Finding Strength in God's Unconditional Love

Hello, and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

The Lord is faithful and something that we can be reminded of all the time, because sometimes we're tempted to doubt, sometimes we're tempted to question.

But when we're reminded of the love of God, we're reminded of his faithfulness.

We're here in Romans today, and we're going to be continuing our study in the book of Romans.

If you have your Bibles, I encourage you to turn there with me.

Romans, chapter five.

Romans, chapter five.

And we are going to be looking today at the love of God.

Love is a word that we hear frequently in our society today.

And depending on who's saying it, depends on what it means.

Depending how we say it.

Depends on what it means.

You know, I could say that I love a lot of things, but that can mean different things in.

In our English language.

Right.

For example, I. I tend to use my children as analogies, and sometimes I forget to ask them if I can use them.

And so I'm trying to do better, asking them, hey, can I bring you up here to use as an analogy?

And my son is always like, yes.

My daughter sometimes says, no.

My son that's in the nursery really doesn't have a choice.

And I usually don't bring him out.

So I'm going to bring up one of my children, Micah, Come on up here.

And I'm going to stand him up here.

Because most of you know I love Micah, and I love Nora, and I love Silas.

I love my family.

And I don't think anyone would question that I love Micah.

Right.

Do you think I love you?

Yeah.

Do you know that I love you?

Okay.

He knows that I love him.

Okay.

But I also.

If I was having a conversation with you and I was talking about sports, I would say I love softball.

I love playing softball.

I love watching baseball.

I love the Tampa Bay Rays.

Now, some of you just some.

I just lost a lot of credibility with a lot of people here this morning.

Okay.

I'm from Tampa.

That's why I. I say that.

Okay?

So let's say.

Let's say I would.

I would have softball in sports and baseball and the Rays personified right here in the middle.

And then I might be having A conversation with you about what I like to eat.

And I say, guys, I love steak.

And by the way, I do love.

How many of you love steak.

I mean, some of you are like, no, I can't.

I love steak.

I love a good rib eye, medium rare.

Okay, I love that.

Okay, So I would set that on this table over here and say, okay, I love a steak.

Now do I?

Now, maybe some of you don't know me well enough, but do I love steak and softball the same way that I love my son?

At least I shouldn't, right?

What if I said, okay, son, you're going to go without because dad wants to play this, or you're going to go without because dad wants to eat this.

So, son, you're not going to eat tonight because dad can only afford one steak, okay?

No, right?

Because there's that level of love, there's that priority of love.

There's the demonstration of love.

And so the Bible is going to tell us here in Romans, chapter five, that this type of love that God has for us is the type of love that we are to have for others.

And it's a Greek word.

And the Greek word is agape.

The.

The word, the word agape is tied to another word that we would understand to be sacrifice.

Sacrificial times in my life that I'm not willing to sacrifice for things that I quote, unquote, love, really, it's just I really enjoy.

They bring pleasure to me.

But that type of love sometimes is what people take onto other aspects of their life.

Meaning, I love my wife only when she loves me and when everything's going okay.

I love my children when it goes my way.

I love this only when it goes my way.

But the Bible says, no, that's not really true love.

True love is willing to sacrifice.

True love is not looking for what that person can bring to me.

It's looking to the fact that I choose to love that person today.

Therefore, I am choosing, if need be, to sacrifice and prove or demonstrate my love.

And so to my son, to my children, to my wife, to folks that I am supposed to agape, I am to sacrifice, I am to go without.

I am to be willing to be uncomfortable and lose what I would say is my pleasure, my desires.

And here, what we're going to look at here this morning is this idea of true love demonstrated to us through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

And so in love comes priority.

You understand that idea when it comes to these relationships that we have in our life.

And so we're going to talk about God's priority when it comes to our life and how we as Christians can mirror or reflect that agape type of love that God displayed to us through our lives today.

Thank you, son.

I appreciate that.

So let's go to Romans chapter 5.

I gave you enough time to get there.

Romans chapter five.

We left off last week in verse number five.

And it says, and hope maketh not ashamed.

The confidence of God that we have will never fail us.

That's what it says there.

Because why?

Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.

And so when we trust in God, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are, as the Bible says, justified.

