the sons of
God.
Adopted, chosen,
brought into his
family because of our
relationship with his
son.
This is why the
Bible says the father
sent the son.
at just the right
time so that we
could be sons of
God.
Galatians 4.
This is love.
How do we see it?
1 John 4.
Not even our own
love for God,
although I hope that
we do love him,
but that's not even
really what love is.
I mean, how could we
not love God when he
rescued us as orphans
and lavished his grace
upon us and making us
his sons, heirs?
Not that, but that he
loved us and sent his
son to pay the penalty
to cover all of our
sins.
Survey the wondrous
cross.
See from his head,
his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow
mingled down.
Did e'er such love
and sorrow meet
or thorns compose
so rich a crown?
Have you looked at the
cross of Jesus today
to see his love?
Have you spent an hour
there lately at the
foot of the cross
just taking it in,
letting his love sink
deeply in?
Have you let it be more
than just a passing
thing you've heard or
you were to sense to,
but actually starts to
change your heart?
I mean, just look at
the ways we show our
love.
We show our love by
waking up so that our
spouse can sleep,
by eating our kids
broccoli so that they
can focus on dessert,
disadvantaging
ourselves for the
advantage of one we
love, right?
how much further does Jesus
go to do that for you?
Have you contemplated what
it feels like when
someone takes something
that you hate for you
to give you something
that you love?
And Jesus has done that
with the worst possible
thing, eternal separation
from God and his love.
And Jesus takes your
separation to bring you
back to him.
God gave you his best
when you were at your
worst.
He loves you.
And the reason I'm talking
about contemplating and
meditating, slowing down
with this is that God
wants it to go beyond our
ears and our eyes to our
hearts through our whole
beings.
Puritan preacher Thomas
Goodwin noticed a
beautiful example of this
one day as a father and a
son were walking together
down a street and he saw
them coming towards him.
They were just kind of
walking a few feet apart
when suddenly the father
bent down and he grabbed
his son and he swept him
up into his arms and he
hugged him and he kissed
him and he told him I love
you so much.
He just held him for a
minute while busy people
passed by them on either
side.
And then he put him back
down and they walked on
together.
And Goodwin said he looked
and he realized that the
boy was objectively,
legally, just as much the
father's son on the ground
as he was in his arms.
Right?
But he subjectively,
experientially felt the truth
of his sonship, the
relationship, the safety, the
love, so much more in his
father's arms.
That's what Paul's getting
at, I believe, earlier in
Romans 8 when he talks about
our adoption and helping us
get to the point that we know
God loves us and is working
for our good and can't be
separated from us.
Look at verse 15.
For you did not receive the
spirit of slavery to fall back
into fear, but you have
received the spirit of
adoption as sons by whom we
cry, Abba, Father.
The spirit himself bears
witness with our spirit that we
are children of God.
See, he's wanting you to
experience not fear.
That's an experience, an
emotion, right?
When cars are rushing by you
and people are everywhere and
there's chaos around you.
And you're in the street and
you have a father somewhere
but you feel alone and
afraid.
You have a spirit of fear.
Paul says, no, no, God
wants you to experience
something else.
Holy Spirit comes to pick
us up, put us in our
father's arms so that we feel
the reality that we're held
and we're safe and we can
cry, Abba, Father.
It's part of why we need to
pray, by the way.
You don't need to pray
because I told you to.
You need to pray to cry out,
Father, not because praying
makes you more a son of God
than you were before you
prayed.
Praying doesn't make you a
child of God.
No, prayer makes you more
aware of your father than you
were before you prayed.
It taps in to the unparalleled
access that you have to the
throne room of heaven, to the
king of glory himself.
It crawls up into his arms,
doesn't it?
To feel his love that was
already there, but it needed
to seep deep into your heart,
Jesus says.
Spend some time calling God
Father, depending upon him,
remembering that he delights
to give good gifts to his
children.
He is that kind of perfect
father for you now and always.
Let the Spirit call you to that.
Psalm 90 says,
Satisfy us in the morning
with your steadfast love,
that we may rejoice and be
glad all our days.
Psalm 90 is a prayer here,
not that God's love would be
good enough to satisfy us,
okay?
It is.
But that we would feel it,
that we would experience it
that way as it leads to joy
and gladness in our lives.
This is another way that being
in Christ, loved in him,
transforms your life.
You weren't meant to be
satisfied with merely human
love.
God didn't design you that way.
So when you try to make a
husband or a wife,
a boyfriend or a girlfriend,
a child or a parent,
satisfy you,
it doesn't work.
It doesn't last.
