If God hadn’t wanted to love you He wouldn’t have made you.
Pastor Larry Neville & Pastor Lou Tapia share this message together. Larry is in Tucson, Arizona and Lou is in Rancho Cucamonga.
In the Book of Revelation John saw a New Heaven and a New Earth in the Kingdom age, Which is the Hope of all Christianity.
“He (God) will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” . . . To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment." (Revelation 21:4 NKJV).
It sounds like a dream or a fairy tale. Too good to be true when all we know is a broken world. A world filled with injustice, hurt, pain, sickness, wars and corruption.
The BIBLICAL MESSAGE is that GOD will make EVERYTHING RIGHT! He will right the wrongs. He will balance the books and settle the score. Because, God is good and God is just.
Genesis. 3:1-4, Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
Eve: "God said If we eat we will die".
Lie: “You will not die." In Other words: A loving God will not judge sin.
1. Truth: God is Love
1 John 4:8, He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
His love is the highest expression of who He is.
(1.) God made you to love you.
If God hadn’t wanted to love you He wouldn’t have made you.
There has never been a person born or unborn that God doesn’t love.
Romans 5:8, God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The beauty of this is that He loves you. You may not love yourself. Someone else may not love you but GOD LOVES YOU.
(2.) He wants you to learn to love Him back.
Matthew 22:35-38 NLT, “One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.”
The first purpose of life – to learn to love God back. He has given you the CAPACITY to LOVE HIM. It is in you.
(3.) He wants you to love others.
Matthew 22:39. “A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’’
The measure of a successful human life is not:
How big your house is.
How expensive your car is.
How much money you make.
How famous you are. . .
(1.) Will be how much you love Him,
(2.) How much you love others.
2. We were created to live Forever.
In a loving kingdom of God . . .
Ecclesiastes 3:11: “He has planted eternity in the human heart.”
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 NLT, "For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever."
3. Truth: Heaven is real and Hell is real
When you take the portion of the serpent’s lie to it's fullest: "You will not die"
You believe that there is no punishment for sin. There is no hell. The Loving God will not judge people.
The problem is that it takes a lot of work to make the Bible say there is no hell for people. It takes even more to say everyone goes to heaven.
(1.) The Bible tells us first that there’s a real heaven.
John 14:1-2: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Heaven is a prepared place. Who is heaven prepared for? God is preparing it for you.
Matthew 25:34 NIV, “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.’”
Colossians 3:1 NLT, Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.
(2.) The Bible teaches Hell is also a real place.
Matthew 25:41 NIV, “Then he (God) will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels. It was not Not intended for human beings.
Jesus said, “I’m going to prepare a place for you. It’s called heaven. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.”
If I choose to rebel against God – just like Satan did – I choose to reject God I choose to say, “I’m going to be my own god, I’m going to do what I want to do, be what I want to be, say what I want to say, if I rebel like Satan I go where Satan goes.
But it’s not originally planned for human beings.
4. You get to choose where you’ll spend eternity.
Adam and Eve had a choice. Because of LOVE. God is saying, I want you to love me . .. but you don’t have to.
People say “How could a loving God send people to hell?” God doesn’t send people to hell. People choose to go there.
Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT, I call heaven and earth to speak against you today. I have put in front of you life and death, the good and the curse. So choose life so you and your children after you may live.
Joshua 24:15, “If it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve . . .As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
You have to choose now while you’re alive, not after you’re dead.
5. God’s Love and Forgiveness of sin is a primary focus of the New Testament message.
John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Remember: If God hadn’t wanted to love you He wouldn’t have made you.
Remember: There has never been a person born or unborn that God doesn’t love.
1 John 5:11-12, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; and he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
Until He comes,
Larry