We are declared righteous, we are saved, we are forgiven.

And.

And therefore the Holy Spirit indwells us, lives within us.

And that Holy Spirit, as he works in our life through various ways, we experience the love of God.

But then we're going to see, starting in verse number six today, a description of that type of love.

A description of that type of love.

Because to understand love, you have to understand the one who is giving that love.

But you also need to understand the one who is receiving that love.

Now, in this context here In Romans chapter 5, the Bible says that the one who is giving that love is God.

He is giving that love.

Now, who is receiving that love?

Well, we're going to see in verse number six, who is the recipient of this wonderful, perfect love of God.

It says, for when we were yet without strength.

This idea here in verse number six is this.

The ones who are receiving the love of God are the ones who cannot do anything themselves.

They are without strength, they are weak, they are hopeless.

Folks, before we experience the love of God, before we rest in the love of God, before we trust in the love of God, we, the recipients of the love of God, as it says here, are without strength, hopeless.

We cannot accomplish the the things that we want to accomplish in our life.

For when we were without strength, you could put your name in there.

When Josh was without strength, when I was hopeless, when I was helpless, when I could not do anything, when I could not lift up myself.

It says here that is when God demonstrates his love towards us, says, for when we were yet without strength, in due time, at the right time, at the very moment we needed it in due time, Christ died for the Here it is ungodly.

We are the ungodly.

Ungodly means the ones who are in opposition to him, the ones who cannot fulfill his perfect plan.

The one who cannot hold the standard of righteousness.

We humans are the ones who are ungodly.

We are the ones without strength.

And so we, the recipients of God's love, are the ones who are weak, without strength, ungodly.

But yet God, in his love, shows us the sacrifice.

Christ died for the ungodly at the right time.

And then it goes on to explain here that.

That this description of love.

This description of love has a demonstration for scarcely for a righteous man will one die.

Meaning it's rare.

It's rare for someone in this world to die for someone who is a righteous man.

Like, we would all understand, like.

Like if someone was here today and they were a dignitary, they were someone who was important in this world.

Maybe they held political office, or maybe they just had a lot of power because of their money or because of their status.

And they had bodyguards around them.

I don't know if you've ever been to a place where there's bodyguards around someone.

You say, well, who is that person?

Well, why.

Why do they need a bodyguard?

Well, they're.

They're important.

And the reality is, is that there are people who are willing to die for those people.

In many cases, they're getting paid to do it.

But what the Bible says here, in this case is that even if we had a righteous person here, it would be rare for someone to be willing to die for them.

It goes further and says this.

Yet per adventure for a good man, Some would even die.

Dare to die.

Meaning this, that there are some people that we would consider worth dying for, right?

We would agree that there are people that I would say, man, they're worth dying for.

My children are worth dying for.

Not gonna lie to you.

There are very few people that I would, without thinking, jump in front of something and take.

I will take it for them.

I will take their pain.

I will take their suffering.

I told you guys like this last week when.

When Silas was coming out of surgery, I wanted to take that pain.

I was like, if it means for me to be hurt, if it means for me to.

To never talk again, I want my children to be able to have peace and comfort.

So we understand that principle.

We understand dying for someone who is good to us, doing things for us, bringing something to us, whether it be love or gifts or whatever.

But what we can see here is this.

He says, we understand that in our human thinking that someone would die and sacrifice themselves for a good person.

Now we know back, though, who is good.

There is none good.

No, not one.

There is none righteous.

No.

Not one.

So, so he's going to go further.

He says, so verse number eight.

But God.

Now, anytime you see those two words, but God, there's.

There's a shift in thinking.

There's a change in the narrative.

There's.

There's a turn in the story.

We even see this in Ephesians chapter two.

Ephesians, chapter two talks all about how bad we are before we come to God, how.

How limited we are, how we are dead in our sins.

But then it says, but God, who is rich in mercy, shows his love to us.

In this case, it's saying, hey, you know what?

God loves the unlovable God.

God is the one who died for the ungodly.

But guess what?

Here are the ungodly.

And he says, but God commendeth.

That word commendeth really just means to demonstrate.

But God commendeth his love agape to.

Towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The idea would be this.

God sends his only begotten Son to this earth.

