Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Knowing Real Love

Too many pastors in too many churches today are preaching fluffy ear tickling messages about God’s love without giving the whole counsel of God and talking about sin and repentance. The truth is, we will never know the depth of God’s love until we know the cost His Son paid for the forgiveness of our sins. It is impossible to talk about God’s love without the cross. When you remove sin and repentance from the message of God’s love, it’s a dangerous thing because we end up with cheap grace.

Only when we can fully grasp the magnitude of Jesus’ sacrifice in light of the sin and depravity of man will we ever be able to understand the grace that has been poured out on us through His sacrificial love.

When we’ve been touched by grace, the byproduct will be a heart of gratitude and love for our precious Savior who would die for us while we were still wretched sinners causing us to want to live Holy lives in light of the cross and not be comfortable in sin.

Without acknowledging sin there can be no repentance, we will continue to live separated from God with a false sense of security, and we will never be able to know real love. Only God’s love has the power to change hearts and lives from the inside out and give us an eternal hope.

1 Corinthians 1:23
“But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”

Romans 5:8
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

John 15:13
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

1 Peter 1:16
“For it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

Acts 20:27
“For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

2 Timothy 4:3-4
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”