It can give you a taste,
a picture,
a glimpse of what you're
longing for,
but your heart was made
to be satisfied only in this
perfect and permanent love
of the one who made you
for himself.
So remembering,
feeling how deeply loved
you are in Christ
actually frees you
from searching for love,
for value,
for security
in someone else's arms.
Why?
Because you've already got it
in your father's.
It does something else.
It also frees you
to love
and be loved
selflessly,
at great cost,
even when they
and you
are imperfect
and to rejoice
in such imperfect
glimpses
of the perfect
lover.
Both of those.
You don't have to run
after human love
to find life,
but you're freed now
to enjoy
glimpses
of that love.
God loves us
so well,
doesn't he?
One more way
you experience it.
Zephaniah says
when we feel
his love,
it quiets
our noisy hearts.
I don't know
if there's anybody
else in here,
but I've got
a noisy heart.
This verse
in Zephaniah 3
says God's love
calms
our restless,
anxious,
fearful souls.
This is the difference
that being loved
in Christ
makes in hard times.
When everything
around us
screams that we
can't possibly
be loved,
that we must have
fallen out of
God's good graces
and that makes sense
to us,
we know we deserve
that.
But the world
seems to be spinning
out of control.
Where's the God
who loves me?
Is he looking
out for me?
I've messed up
so much,
he probably will
never do anything
good for me.
And Zephaniah says
don't be frantic.
Don't try to earn
your way back
into God.
Don't forget
how even imperfect
parents often
love their children
on bad days.
So let God's
perfect love
quiet you
this morning.
Hear his love.
See his love.
feel his love.
You have been
married to his son.
He has paid
the most precious
price ever
to have you
as his own.
He has adopted
you into his
family.
He has given
you his spirit
so that you can
crawl up into
his arms anytime
and talk to him
even when you
don't know what
to say.
He has loved
you with an
everlasting love
like the eternal
love between
father and son
from which you
can never
be separated.
So child of God
come taste his
love as well
as what he wants
for you.
He's set the table.
What a father
who knew how much
we would need his
love.
Who knew how much
we would struggle
to let it sink
in and really
be embraced
and change our
hearts.
So he keeps
giving us himself
a taste
of the way
he most fully
showed his
love.
A picture
of relationship
shared intimately
around a table.
That's what he
made you for.
The love story
that will never
end
because his
love will
never end.
Jesus said it
this way on the
night he was
betrayed he told
his disciples that
story as he took
bread and broke
it and gave it
to them as I
ministering in his
name give this
bread to you.
And he said
take and eat
this is my body
given to you
do this in
remembrance of
me.
And in the same
way he took the
cup after supper
and said this
cup is the new
covenant in my
blood.
shed for many
for the
forgiveness of
sins drink
from it all
of you for as
often as you
eat this bread
and drink this
cup you proclaim
the Lord's death
until he comes.
You shout the
truth that he
loves me enough
to give his
life for me.
If you trust
that Jesus gave
his body and
blood on the
cross for you
because of how
much he loves
you then don't
let what you
have done or
how you feel
be more important
right now than
what he has
done and how
he feels about
you.
You believe this
and come and
celebrate with
him.
If all of this
talk about love
sounds like love
that could be
life changing to
you but you're
honestly just not
sure about Jesus
yet then I want
to offer you
once more his
invitation.
We would love to
talk with you more
about him.
He wants to
invite you not to
these elements this
morning but to
crawling up in
your father's arms
and actually knowing
his love and
resting there
forever.
So feel free to
come and observe.
Come let us pray
with you or if you
prefer stay where
you are and
contemplate these
things yourself
but for all of
you child of God
or one who's
wondering about
that my prayer is
that none of you
would leave here
and miss the
display of the
greatest love
ever given.
When you were at
your worst God
gave you his best
his son because
he loves you
let's pray and
we'll eat with
him.
Father might it
be that we would
actually taste
some of your love
that would sink
so deeply into
us that nothing
could be truer
nothing could be
more certain for
us.
Nothing could be
more inspiring to
us as we live
this week.
Because you are
so good would
you take things
that are really
common would you
use them for a
very uncommon
holy purpose in
our hearts to
build our faith
to bring us to
bow the knee and
embrace the love
of a God who
loves us when it
doesn't make sense
and when we don't
deserve it.
Thank you for
meeting with us
this morning that
we might believe
you don't just
love us from
afar but you love
us hand in hand
and even getting
up in your arms
right now.
Work by your
spirit in our
hearts in Jesus
name.
Amen.
For more
information visit
us online at
southwood.org