Not for people who are good to Him, Not.

Not to people who have proven their love to Him.

The Bible says we love him because.

Because he first loved us.

And the idea would be this.

God did not come to the people that were worth dying for.

You know, some of.

Sometimes.

Sometimes I'm tempted to think this way, that.

That in some degree that I'm worth it, that some degree I earn God's love, that I'm above all the others.

But the Bible says, no, we were not above others.

We are all guilty in our sin and none of us deserve this.

But God proved His love.

He demonstrated his love.

So we have the definition of this type of love.

But here in verse 8, we see the demonstration of this type of love, and that is sacrifice.

John 13.

Excuse me.

John 15.

John 15:13 is a common verse that we talk about when it comes to folks that sacrifice their lives for our country.

Which of course is a wonderful sacrifice that shows wonderful love.

But in the Context of John 15, Jesus is explaining what true love really looks like.

And he says in John 15:13, Greater love hath no man than this, that a man laid down his life for his friends.

Just in the verse right above that, in John 15:12, it says, this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.

And so what does Jesus say?

He says, I love you.

I sacrifice for you.

The way that you show that you understand that, the way that you show that you believe that is that you show that same type of love for those around you.

But again it's the same type of love that God showed to us.

The type of love that God showed to us is not I love those that are good to me, I love those that bring me benefit.

No, what is that?

It means that I love people that don't always do the good things to me.

And we even know that Jesus teaches what we would call a revolutionary concept, that we are not just to love those that love us, but.

But we are to love our enemies.

We are to love those that make our life difficult.

And so when we understand the love of God in our salvation, we are then to live that type of love to others around us.

Jesus says that in John 15, he says, Look, I love you enough to die for you.

I love you enough to sacrifice for you.

Therefore show that to other people.

Live that type of lifestyle.

If you go back a couple chapters In John 13, Jesus says, I'm going to show you what it looks like to love.

It means to serve.

You know the story, Jesus washes the disciples feet and he washes the disciples feet and, and, and we know that two of those disciples, all of them eventually at some point will turn away from him that night to a degree.

But we know that one of those disciples is named Judas, who will betray Jesus.

We know another disciple named Peter will deny Jesus three times.

But yet Jesus shows his love.

He demonstrates his love by washing the disciples feet, by serving them.

And so we're here in Romans chapter 5.

And in the context of salvation, what is he saying?

Well, the description of the love of God is a sacrificial love seen in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins.

The, the demonstration of that would be that we sacrifice, that we serve.

And so it says.

But God commended his love toward us in that while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us.

I used to think about this verse this way and I still do that Jesus, when he was on the cross, in his humanity he was feeling pain and suffering and anguish.

But in his deity he was able to see throughout all of time and know that, hey, you know what?

Josh Massaro is going to sin against me, but yet I'm still willing to die for him.

That's what it says there.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Meaning Jesus understood that we would sin, but yet he continued to go through with what God's plan was for his love for us and sacrifice for us.

What an amazing truth that is.

Go back to this idea that in my life do I truly rest in this type of love?

Do I truly believe that God loved me this much?

Because sometimes if you're like me, you might be tempted to think that maybe God doesn't love me.

Maybe I've done enough.

Maybe I've.

I've gone too far.

Maybe I've taken one step too far.

Maybe it's like the last straw, right?

The straw that broke the camel's back.

Maybe I've done too much.

Maybe I've sinned too much.

Maybe I've gone too far.

Maybe God doesn't love me.

Folks, I'm going to tell you that, number one, God already proved his love for you by dying on the cross for your sins.

He already proved it.

So.

So you don't have to go back and say, well, I wonder if he loves me.

He already proved it.

But it doesn't stop there.

We, we know that John 3:16, a verse that probably most of us have at least heard the reference, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

So, so what do we do when we're tempted to doubt that God loves us?

Now, by the way, I'm talking in the context of a believer here this morning, but if you're a believer here this morning, if you trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Bible says that you are secured in him.

You are sealed by the Spirit.

The love has already been given.

The.

The gift has already been given.

And so therefore nothing that you can do can separate you from the love of God.

If you're tempted to doubt that, read the whole book of Romans, specifically Romans chapter eight.

We're going to get there.

