God’s Great Love

God’s Great Love
John 3:16

There is a lot of hurt in the world each and every day. Life does not seem very fair at times does it? Good people are losing their jobs, homes, and retirement accounts. Even the planet Pluto is not considered a planet anymore. Where is the justice in that!
When you look at the world around you it can be easy to get so wrapped up in the bad stuff that we forget about our God. Just last Sunday, at a Mormon church in Michigan a man drove his car through the doors of the church and began firing a gun at people. He then set the church on fire before the police confronted him and shot him. As of Monday, 10 people were shot of which 2 died and one was in serious condition. Two others were found dead from the fire and it is believed that more bodies will be found in the burnt building.
Why did he do this? Because he hated the Mormon church’s beliefs.
Just a couple weeks before, Charlie Kirk, a well-known Christian speaker to young adults and adults alike was assassinated for his beliefs and teaching. Why was he killed? Because his shooter didn’t like the fact that Charlie spoke the truth about the Transgender lifestyle.
The question that arises every time one of these shootings takes place is why did God let it happen if God loves us so much? So letwas It is easy to think He is not there for you, that He d’s discuss that for a moment.

1. Why does God allow bad things to happen?

• God Gives Us Free Will. Not everyone believes in God and because of their free will, thay can do harm, even to Christians. Throughout the Bible, Christians have often been martyred for their beliefs
• Spiritual Growth: Difficulties can draw individuals closer to God and foster spiritual growth, helping us develop resilience and faith. IIt is often the difficult times that bring us to our knees and make us to rely more on God.
• Trusting in God: Even when bad things happen, believers are encouraged to trust in God’s goodness and plan, as He has reasons beyond human understanding. We will never know all the answers but we do know that God has told us we will have trouble.
John 16:33 says, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
There are times when hope seems to be far away. I believe the world is spinning out of control because people do not understand God. The world needs hope, they need the hope that is found in Jesus! They need to have the hope that springs from a personal relationship with God.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
This verse helps us to understand what we read in the Bible to help us understand what God is all about. It helps us understand why God has done what He has done as well as why He is doing what He is doing.
John 3:16 tells us that the mainspring of God’s being is love.
It is easy to think of God as looking at people in their self-centeredness and their disobedience and their rebellion and saying: “I’ll break them: I’ll discipline them and punish them and scourge them until they come back.” The text reveals that this couldn’t be further from the truth. We have a God who loves us more than we can ever imagine.
I know that the odds of every one of us in here have heard this verse is pretty good. In fact I’m pretty sure that most of us have this verse memorized.
I read something recently that said a Sunday school teacher kept a copy of this verse in a walnut shell on his desk because he was taught long ago that John 3:16 is the Gospel in a nutshell.
Makes sense to me. I suppose if there was ever a verse that could change the world this would be the one. Tonight, I want to break it down a little and examine it a piece at a time so that we can see what it tells us of.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
1. It is the greatest love
It says, God so loved the world. I find it so amazing that God has enough time to love me when He has the whole rest of the world to love. He loves me. Little insignificant me. He loves you too. He loves us even though we are sinners. He even loves those who don’t believe He exists. He loves all of the atheists of the world. That is hard to believe, but He does.
Name any kind of sinner there is in the world, and He loves that person. He doesn’t love their sins, but He loves the person. Every person in the world can be assured of God’s love.
The human mind will never grasp the love of God. All we can say is the love of God is uncaused, uninfluenced, spontaneous, and sovereign.
Jeremiah. 31:3 – “I have loved thee with an everlasting love.”
His is an everlasting, unending love with no beginning. God had no beginning, so his love had no beginning. All earthly love had a beginning, but God’s love reaches back to before the world was as well as forward to when all mountains are but dust. God’s love is infinite, illimitable, unbounded.
A SINNER MAY GO TO HELL UNSAVED, BUT HE CANNOT GO TO HELL UNLOVED.
2. It is the greatest gift
The greatest gift is that He gave His One and Only Son. I don’t know why my life is so important that God allowed His son to go to the Cross for my sins. He loves all of us so much that His Son made the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.
What do you think of that?
I love many people in this world. I know what it is to love. But I also know what it is to lose someone you love. Knowing those two feelings, and knowing that God chose to allow His Son, His perfect blameless Son to die for me can be hard to fathom. I found this article that makes it easier to understand:
A gem dealer was strolling the aisles at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show when he noticed a blue-violet stone the size and shape of a potato. He looked it over, then, as calmly as possible, asked the vendor, “You want $15 for this?” The seller, realizing the rock wasn’t as pretty as others in the bin, lowered the price to $10. The stone has since been certified as a 1,905-carat natural star sapphire, about 800 carats larger than the largest stone of its kind. It was appraised at $2.28 million.
It took a lover of stones to recognize the sapphire’s worth. It took the Lover of Souls to recognize the true value of ordinary-looking people like us.
That’s why He gave us this gift. He knows our true value. Maybe you’ve failed Him in your life, but listen, you are still valuable to Him.
3. It is the greatest faith
Verse 16 says that whoever believes in Him shall not perish.
Once we understand that God loves the world, we understand that God loves all people. We can accept that but we sometimes find it hard to understand that God loves us! Why? Because we know who we really are. We know how often we have failed Him, how we have failed to live up to His expectations, failed to be who He created us to be, failed to please Him in our life.
I want you to understand that is exactly why God said whosoever. Whosoever tells us that He loves us because I am a whosoever and so are you! All he asks is that we simply place our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. It is the greatest life
The verse concludes by saying we can have everlasting life.

Life with Jesus is greater than any other life there is. Maybe you have had what many call the good times of life. Maybe you’ve smoked, drank, and partied. All of that so called fun. I’ve been there and done some things in the name of fun that would be displeasing to God. I haven’t always been a believer. But I’ll tell you something about all that fun I had. It was empty. It was nothing. Until we allow Jesus to rescue us from the cesspool of life, our life has this empty void. But if we have Him in our life, we could never imagine life without Him again. He gives us everlasting life. He gives us the opportunity for life with Him. All we have to do is believe, ask, and receive.
Back in 1830 George Wilson was convicted of robbing the U.S. Mail and was sentenced to be hanged. President Andrew Jackson issued a pardon for Wilson, but he refused to accept it. The matter went to Chief Justice Marshall, who concluded that Wilson would have to be executed. “A pardon is a slip of paper,” wrote Marshall, “the value of which is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned. If it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must be hanged.”
2,000 years ago God the Son – Jesus the Christ issues a pardon….
BUT just like in the case of George Wilson – the value of the pardon is determined by the acceptance of the person to be pardoned… If it is refused, it is no pardon….
We don’t have to accept the life Christ died to give us. We can refuse.
God has given us the Greatest Love, the Greatest Gift, the Greatest Faith, and the Greatest Life. All we have to do is accept it. The Love is free. The Gift is free. The Faith is free. The Life is free. This verse is only has 26 words in it. But these 26 words are the Gospel in a nut shell.