WHEN WILL I BE LOVED
“When is it going to be my turn?”
Have you ever asked yourself that question? It may have been on the playground waiting
for your turn on the swings…in line waiting for your drivers license…or at a
wedding watching another friend get married…or at the news of someone else
having a baby. We all want to know when
our turn is coming!
Nearly all of us want to know that kind of
love. Perhaps the most pressing concern
for all of us at one time or another is expressed in a song that has been
recorded at least three times since its first release in 1960.
Artists: The Everly Brothers, # 8 in 1960; also # 2
for Linda Ronstadt in 1975; Karla Bonoff & Vince Gill in 1994.
I’ve been made blue, I’ve been lied to
When will I be loved
I’ve been turned down, I’ve been pushed ’round
When will I be loved
…I’ve been cheated, been mistreated
When will I be loved
We want to say, “I’ve had the bad, when do
I get the good?” When will I be loved
the way love is meant to be?
The message of Easter answers that
question in the most profound and compelling way. You have been loved…and that by the One who
loves perfectly, eternally and unconditionally!
Jer. 31:3 The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you
with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.
Yet, there are so many who are still
looking for evidence of that love, doubting that God really does love them and
wondering if they can ever know one way or the other.
The cross and empty tomb remain as lasting
reminders of the deep, deep love of Jesus Christ for each one of us.
THESIS: When people understand that God genuinely
loves them and is concerned for them, they can experience His love for
themselves and devote themselves to love and worship the only One who loves the
way He does.
The failures and frustrations of our
experiences with love at the human level cause us to look at God’s love with
skepticism.
I. WHEN WE FIND
HUMAN LOVE, IT OFTEN COMES WITH PROBLEMS.
--The
sad experience shared by most of us is that loving and being loved does not
come easily.
A. DISAPPOINTMENT SOURS OUR SEARCH FOR LOVE.
--Our early experiences with what love is supposed to
be left many of us not only disappointed but cynical about the possibility of
ever finding someone who will love us in the way we want them to.
--Misunderstanding what love is causes many of us to
think that love means having others meet our needs and live up to our standards
and satisfy all our expectations.
--No wonder we are disappointed—that is not love…it may
be selfish love, but not genuine love.
--Spouses, parents, siblings, friends,
girlfriend/boyfriend, teacher, pastor…no one can succeed in never disappointing
you, but that does not mean that you cannot find a love that perfectly
satisfies.
B. HURT BLUNTS OUR INTEREST IN LOVE.
--From first-hand knowledge, we discover that love
often hurts and after a while, we insulate ourselves from the pain and withdraw
to avoid making ourselves vulnerable to that kind of agony anymore.
--When the disappointment turns into hurt, the sharp
hunger to pursue loving relationships is blunted by painful experiences in your
past.
--The desire to engage in loving relationships is given
by God and cannot be turned off without shutting down other aspects of your
heart.
--When fear of getting hurt causes you to run away from
and lose interest in being loved and loving, you run the risk of cutting off
the power of God’s love in your life!
C. INSECURITY DIMS OUR HOPE FOR LOVE.
--Sometimes
our negative experiences with love force us to the conclusion that we are not
worth loving, or else why would others keep hurting and disappointing us?
--Even
when love approaches, we assume it cannot be intended for us since we begin to
view ourselves as hopelessly unlovable.
II. WHEN GOD’S
LOVE FINDS US, IT ALWAYS COMES WITHOUT MEASURE.
--But
then, God’s love forces you to reconsider all of that!
--In all of our lives, there are those moments when we
think that nobody loves us…not really
loves!
--Then
the love of Christ breaks through and we see a cross and an empty tomb…and then
we understand!
Your Love Broke Through (Keith Green)
…You took me by surprise
Like waking up from the longest dream, how real it seemed
Until your love broke through
I've been lost in a fantasy, that blinded me
Until your love broke through
All my life I've been searching for that crazy missing part
And with one touch, you just rolled away the stone that held my
heart
…Like waking up from the longest dream, how real it seemed
Until your love broke through
I've been lost in a fantasy, that blinded me
Until your love…broke through
A. COMPASSIONATE
LOVE: TOUCHED BY THE SENSITIVITY OF HIS
LOVE
--Last
week, we talked about the impact it had on the Israelites to hear and
understand that God cared about them and was concerned about their afflictions
and hard lives under the Egyptians.