In our study, Romans chapter 8 says that nothing, and I mean nothing, he lists a bunch of things, but nothing can separate us from the love of God.

If you are a child of God, nothing can separate you from his love.

But let me go a little bit further here this morning, because I can't assume that everyone here today is a child of God.

The Bible says that that type of love is reserved for a child of God.

What other person who's not a child of God?

Because that's what's taught in our culture today.

What's taught in our culture today is a different type of love.

Love in our culture today in many forms is this.

I love you, therefore I identify with you, therefore I condone what you're doing.

And therefore I must say that whatever you do is okay.

Now let's take that analogy of my son again, okay?

If I love my son, truly love him, am I going to be okay with anything that he does and affirm anything that he does.

Well, some of you that are parents understand that that would not be a good parenting model.

Because if my son is doing something wrong, I need to love him enough to say no.

I want to help you.

I want to change that.

I want to come into your life and encourage you.

I want to make sure that you're not going down that path of destruction.

So therefore, when we tell people that God loves them, we tell them that he loves them enough to save them.

But he does not love the lifestyle of sin.

He does not love the lifestyle of rebellion.

So an unsaved person cannot claim the same benefits as a child of God.

God corporately loves the world in the fact that he gave the gift, he gave the sacrifice.

But here this morning, many of you understand that we could have a gift for every single person as you leave today.

I could say, hey guys, we got a hundred dollar gift card for you as you head on out today.

Now we do that.

Because now we don't really do that.

Okay.

I saw a commercial recently and someone put out like a false promise on a commercial, and they held them, like, accountable for that.

So, by the way, let me do disclaimer.

Just kidding.

We don't have 100 for everyone at the door, but if we did, you were heading out and we've got these hundred dollar gift cards, and we would say, we have these gift cards because we love you.

Is that true?

Yeah, we love you because we love you.

But if you in the lobby say, well, you know what, I don't need a hundred dollars.

That, that would be disgraceful that I would take your money.

I don't need your money.

And you walk out.

Did you walk out with a hundred dollars?

No.

You rejected that gift, therefore you're not a beneficiary of that gift that was extended to you.

So therefore, you cannot rest in that hundred dollars.

You cannot rest in that grace that Middletown Baptist has extended to you.

You have rejected that gift and you have tried to find your own way to pay for lunch.

And that's what happens when it comes to salvation.

God has the gift of grace extended to all.

But some can reject and some can believe and receive.

And therefore, those that reject cannot claim the same benefits of those that have received.

So what we have to understand here this morning is we are in dire straits.

If we tell the world that God loves you and everything's okay, we can say God loves you, but you need to accept the gift.

There is a call to action.

So What I have to say here this morning is this.

And this isn't necessarily something that everyone loves to hear, but we have to be honest in our love.

The Bible says to speak the truth in love.

So to be loving means to be honest.

Now, it doesn't mean to be combative.

It doesn't mean to be hateful.

It doesn't mean to be aggressive.

All it means is this.

To love someone completely, I must tell them the truth.

And to.

To mirror the love of God to those in the world that need him, we must tell them the truth.

That to be a child of God, which we're going to talk about here in a moment, to be a child of God, you must trust in what he has done for you.

He does not affirm our sinful lifestyle.

God does not celebrate our sin.

And then as Christians, we say, well, God loves me, so therefore he's okay with what I'm doing.

No, go back to that analogy.

If my son says, dad, I'm going to do all these bad things in my life, I don't sit there and go, well, son, I love you, so just have fun.

Just go do it.

Just ruin your life.

No, that's not love.

That's not true love.

And so God's love for the world that we are supposed to be showing to the world means this.

We need to say, I don't condone your sin.

And that goes within the church.

We don't just look at the church and go, well, now that you're saved and now that we know that nothing can separate you from the love of God, just do what you want.

No, Paul's going to address that in Romans 6.

He says, don't continue to sin.

That grace just abounds.

God forbid that.

So what we look at here this morning is this.

We have to properly understand that type of love.

And it means this.

To love somebody that is saved, we point them back to their salvation.

Right?

So.

So if someone's struggling with something in their life, sin, doubt, concern, loss, anxiety, list the struggle.

It could be any struggle.

