True love

We're going to be looking at a all to familiar passage of scripture and dig a little deeper into its meaning. John 3:16 "For God so Loved the world that He gave His only Son, that who so ever believes in Him shall not parish but have everlasting life." Lets look at the first part of this passage, God gave us, a people so undeserving; His son. Not just to walk among us and perform miracles to convince us of His existence, but to ultimately die for us. For those of you who are parents you'll very easily follow me on this point. No matter how many lives the death of our child would change we would be hard pressed to ever agree to such a term. I for one have lost both my children in a double homicide. I've seen many people come to the Lord through this tragedy. Being able to share about the strength God gives us in these times of tragedy I've seen many people from many different backgrounds come to know the Lord and some come back to the Lord after straying and I can honestly say that I'm so selfish I would take my children back if given the chance. No matter how much good has come from the story of their life I'd take them back without even having to think! So what this means to me is, A God who knew the very outcome of what it meant to send His Son (Christ) to this world, knowing the torture and death that was to be presented; the end outcome out weighed the means to obtain Gods set goal of salvation, and He willingly sent His son. Think about that for a moment. Would you yourself have the love within you to sacrifice someone you cherish for the good of all man kind? The answer for me is simply no.
We'll come back to this in a moment so hold that thought.

I want us to understand Heavens Whoever Policy.
It's not just a whoever believes, it goes deeper. Whoever you are, whatever walk of life your in, where you are currently at in life whether your rich, poor, sick, or even healthy. It doesn't matter what happened in your past, that fact is that God wants to meet you right where your at and start making some positive changes in you. Over the past few months I've met many people from different walks of life. Some people successful that have never been through any real negative experiences of life and others who from the moment of their childhood have been dealt a raw deal when t comes to life. The fact is whoever you are and whatever you've been through God has an answer for the questions life has throw at you. But it's up to us to seek those answers and it's up to us to accept God's healing grace. I went years before realizing that God's grace does more than simply provides salvation from hell. It saves you from the wreckage of life! You may be sitting there right now with the though "yeah well you just don't know what I've been through and no matter what I try life doesn't get any better." Well I have got news for you, it doesn't matter what YOU try life will never get better without the help of the Lord. You truly want life to change and want that piece of your life that was stolen from you to be given back? Well only one person can do that and thats the Lord and we're going to discuss how in this short message. First off is salvation, before God can do anything in your life you have to want it. That means not just saying ok God make it better, it means laying your life down at the feet of the Lord and saying I can't but I know You can, and then surrendering your life to however He wishes to mold your life. You see too many times we pray to the Lord a prayer of "Ok God I'm tired of feeling like this, so what I want you to do is___." Christ told us how to pray in the Lords prayer which I am sure everyone has read at some point. We are not just saying, "ok God your awesome hears my list of demands." We are to be praying Father blessed be your name, let your will be done in my life as you see fit for this situation. Notice any difference? We've went from making a list of demands to willingly accepting what God knows is best for us. I have been guilty of this myself, I take the scripture ask and you shall receive out of context and expect God to start forking out what I want. I totally missed the first part of the scripture about seeking first the Kingdom of God. If I am truly seeking God even though I may not have the answer as to what it is I'm truly looking for I can keep an open heart to what it is God really wants to do. You see the fact is we think we know ourselves so well that we actually think we know what we need to make us happy. The simple fact is the torment and brokeness we feel is actually a by product of us thinking we have the answer and moving before God gives to go ahead. Now don't get me wrong on this I do know of situations where the hurt we feel wasn't caused by something we did, perhaps someone you trusted hurt you. The fact remains that once we have been hurt its up to us to either live with it, or lay it completely at God's feet. Heres a few verses all with a common theme lets see if you can find that theme.

Matt 10:39 "Whoever finds his life will lose it,and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."

Mark 3:35 "Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."

John 4:14 "Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst."

John 11:26 "Whoever comes to me I will never drive away."

Ok lets stop here for a moment. Did you see the common theme here? Theres a few actually first is the whoever policy, It doesn't say "whoever that fits within a certain category." It say WHOEVER. So that would mean what exactly? Thats right, whoever. Theres also another theme here one thats very important. Notice that its whoever is truly seeking God. Not whoever asks for their own selfish desire. We are to be truly seeking God's will for our life not seeking to to fulfill our will for our life. 1 Tim 2:6 Peter affirms that it's not God's will for any to be lost; but for all to come to repentance. What is true repentance? Is it sinning then asking forgiveness with the desire to do it again knowing you can just ask the Lord to forgive you again? No it's truly recognizing you messed up and fell short and telling the Lord your sorry, and asking Him to change that area of your life! Does that happen over night? No it doesnt does it, but it is the true heart of repentance.

The last point I wish to make is this, the scripture says who ever believes in me will not perish.
Does this mean, I believe there is a God so im not going to hell? NO it doesn't. Does it mean I believe Christ is the Son of God so I live my life any way I choose but I'm still going to make it to heaven? No it doesn't. To get to the bottom of what it means we need to examine the word BELIEVE. This word has been down played so much in society that it has lost it's true meaning. Heres a simple fact for those of you who are sitting there right now thinking "this guys off his rocker"  What if I told you theres one person who knows God is real, and also knows Jesus is the Son of God but is going to hell? There is and that person is Satan... Point made? believing and knowing is 2 different things, we look at believe as knowing something rather than what believe should actually mean. Those who truly believe in the Lord have this one thing in common, we Love the Lord. What does God say about those who Love Him? Those who love me keep my commandments. remember that verse? So keeping His commandments means we do what? We Obey Him. So if we then transfer the meaning to the scripture we get a new understanding. Whoever obeys (loves) (believes) will not perish but have everlasting life. Kinda brings things into a new spectrum doesn't it?

I hope this short message has helped in some way, I know there are those of us who are hurting from various backgrounds of life, I'm one of them. I also know that it's never easy to surrender every area of our life to the Lord as I fall short everyday. Thats where grace comes in. God's grace through the sacrifice Christ made covers my downfalls. I don't however view that as a pass to sin anytime I want. If your hurting God knows it, He wishes to pull you close and let you pour your heart out to Him. If you let Him He will take those ashes from your past and make them into something beautiful, just know this. It doesn't happen over night. Keep believing, keep trusting and most of all, keep obeying.