The Village Church
For God So Loved - Audio
college and And he preached a sermon on the the will of God and it really it changed my perspective basically on my understanding of who God is and one of the things he said is is that We sometimes get caught up in this perfect ideal will of God And that's what I used to believe that a guy had his perfect will and if I missed it and I missed I missed everything up But what he helped me to understand is that If that's the case it only takes one person to mess up with a mess up for everybody If I married the wrong person then guess what everybody else marries the wrong person too So when he said that it really helped enlighten not my understanding And so he's gonna come share with us this morning, and it's gonna be and shit bless our hearts. So here you come on up, please I Would like to praise the Lord this morning Especially since the invitation of your pastor to be with you in your midst He also assigned me a subject That is of course as dangerous because you don't know where I'm going any rate it is the most Nobel known verse in the New Testament and Of course, you know that what that is For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son That whoever believes in him Should not perish What have everlasting life? I remember a sermon once on this subject and the first statement was There is only one alternative to perishing And that's faith Luke adds that Repentance is in the same position unless you repent. You will likewise perish Repentance and faith are Like a one-dollar bill on the one hand you have the pyramid and the other one and he had George Washington Now I if I give this gentleman a One-dollar bill let me try to Take it out of that And I give him a George Washington and he turns it around and he doesn't see the pyramid. He knows it's counterfeit Or if I show him the Pyramid and there is no George Washington. It is counterfeit so faith and repentance Always go together So that is the first thing that we have to recognize that without repentance and faith There is only Perishing and now you understand why Jesus came Because he does not want us to perish And that is rooted in his love and The pastor said to me why don't you preach about love? So I'm under authority And that's what I'm doing. All right Now I believe that a message should be memorable My dear brother pastor if your messages are not memorable that it was not a good sermon. All right For a little pressure on him. All right. I Had to learn that this is my 50th year in the ministry and the greatest joy I have is that when I see my old students they say I Remember what you told me 40 years ago. I Just rejoicing that Now when we talk about love We're gonna divide it in two sections The first one is that love has three marks or three characteristics You'll start there and you get it all out of the text and I read More of the text as I as we go and then secondly it has three elements Now first of all what are the characteristics of love? Well, first of all, it is Unconditional I did not like the term for a long time Because people try to get away with murder God loves me unconditionally. Thank you Lord You know That's not the way it works. So that's why I didn't like the word unconditionally Finally I came to the conclusion That it's not that God loves you as you are I Remember a lady who tried to tell me that she was blind sweet has anything and She would compose a song about the woman as well That the Lord loved her unconditioned She accept he accepted her as she was And when she was finished She looked at me with her blind eyes. I said, how did you like the song? And she hoped that I would say that was awesome And I said I I couldn't say that because it was not totally awesome I like to explain that to you and I said well, I know why you Compose that song because you want to be accepted by the people in your blindness as Jesus Accepted her her face. Yeah Yeah, yeah, I said well, I don't mind if you sing that but why don't you compose a second stanza? Because when the see finally gives Jesus her emotions He says to her Go call your husband. I Don't have any That's right lady. You had five of them and the man with whom you shack up is not your husband and don't tell him it All those five have died Oh So I sent him He accepts he loved her unconditionally But he did not put up with in fact, he loved her in spite of Her condition and that is the definition of uncondition God loves me in spite of what I am And you understand when I begin to get that I am not saying thank you God See I don't do this anymore So terminology is very important my dear brother pastor the first mistake that pastors make is that they're Not memorable the second mistakes that pastors make that they don't define their terms So now I've been at it for a little while. So I've read a lot of stuff So what you're going to get from me is not all mine But I've accumulated God loves me in spite of what I am That's humbling is it not? There's the first element the second element is that God loves me anti-conditionally Against my condition if your son or your daughter is on drugs and You love that son in spite of what he is. What do you want? You want that drug habit to leave? So you're going to go against the condition That's my God That's what he said to to Jacob in the Old Testament I'm going to fight you throughout the night Because I'm against your condition And then Jacob didn't want to yield God said let me go You're useless And then Jacob said I will not let you go unless you bless me See there was a change in Jacob at that point God loves me