Ex. 4:31 So the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD was concerned
about the sons of Israel and that He had seen their affliction, then they bowed
low and worshiped.
--Today as we come to consider the love of God for us, we find
that His love is expressed in His Son in more ways than we can mention.
Matt. 9:36 And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because
they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd.
--Whenever
you think that no one cares, that you have no one to be concerned about what
you are dealing with in life, God sent Christ to make sure that you know that
He feels compassion for you.
--He
knows more than anyone else what you are dealing with in life—and because He
loves you, He is concerned for you and wants you to allow His love to reach
your heart…not just your head!
--There
is a tenderness and sensitivity about the love Christ has for us as He
recognizes that we are sometimes distressed and downcast by things thrown at us
in a fallen world!
B. GREAT LOVE:
STRUCK BY THE IMMENSITY OF HIS LOVE
--The
love Christ has for you is boundless and cannot be exhausted, a love of such
magnitude that the Scriptures cannot explain it.
Eph. 2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with
which He loved us,
--When
we know who it is who loves us, we are not surprised at the greatness and the
magnitude of His love—remember as we saw last week that this God who loves you
is Almighty, Holy and Eternal!
--His
love is as big as He is!!
--No
matter how much God loves the person beside you, you never have to wait your turn
to be loved…He has plenty for everyone, all the time without fear of running
out or running low.
Rom. 5:5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been
poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
With gas prices
as high as they are, I am getting a little stingy when I go to buy fuel. I have to think hard before I pay over $2 a
gallon for gas. Therefore, I am not as
quick to drive all over town if I know I will run low on gas and need to
refuel. I cannot afford to run low
because I do not want to have to replenish the supply in my tank.
God never runs
out or runs low. His love abounds…His
love is immense and great…His love never needs to be refilled because no matter
how He loves you, there is just as much love as ever!
C. SACRIFICIAL
LOVE: COMPELLED BY THE INTENSITY OF HIS
LOVE
--I
have actually heard people ask why God does not prove that He loves them, if He
really does.
--What
else could He do that would be more proof than dying in their place?
Rom. 8:31-32 What then shall we say to
these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give
us all things?
--Dying
love is hard to dismiss! A sacrifice
Jesus made for you and me out of love compels us to consider what kind of love
this is…and makes it all but impossible to ignore!
2 Cor. 5:14 For Christ’s love compels
us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.
--Next
time you feel inclined to question whether God really loves you and is
concerned for you, think of the cross where not even His Son was spared so that
He could demonstrate His love for you.
--That
kind of love compels us to respond—either to reject Him with a callous
indifference to His pain or to accept Him with a grateful joy for how intensely
and personally His love for us was demonstrated.
One of the reasons
we display the cross as Christians is to show that God’s love knows no limits
and that the passion of Christ for us led him all the way to Calvary to die on
our behalf, in our place.
D. LIFE-GIVING
LOVE: TRANSFORMED BY THE VITALITY OF HIS
LOVE
--If
the measure of a great love is a willingness to die for you, how much more
powerful is the kind of love that dies but then turns right around and give
back life?
Eph. 2:5-6 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and
seated us with Him in the heavenly
places, in Christ Jesus,
--The
reason for such a lively celebration each Easter is that Christ not only died
for us but that He rose again so that we are not only forgiven but transformed
by His power to give life to those who were once dead.
--His
love transforms us and takes us from death to life, from darkness to light,
from desperation to hope, and from rejection to love.
Phil. 3:10-11 that I may know Him, and the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His
death; 11 in order that I may
attain to the resurrection from the dead.
If you, or someone you know, were to ask the question, “When
is it going to be my turn…when will I be loved?” do you think you could say
with certainty this morning—“You already are loved…and have been loved so
completely that God did not spare His own Son when it came time to demonstrate
His love!”
If you want to know if it is true, then
look to a cross and an empty tomb as the clearest possible evidence that the
Lord God Almighty held nothing back when it came time to show you His love!
Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus
Christ this Easter morning focuses our attention once more on the greatness of
His love for us. As unlovable and sinful
as we have been—“dead in our
transgressions” (2:5)—God has shown us the “surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”
(2:7).
You may have once asked, “When will I be
loved?” Today, you know the answer! You are now and have been loved perfectly and
without reserve by the risen Savior, Jesus Christ!
Will you accept His love and receive His
everlasting gift of forgiveness and eternal life on this resurrection morning?
March 27, 2005
Providence Baptist Church
© David Horner 2005
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