What do we do in love?

We point them back to what they have in Christ, what they have in Christ.

We say, no, you know what?

Yeah, the situation is pretty bleak.

But if you have Jesus, he's going to get you through it.

I can't.

I can't promise you that everything is going to go smoothly in this.

But Jesus is with you.

So.

So we point the believer who is struggling.

Maybe it's sin.

Maybe, maybe it's a.

It's a sin that they're struggling within a life.

We don't say, well, just keep doing it.

We say, go back to what Jesus has saved you from.

How can you live in what you've been saved from?

So then how do we share that type of love to someone who's not a believer?

Well, it's the same thing.

Instead of pointing to somebody who is saved, we point to the person who is unsaved and say, hey, you need the same thing that that person has that is saved.

Or we always point people back to what the gospel, the same person.

We point to the gospel to give them assurance and peace and strength.

And we point the unsaved person to the gospel so that they can know deliverance, so that they can know forgiveness, so that they can know confidence and hope in Jesus Christ.

So that's what he says here in verse number nine.

So, so we have the definition of this type of love.

We have the demonstration of this type of love.

And here we're going to see the deliverance of this type of love.

What does this type of love bring to the person who is in sin?

Who is the ungodly?

Verse 9.

Much more than.

I love that phrase.

Much more than.

That's the idea that there's.

There's so much more.

There's so much more to this being now justified by his blood, saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

The deliverance is this.

Are saved from God's wrath.

And as we are saved to salvation, we are saved from judgment.

And so therefore I, I know that a lot of people have a problem with this concept, but we have to teach people that there is a problem of sin, there's a payment for sin.

And therefore there is that idea that, hey, you know what?

The payment for sin is either something that you're going to have to pay, which none of us want to have to pay.

The wages of sin.

Because the Bible says in Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So who do we want to pay for our sin?

Well, I can't pay for my sin.

All I can do is bring forth my works.

And my works are like filthy rags, therefore I'm going to be punished, I'm going to be judged.

But what does the Bible say?

That there is someone who paid that payment, and that's Jesus Christ.

The only one who could pay that payment is Jesus Christ.

And therefore we have deliverance through that.

We have deliverance through his sacrifice.

And so much More than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

The idea is this.

We must explain, we must demonstrate, we must live that there is a desperation for salvation in this world.

If we teach everyone that it's okay, you're going to be okay, you're going to find your way.

We're misleading people.

We're misleading people.

What we must do is say there is only one way through Jesus Christ.

You can believe it or not believe it, but the truth in Scripture is that there is one way.

There is one way to salvation, and that is through Jesus Christ and him alone.

Verse 10.

For if when we were enemies, Ephesians 4 says we were enemies of God before we came to Christ.

For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life, meaning this just as much as we were enemies before we came to Christ, we are now so much more reconciled and saved by Him.

The decision point, the point in which is the foundation is the work of Jesus Christ in the Gospel.

The gospel either condemns those who are not believers or affirms those who are believers that you have Jesus Christ and you are.

You are secure.

What is he saying here?

He says, just as much as Jesus's perfection brings us to a place of judgment, so much so that his perfection and his sacrifice brings us to reconciliation.

Reconciliation is a beautiful thing.

As, as hard as it is, some of you that have gone through aspects of reconciliation in your life, when that moment of reconciliation comes, when that restoration comes, it's a beautiful moment.

Why?

Because it's a restoration of what was what was originally supposed to be.

And that's what salvation is.

Salvation is this that God did ordain at the very beginning us to be aligned with him, to be united with Him.

But because of our rebellion, which we're going to see in verse 12 eventually, that because of man's rebellion we have separated ourselves from him and therefore live in a sin curse world.

And we have disease and we have suffering and we have pain, and we have all these things.

But he says at the moment of salvation, we are reconciled back to how we were supposed to be united with him, saved by his life, not our own.

And so that reconciliation is a beautiful moment of uniting with God once again.

That's what salvation is.

Verse 11.

And not only so.

More than that, he says more than reconciliation, more than justification.

He says, there's more, there's more, there's more.

That's.

That's Paul's theme in salvation, Folks, there's more.

There's more than what we believe.

There's more than what we do.

It's.