Unconditionally an Anti-conditionally counter-conditionally he wants me to get out of myself destruction He does not want me to perish and And then thirdly the third element He loves me and his love is reconditioning now say now for instance I like Volkswagen Beatles all right and by now all the Volkswagen Beatles are wrecked virtually except the ones that have been Manufactured in Brazil recently but all the old ones, you know, they are ready for the scrap heap But I love Volkswagen Beatles or Mercedes-Benz's No longer Toyota's because they kill me. Okay. Okay. I Love Volkswagen Beatles In spite of the fact that is going to go to the scrappy Now I am against that scrap stuff And by the time I am finished It is totally recondition and that's our God until we are in mint condition and Then it's our mother You remember me saying that She's in mint condition in the presence of God I Talked to a man in Uganda. He was a Dutchman, and I'm Dutch. He didn't know that I was Dutch It's I'm so grateful that I am out of the church all the way soon. I Cannot stand that any longer My dad is still in it, but I'm thankful that my mother and I are out of it Well If you don't believe and you perish there must be something wrong All right, and we call it sin and I said I Use exactly the same example before it's fucking beetle What if you were an old Volkswagen Beetle are ready to be scrapped and All of a sudden you are told that you can turn into a beautiful Mercedes Benz now They those cars are not this up in the United States, but in Europe. That's the top of the line They said would you like to turn into a Mercedes Benz and he said yes, I said well, that's the gospel But if you don't know you're a Volkswagen Beetle ready to be scrapped and the promise solution of God Means nothing to you Now, what is the problem? Well, it's very clear that our passage deals with three things First of all it talks about to become born again. You remember and Nicodemus now. Why does born again turn into faith? Born again in the first part of the chapter into faith in the latter part of the chapter chapter Well, I taught five times four times through the book of John in my college My Christian college and finally we get to understand it because in this first the second chapter said we believe we believe And Jesus says wait a minute. It's that faith real He said all as a man is born again He cannot see the kingdom and he cannot enter the kingdom and there comes out of the book of Ezekiel I'll take the heart of stone out of you. I'll give you a heart of flesh And other you need a heart transplant the old heart Does not see? It's blind and cannot enter now the Lord has a sense of humor because Nicodemus says I know that you're a teacher from come from God and the first thing that Jesus does put his finger in the solar plexus and Says that incidentally unless you're born again. You cannot see and you cannot enter I am not a teacher who comes from God. I am gone Who comes to teach To die Or sinners and unless the Holy Spirit gives you a new heart You will never see and seeing is believing ah-ha John three tells us I am like The snake who has lifted up in the Old Testament if you see you live in the Old Testament I won't go into the story because they carry me too far But here is a parallel if you believe you will not perish but you will never believe unless God changes your heart because the heart is filled with blindness and filled with rebellion and God loves me in spite of the fact That I have a rebel heart Now in Uganda north of Uganda there are rebels konya rebels They are horrible They kill they murder They cut members of your body sent it in the mail To the authorities if you don't come our way You're gonna handle end of you in the executive the same way they defile their rape and the Bible says In humans with all the thoughts of their hearts are Only evil continuum He says I don't like you. I'm sorry. I made you I'm gonna wipe you out in the flood If you and I had been living before the flood you would have been wiped out too Would have perished and the only reason I know it survived is because the Bible says he found grace Now After the flood God says I'm gonna do something new Business as usual is not gonna do it I'm gonna do something new. I'm going to take the heart of stone out of you. Give you a heart of flesh. I Love you in spite of the fact That you have a rebel heart and Psalm 58 calls it a cobra Now I don't like cobras Do you God does He loves you and cold In that I made He loves me in spite What I am and then the Bible says I will be lifted up like the snake into serpent in the desert and if you Look at me. You will live now. Where was he lifted up? On the cross What do you do on the cross? On the cross he shed his blood now Why did he shed his blood because Ezekiel says I do not only take the heart of stone out through you Give you a heart of flesh, but I wash you all your filth and all your idolatry The Bible says You're a righteous is like filthy rags and The Apostle Paul says my righteousness as a Pharisee was blameless when I saw God I came to the conclusion that it was maneuver and It's a very vulgar word in the New Testament. It is excrement Now do you love excrement? God does Aha And he says I'm gonna give you a new heart you rebel and I'm going to wash you You pit latrine Is what I said in Uganda and one man said came up to me and said for the first time I saw my sin and I saw my safety It was never the same Now thirdly later on in the upper of people and John 3 the Lord says why don't they come to me? because Their deeds are evil Their deeds are evil