It's so much more and so much.

I. I believe.

This is my personal Pastor Josh opinion, not Bible opinion.

My personal, personal opinion.

So many people in this world today sell short the beauty of salvation and therefore live a life of bitterness and emptiness and hopelessness within salvation.

Some of you maybe have witnessed that in your life.

You've seen a Christian who doesn't seem to have joy, doesn't seem to have hope, doesn't seem to have any security in their salvation.

Why is that?

He's about to say.

He's about to say why?

And the reality is for many of us as Christians is we say, yeah, I go to church, I pray to prayer, I'm going to heaven, but everything else is just pretty miserable.

And that's actually the opposite of what Paul says about salvation.

He says, now there's so much more.

You had this, you've got this, you've got this.

And so he says here in verse number 11.

And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

How can you joy in God in a world that's pretty broken?

How can you joy in God in the midst of a struggle, in the midst of a trial, in the midst of a world where we say, man, nothing seems right, he tells us there in verse number 11.

It's so simple, he says, and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

He's our sufficiency, he's our hope, he's our peace, he's our love, he's everything.

That's where we find the sufficiency.

If you're looking in your life today and you say, you know what?

I can't find any substance, I can't find any sufficiency.

I feel like I need more.

I'm never satisfied.

I would tell you today, come back to Jesus Christ.

He can fulfill all of that.

He can fill every single, single need that you've ever had in your life.

Every other path will fail.

Every other direction will eventually lead to destruction.

But we see here that he says, you have so much more.

You have the joy of God through Jesus Christ.

How dare we as Christians live a life that lacks joy when he says, this is what you have in him, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Another way you could say that is the reconciliation.

He says, the reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ is all you need.

It's.

It's it's the epitome of joy.

It's the epitome of satisfaction.

It's the epitome of confidence.

And so he says here, hey, understand the love of God.

Why?

Because over and over again in Scripture, it tells us to love God.

From the Old Testament to the New.

The greatest commandment that we could ever have is to love God.

Now, how can we love God unless we understand his love for us?

Because we even know I quoted it before.

We love him because he first loved us.

You cannot love God properly if you don't understand that he loves you.

Then he goes on to say this.

There's this new commandment that I give to you.

To love your neighbor.

To love your neighbor as yourself.

To prove your love for God by loving other people.

So he says, if you understand my love, you can love me.

And if you love me, it will look like loving my neighbor, loving my fellow brother and sister in Christ, loving my enemy, loving that person that frustrates me.

Loving that person that cuts me off in traffic.

Loving that person at work that gets on my last nerve.

And he says, you love them.

Not some people say, what does that mean for me to love them?

I gotta be with them all the time.

I gotta spend all my time with them.

No, what does it just mean?

What we've talked about.

Telling them the truth of their hope in Jesus Christ.

Sacrificing, putting their needs before our own.

That's what love looks like.

And so I'm gonna challenge you here today.

We can't leave today thinking, well, man, I'm so blessed that God loves me.

Now let me just go make everything crazy in my life by getting mad at these people.

No.

The way that we personify the love of God in our life is be the light to those around us.

Matthew 5:16 talks about being the light.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and think you're a good person.

No.

And glorify your Father, which is in heaven.

You say, why should I love that person?

So that people can see Jesus through me, not because they deserve it.

Let me tell you the answer to this.

The answer to why we do what we do.

It's an easy answer.

To glorify God.

Why do.

Why do I need to love someone that's not lovable?

To glorify God?

Why do I need to love God?

To glorify God?

Why do we need to worship to glorify God?

The answer should be to glorify God.

Human beings have achieved purpose.

To praise and to please our Savior.

The Christian life is not about us.

By definition, the Christian life is not about us.

Think about what the word Christian even means.

Little Christ.

It was started there in the church at Antioch because they were modeling their life after Christ.

And they say.

And it was actually a derogatory term, like a negative term towards these people.

They said, you guys are just a bunch of little Christ out there following Jesus.

Would the world actually say that about us today if that term wasn't around?

Would they say that we are like the Christ that's written in scripture, not the Jesus that we've created in this world?

Well, love and sing Kumbaya to everybody because we're all just.

All.

We're all right.

How in the world does that make any sense?