Everyone practicing evil hates the light and doesn't come to the light Thus his deeds should be exposed But he who does the truth comes to the light in his knees may be clearly seen that have been done in God So you do not own they have a problem with your heart And in spite of what God loves you You don't only have a problem with your past in spite of it. God loves you, but you also have a problem with your life The Old Testament says that our hearts are like a cobra Paul says that our past is like excrement and John James says that our life is like poison in the tongue How do you like poison? Do you love poison? God loves you anyway Isn't that beautiful? I? Cannot begin to tell you But a joy I have And then God tells me I am Surishing because I have three problems. I love you and I'm going to recondition I'm going to give you that new heart I'm going to give you that new righteousness And I'm going to give you that new holiness. That's recondition and finally the Bible says Endeconditional Reconditional until you're a mint condition and the greatest gift that I give you Here in is the love of God perfect that first John tells us So that we are like Jesus is and that we have confidence in the day Judgement Now I'm not going to do the baptism, but I think I may give you the example if God loves coal He gives coal a new heart that is filled with faith and repentance and Through faith and repentance He is washed in the blood on the cross and out of the resurrection comes his new righteousness and Then the Holy Spirit comes within him and with his new heart that once forgiven is and holiness and the Holy Spirit He's going to be purposefully holy Until in the presence of God Like mother He is in mint condition Now that didn't come to me overnight It took years before God Opened my eyes with what I call 2020 vision and if it appears that I still don't have 2020 vision I hope that he's going to give me even more But I think now I saw men walking like trees at one time, but now there's a sharpness God loves me in spite of the fact that I'm on except Unconditioned He goes after me in an anti-conditional fashion. He does not put up with nonsense And this is by the time I'm finished You are a Mercedes Benz and by the time you're in heaven You are perfect Now those are the three elements of love that are right out of John three A new heart and regeneration we call it a new righteousness and justification and a new holiness and sanctification Now that brings me to the second part of the message What are the elements of love? And that really is amazing Some people say love is not an emotion. It is not an action and I saw a young a father Talking to his son at the occasion of their marriage. I said love is not an emotion it is an action young man and The father was converted during my ministry in California and I walked up to him I said what kind of a nonsense is that? of course love is an emotion and You should tell them you are very emotionally involved young man. You better stay that way Amen Hey, man. Hello, Louisa This man said to me that the comes of a church this year he says it is no vibrancy Emotionally the circle I you know, I want you to clap And then you know what I mean? Emotionally, I hope your emotions to your wife will never die out If they do oh, man, I pity the woman. Okay, and I pity you twice You see love is an emotion now. It's not an irrational emotion, you know But there are no irrational emotions because every emotion has a rational base So it is nonsense to say love is not an emotion And it's also nonsense to say love is just an action because I give my wife a flower every day And I love her right of course not because I know the with a flower. She makes a better dinner So an action doesn't mean that you love people So what is love? Love is a desire to be one with an object That's what love is all about It was very interesting when I go into Africa and I use coal as an example All right, because he's going to be baptized So love is a desire to be unite that you grab the other side of the five dollar bill He loves money. You get it? Now He smiled already the second element of love is that you're Delated when you are one with an object. Okay. All right. Look now. It's yours. Look at his face Light up now, you know what love is and I don't think that coal ever forgets this, right? Ever forgets that. Okay. So love is that you want to deal the I want to be one with an object That you delight when the unity unity takes place You remember you got married? And she said I do You're now one with your wife or your husband You're delighted and thirdly You want to do anything to become one with an object And to remain one with an object. That's what love is all about in terms of its elements That's why john 17 says I am my father our one Why? Because they love itself You know beautiful And when you think of god, he loves me before the foundation of the world In spite of what I am And spurs in use to say I am so thankful that he started to love me for before the foundation of the world Because if he had waited until after the fall, I don't think He would have done it and you'll and you he wouldn't have started you see now. That's virgin Not necessarily bible, but I kind of like it and you don't like it It's fine because it doesn't come out of the scriptures You see love to be united to be before the foundation of the world. That's why you call it an eternal love And when I became a christian The bible says he rejoiced over me with rejoicing. That's delight And when my son gave a testimony I asked him to come along this morning as well