How can everyone be right when we're all contradicting each other?

Well, the person who's the strongest is the.

Is the right.

The person who's the loudest is the rightest.

No, there's one absolute truth.

The Bible says in John 17:17, Sanctify them by thy truth.

Thy word is truth.

This word of God is the truth.

Unapologetically, we must stand upon that.

Because at the moment that crumbles, I can say my way's right, and you can say your ways right, and we all go, hey, everyone's all right.

That's good.

But what if my way completely contradicts your way?

Well, we all can get to heaven the same way.

The Bible says that is not the case.

So what do we do?

We love people because God has told us to love them.

We sacrifice for people because God has sacrificed for us.

Now we're going to talk more as we continue in the Book of Romans about this concept of grace.

Because by the way, the reason why God loves us is because he gives us grace.

I don't deserve his love, but he gives me that gift anyway.

Grace just literally means something given to somebody that they don't deserve.

And so therefore, the love that God gave us is something that we don't deserve.

And then by definition, the love that we are to give other people is love that they don't deserve.

And so that's what we're talking about when we're talking about this idea of the love of God.

Now I need to park on just a few more things, and then we're done.

Okay, we have this idea of the definition of love.

Then.

Then we have the demonstration of love, and then we have the deliverance of love.

But then I want you to just think about this with me.

The the daily, the daily occurrence of the love of God.

Okay, so the daily occurrence of the love of God means this God, yes, he demonstrated his love towards us 2000 plus years ago or around 2000 years ago.

Okay, the idea would be this.

Yes, Jesus demonstrated His love towards us that long ago.

But every day Jesus demonstrates His love towards us by sending us grace and peace and blessings.

Folks, this is an amazing thing that we're going to see later on in Romans chapter 12, that every believer is gifted a gift of, of grace for service for the cause of the kingdom.

We get to be on his team.

He's.

We're not the captain.

He's the captain of the team, but we get an opportunity to be a part of it.

That's the love of Christ.

He doesn't just say, hey, you're on my team now.

Sit back there and be out of this.

You can just live your.

No, he says, I'm with you, Jesus.

Jesus says in the book of Hebrews that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

Folks, it's not just, oh yeah, 2,000 years ago, Jesus showed me his love.

But yeah, no, Jesus demonstrated His love then and continues to demonstrate his love towards us throughout our lives by giving us opportunities of grace to serve and to be a blessing and ultimately to understand that daily he is with us, his presence and his power.

Matthew chap.

Yeah, Matthew, chapter 28.

The very end, at the very end, it's called the Great Commission, is Jesus's last words to his followers before he ascends into heaven.

He says, all power is given unto me.

And then he gives them a command.

The command would be this, to go and make disciples, to teach them, to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

And then he, he, he goes on to say something and he says, and lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the world.

So, so here's what we're going to say.

His command for us are marching orders, so to speak.

It starts with his power and ends with his presence.

You see that?

He says, all power is given unto me.

So he says, what I'm asking you to do, I am the one giving you the power to do it.

And then he says, this is what you do.

Sounds impossible to do it right?

And then he says, but don't worry, I've given you my power and I'm going to be with you through it.

That there is a demonstration of his love.

And so if God is with us, who can be against us?

We're going to read that in Romans, chapter five or eight.

You know, the idea would be this, folks.

We have hope.

We have the love of God.

But what does that mean?

The love of God is not just this passive thing that we just casually, you know, butterflies and rainbows and say everything's okay in this world because God's love.

No, the reality is, is that we have a mission.

We are.

We are in battle.

And the battle is this over good and evil, over truth and lies, over salvation and judgment.

And there's only one institution that God has set up to further that gospel message.

And it's not the government, it's not Hollywood.

It is the church, the pillar and ground of truth.

And if you are a believer and you are attending Middletown Baptist Church, the Bible says that the church is not the building.

The church is the people.

We are not just like the body of Christ.

We.

The Bible says we are the body of Christ in the world today.

And so therefore, we don't just say, well, who am I?

Who?

That's not my job.

My job's not to speak the truth.

That's someone else's job.

When the Great Commission came down, Jesus didn't say, it's just for the pastors and preachers and.

And teachers and deacons and people that are.