with this young man But he said well my wife is in north georgia And she asked me to join her and I understand that she he rather wanted to be united with his wife With his dad. All right, so he loved his wife more than he loved his dad In spite of what he may say All right. So so I have that that is wonderful And when he gave his testimony, he said when I came to know jesus the angel threw a party That's delight And in order to become one with me He gave his only begotten son call Remember You will never be one with god until you put your arms around jesus in repentance because you know you have three problems And in faith because you want to have two three solutions Incidentally, that is gospel preaching. I have a little girl grand girl two years old And I said you have this is how I evangelize give me a high five And then I have three emotions give me a high three And I have his mind Now he's listening as you have three problems God has three solutions. I'll take the heart of stone out of you give your heart a flesh I wash you of all your filth and put the holy spirit within you and make you godly You see and it comes through jesus I give my old heart to jesus and he kills it on the cross I give my old pastor jesus and he washes it on the cross I give my old life for jesus and he eliminates on the cross. Hebrews 10 and out of the grave comes his heart and his righteousness and his holiness and he actually Gives it to me And when I have his heart, I have the fear of god When I have his righteousness, I have the peace of god And when I have his holiness, I have the joy of the lord according self 85 It is awesome So he gave everything For me To be one with him Don't tell me That was an easy thing I once asked the father, would you like to give your son to save me? And the fathers didn't forget it I said god did not forget He did it And satan did not believe how it was possible satan said the sinner will die so You may do with all those people you what you want, but eventually it's going to be mine But no I had seen but no heart has thought of that god has prepared for them who love him If satan had understood the meaning of the cross He would have said to the perfectes whatever you do with jesus fine with me But keep him away from that cross Because that is going to be my defeat. He didn't see it. He didn't know It was his greatest defeat So I'm one. How do I stay one? And I repent And get the forgiveness of sins He puts the holy spirit within me And he keeps me with him The brothers and sisters the holy spirit is totally Not totally but to a great extent Misunderstood neglected The father promises those three solutions The son produces them on the cross Without the holy spirit, there is no delivery Impossible North of Uganda. There's a big church at three openings in the roof for three iron sheets And I said to them what if I promise you to give you three iron sheets would you be happy? Yeah, it won't rain inside But now where are you going to get the three iron sheets? There's no factory in north of Uganda, but there is in Kampala There's the factory that is jesus But how do you get the sheets from Kampala to the north? You need to be delivered needs to be delivered. That's the holy spirit and if the holy spirit is that operational You have nothing You don't have because you're born again by the holy spirit He seals your righteousness and he makes you holy And now you understand What love is I hope it's memorable I hope you'll never forget it I mentioned that to a son of a general in Uganda and I said the love of god three solute problem three solutions his eyes I told his dad sent him to my my my office my guest house. I wrote he came Three problems three solutions. That's the love of god Through the father the son and the holy spirit His eyes were still cold dead Send him again No change I drove an hour into to to his high school There he goes standing. He said remember young man jr You have three problems and the love of god is good. He loves you in spite of it He wants to recon to ace against it because it's you're perishing He wants to recondition you His eyes may be opening up a little never two pentecostal girls. They were cheering me on right next to me And then I went home and he was in a terrible accident And his bodyguard sold here was killed And he was lying there in the hospital knowing he should be dead And he looked up to the ceiling and guess what he saw He saw jesus for the first time And he recognized What am I going to do with my cobra heart What am I going to do with my excrement past? What am I going to do with my poison life? Oh my god And he fled to jesus and when I saw him again He was a new creature Two years later he died because he was an epileptic And it happened to be in the country and his dad said come and Preached the message Who's who was there? He was a general four star general the whole top brass of the army cabinet ministers Members of parliament because he was also a member of parliament business people And I said do you really want a white man to preach this sir? Is that you're his godfather And you're a member of his family My family, yes How are you going to tell everybody? Do they have a cobra heart And an excrement past in the poison life? I said, you know, I know that this young man the first Peter one is with jesus How do I know that because four times they told him and I repeated this four times And he fled to jesus He understood the immense love of god who wanted to be one with sinners Who delights when sinners turn And I was willing to do everything for them to do that and get that unity And he loves them in spite of what they are And he goes against their condition. He's willing to be angry about it So did you wake up? And you want a recondition you until you're a mint condition At the end of the service A man in a uniform came up to me And said him I want to talk to you I said I give me your phone was I don't have any phone Half hour later Give me your phone up. Oh, I don't have a phone Well, maybe my chief of staff Because together I said who is that that man is the commanding general In the army of you gone Ouch, I don't have a phone That was a mistake Well, we met and we have met several times I believe that I told him the problems. I believe that he fled to jesus But I was not quite sure And when I was in you gone in january, I phoned him And he said where are you? I said well, I'm at the same time you are come from breakfast And I'm not a conversation list in little things When you get me going on the gospel I wake up And I said to him Flea to jesus And then I said something that I never said before I'm willing to die for your salvation Well an army man knows what that means Because he was in the people's war against the government he saw his buddies kill And he said dr. Henry that pierced my heart You cannot evangelize Now I cannot die for you Right I cannot get the wrath of god away from you by dying I cannot suffer, but but I cannot suffer and die For the propitiation the removal of god's wrath I can suffer and die for propagation Like a mother A woman suffers to produce children That's what paul says death in me and life in you And I said to the general I'm going to die for your salvation Two days later, I was in the middle of nowhere with my little cell phone I don't have an american cell phone, but I do not have a cell phone And uh, if I want to phoned him, I forget this phone number I turned on uh, I know the phone number And he phoned me I have a number Maybe he wasn't I want to see how you're doing Top of general He's not going to talk to a little pea on like me Unless somehow God has opened the eyes I want you to pray for that But you don't understand and I want to know what you'd never to forget But the love of god is all about God loved so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son That everyone would believe on him would not perish But would have ever lasted life without him you are perishing folks Make sure you recognize that I said well if I perish with a cobra heart and an excrement past and a poisoned life, nobody's going to love me That's right, nobody except the infinite God And he says what i'm against you. I'm your friend the enemy Under you see that you need to be sanitized And i'm going to put you in mint condition Walt's wagon beat already to be jumped Against the scrap stuff Turns into a Mercedes Benz. That's the love of god. How do why does he do that? You remember the three marks? How do you do that three elements? It wants to be one with me. I can't believe it And then i'm one with him he throws a party And he's willing to give up everything For that unity union to take place His son Have a reunion to remain His holy spirit That Is awesome. Hey man, is that awesome And if i really believe it's awesome You know what i tell people? I'm going to die for you To get the same thing And then people don't do it. I believe They don't think it's really awesome Yeah one of those things how would i die? But if you recognize Is the only alternative to perishing And i don't want you to perish That's what you're going to say And they hope i'm right There's a congregation You will say that In this neighborhood And if you do I believe God's going to fill this bill If you don't This is as usual It's not going to work Paul I won't denote a power of the resurrection And a fellowship of his suffering I want to snuggle up to suffering His little girl snuggles up to a little doll under the blankets And mother puts her to bed And they'll just snuggle up to death. Why? Because without it You don't get life And there's a sea die that will not produce fruit If it suffers a little, it produces a little fruit Suffers a little more, it produces a little more fruit When it dies It produces much fruit Herein is the love of God perfected in me That i actually come to the point That i'm willing to die for you That is the love of God Coming to fruition In me and through me In you Thank you, sir For asking me to speak about the love of God This morning I hope It is memorable But beyond that I hope That you experience that love In the heart of Jesus And in the righteousness of Jesus And in the holiness of Jesus I don't know where you are I don't know whether you're safe or not But I pray to God If you say to yourself, but I don't have that Flea to the love of God And he will get that To every one of us And be real much parish What have everlasting life Praise God Hallelujah Hallelujah Let me pray Our Father in the name of Jesus, we thank you For John three I have to admit that when the pastor asked me to speak about the love of God And I thought of John 3 16. I was not quite sure What was going to come out of it But when I saw the text And I saw all the elements The marks of love And I saw the elements of love I praise you, O God And I ask you in the name of Jesus And that love of God Will always remain in our heart And that we are standing all Before that love Which is unconditional Anti-conditional Reconditioner That wants to be one with us That enlightenment unity is accomplished And is willing to pay any and every price For that union to be achieved And to remain In Jesus' name Amen [BLANK_AUDIO]