No, it's for every believer to be a witness at how God has called you to be a witness.

Not everyone's called to be a preacher, at least a formal preacher behind a pulpit.

But all of us are called to be presenters or proclaimers of the love of Christ in truth to the world.

So I would ask you here this morning, what does the love of God mean to you?

Is it a point in which you can go back to as a place of reference for your hope and your confidence and your strength?

Or is the love of God seem foreign to you that you must have to come to in repentance and faith and believe in so that you can know what it means to be a child of God here this morning.

The gift has been extended.

It's been demonstrated.

I don't need to go through and explain to you all the aspects of Jesus's death on the cross.

It was the most gruesome display of human execution.

It was not a symbol of fashion.

The cross was not a symbol of fashion.

The cross is a symbol of death.

And Jesus says, I'm willing to die for the ungodly.

I'm willing to die for those who are without strength.

Why?

Because I love them.

He did that for you.

And this morning, what is your reaction to that?

Because all of us, no matter where we are at in our spiritual walk, must respond to the love of Christ.

If we are believers, we must go back to that and as the well for our strength and for our hope and for our purpose.

And if we are not believers here this morning, that gift of grace must be the only hope for our salvation.

That is the truth.

Because the truth is this.

When we take our last breath, there's only one of two places that we will be.

And the Bible says two things for the wages of sin.

If I die in my sin, I find my place.

I find myself in a place of death and separation from God in a place called hell.

But then, if I'm a believer, the Bible says absent with the body is present with the Lord here this morning, the challenge is this.

What.

What are you, believer or non believer?

What are you going to do when it comes to the truth of the reconciliation of Jesus Christ and his love for you?

Are you going to trust in that today?

Are you going to trust in that for your strength and your hope and your confidence?

Are you going to trust in that for your salvation?

Here through this service today, I'm going to ask everyone to stand with me, every head bowed, every head closed.

We're going to have a time of invitation.

This isn't a time in which we want to put any pressure on you at all.

But what we want to do is just simply tell you the truth of Jesus Christ.

What does the word of God say?

I know I've said some things that are pretty strong here this morning, but, folks, the reason why I say this is because I can tell you by way of testimony, I am convinced that this is the truth.

And I know that many, most of you that are in this room today believe and are convinced that this is the truth.

But the question would be, do I go back and think about the love of Christ?

Is the love of Christ?

Is the love of God in my life the fuel and the source for my love for others?

Or as the world told me alive, that I believe that love is about me and about what I can get and not about the sacrifice that I can give to somebody else?

Folks, being a Christian, if I can say this in a way that you understand is a messy business.

Sometimes it gets difficult.

Sometimes it doesn't all add up.

But, folks, the love of God does not add up to our human concept because it doesn't make any sense.

But what we do is we believe that God loves us and he calls us to love like him.

And so here this morning, maybe we've been challenged by the message of love and maybe the message of the idea of showing that love.

Maybe here this morning, maybe you've never trusted in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Maybe you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus alone for that reconciliation, for that salvation.

So the Bible says it's very simple to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, to recognize that you are a sinner, to recognize that you have fallen short, to recognize that you are that one without strength.

You are the one that is ungodly.

You are the one that's an enemy of God, whether you know it or not.

The Bible says that if we are in rebellion, we are.

And therefore, do I come to him today to save me, or do I walk in my own strength trying to save myself?

Folks, we've got some folks up here this morning that are standing here that would be willing to show you in the Bible what it means to know Jesus as Savior.

What does it mean to be saved?

Ladies, if you need a lady to talk to you, we would love to point out somebody that you can talk to here today.

But here, for the next few moments, after I'm done praying or even before I'm praying, you can come forward here, kneel the steps and turn your life over to Christ.

Maybe you need to just go back to what he's done for you, to recharge you for that love that he has called you to show to this world.

Lord, I pray that you'd be in this time of invitation, working hearts and lives.

Lord, I pray that you can bring us all back to your love so that we can rest in the truth of the gospel.

Lord, I thank you for your love for me, for your love for us.

Thank you for demonstrating that through the sacrifice of your son Jesus name.

Amen.

As the music plays, follow as the Lord leads here this morning.

Foreign thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.

Com.

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Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.