Sermons of Rob Henderson

Rev. Rob Henderson
Shelby Wesleyan Church
https://www.angelfire.com/mi2/robhenderson/
robnaomi@oceana.net

During the 1996 presidential campaign Bill Clinton and the Democrats slyly took a page from Republican contender Bob Dole’s campaign speech. Bob Dole said that he wanted to build a bridge to the past so that America could understand its roots and know the direction to go into the future. In Bill Clinton’s speech he said that he would build a bridge not to the past but to the 21st Century. He had wittingly trumped his opponent and Bob Dole never recovered.

Whenever I cross a bridge or discuss bridges I cannot help but marvel at the genius of those who knew what to do. When I cross the Mackinac Bridge I am in awe of the construction and the work of the men forty and fifty years ago.

A while back I watched a documentary of the building of the Golden Gate Bridge. Wow! What a great work by human hands. The guys that worked on that back in the thirties had more guts than me (and probably less money). I am just amazed by the construction and the beauty of the many bridges that I have had the opportunity to cross. Blue Water Bridge into Canada, the Rainbow Bridge near Niagara Falls, and many many other unnamed but important bridges.

But the most important bridge that I am so glad to have crossed in my life has been the bridge that Jesus Christ died on some 2000 years ago. When as a 15-year old confused boy I knelt at a District quarterly revival and accepted Jesus into my life. I gave unloaded my guilt and my shame at the base of the bridge and crossed safely into the promised land. Jesus paid it all and made the difference.

John 3:16 is perhaps the most well known scripture verse ever. Within the specific words Jesus clarifies what the gospel is all about. He distinguishes this so-called religion from all other religions in the world by placing God and His love as the central focus. Forms, traditions, and rules are not the focal point. And this morning Iwant to discuss with you God’s Unlimited, Undeniable, Unchangable Love.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

God’s love is unlimited.

His love goes to lengths that only we can scratch the surface of.

Think back to your earliest thoughts as a person. Most likely you were a young child. Think of that one kid in school who always had a knack for causing you endless suffering. For me his name was Kevin Popps. He was the biggest kid and was always making my life miserable in second grade. Then there was Teddy who could beat me up whenever he wanted and in fact did just that one day in third grade. Then there was Curtiss, and Kimbo, and Tom and many others who seemed to find a reason to reach into my life with a little humiliation. Through all of that torture God’s love was close at hand.

As the songwriter once wrote “His love was reaching, touching my life in more ways than I ever knew.”

In a non-christian home God’s love was reaching into my life. There were times when I never gave a second thought about God but God was giving first thoughts about me. I was always on His mind and always within His reach of love.

I am convinced that noone is out of God’s reach of love. I am convinced that there is no one who cannot come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and realize that God loves them.

His love is unlimited because Jesus Christ died on the cross.

“for God so loved the world.”

God’s love is undeniable.

An athiest may deny God exists but he surely cannot deny that God’s love doesn’t exist. An individual may deny God’s love in their life but they cannot deny that God’s love exists. A person may feel that God doesn’t care but they cannot prove that God does not love them. “God demosntrated His own love for us in this: while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”

God’s love is unchangeable.

We must understand and believe that there is nothing that we can do to lose God’s love for us. There is nothing we can do that would make God love us less or love us more. His love for us is unchangeable.

So often I have found Christians attempting to earn God’s love. They deny themselves legitimate activities in the name of suffering for Christ. They create rules or take on the blanket of slef from others and believe that God will keep loving them as long as they do certain things and live a certain way.

I am here to tell you that God loves you where you are and who you are. God’s love is not something we earn; it’s something we are given.

We just have to accept it.

There are three points that I would like to make this morning.

1. God’s love transcends time and space.

I loved how the old show Star Trekk would begin:

“Space: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It’s mission: To go where no man has gone before.”

So often and too often I have seen Christians groveling and grubbing through life not realizing their significance in this world. Their lives are void of accomplishments because they feel as though they cannot accomplish anything. They are continually depressed because they feel worthless and don’t realize how valuable they really are. They ;live in fear because they have forgotten what it is to be loved in a way that goes beyond this world or galaxy.

Let me tell you something: the older I get the more I realize that I am on a starship and I am entering new frontiers with “my hand in the hand of the man who stilled the waters.” As many of you can witness “his love gets sweeter as the years go by.” This is no heaven’s gate thing or some Jim Jones campmeeting in the jungle but this is God’s love reaching into my life because through the work of Jesus Christ. His love truly transcends time and space.

Three scriptures will prove this point to us:

Ephesians 1:4-5 “For He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ.”

God chose you before the creation of the world. Before “In the beginning” God chose you to be adopted through Jesus Christ. Before there was anything there was God. As hard as this is to comprehend, God was not simply always was but God always was, is, and is to come. He chose you before he created the world.

Titus 1:2 “A faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time...”

God chose you before the creation of the world. He also promised you eternal life. You. Me. Everyone. What does John 3:16 say? “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him should not persih but have eternal life.”

He loved you, chose you, and promised eternal life to you before the beginning of time, before the creation of this world and universe and all that is within it.

I Peter 1:18-20 “For you know that it was not with persihable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but revealed in these last times for your sake.”

Jesus was chosen before the creation of the world to suffer and die for you and me so that we might be redeemed. Heavy stuff.

God has proven his love for us. He has shown his love to us. he has chosen to love us. We don’t deserve his love, we cannot earn his love, but we need his love.

We want to be loved by somebody and who better than god?

Secondly, not only does God’s love transcend time and space but

2. God’s love is perfect love.

How can we correlate God’s love with human love? how can we compare God’s love to anything here on earth? We only see through a glass darkly. everything is distorted in some way because of the evil in the world. but one day, Paul tells us, we will see him face to face. One day we will be able to see Him for who he really is and see His love for what it really means.

God’s love give us hope for tomorrow. We don’t need to be wringing our hands because of the future. Just as the Shunammite woman believed that her son would be raised to life so can you have the faith to believe that God will raise your sons and daughters to new life. Hebrews 11:35 is a verse for those of you hurting over the lostness of your loved ones: “Women received back their dead, raised to life again.” We have hope because of his love for us.

God’s love gives us victory over yesterday. Too many Christians are going fishing with Satan everyday. They go down to the docks and begin to reel up the old failures and old sins and the old things that God sunk to the bottom. Satan loves to take you fishing. But God’s love wants you to throw down that pole of condemnation and he wants to put the pole of salvation into your hand so that you can start being a fisher of men not a fisher of sin. We have victory of over yesterday. The past does not need to be a memory that binds you!

God’s love gives us power for today. Despite the oppostion you face at work, and within your family and perhaps even in this community we don’t need to despair because we have “this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed.” God wants to use our circumstances in order to show His power and love in our lives. God’s ;love transcends time and space, God’s love is a perfect love, thirdly

3. God doesn’t need any reason to love us.

God loves us because he chooses to love us. He wants to love us. We have given him no reason to love us.

God doesn’t love us because we are sinners. He hates sin.

God doesn’t love us because he feels sorry for us. God is compassionate but he doesn’t suffer from some Florence Nightingale syndrome.

God doesn’t love us because of what we can do for Him. He didn’t choose me because of my abilities or talents or money.

God chooses to love us because we are created in His image and after His likeness.

He made us. and he wants us.

If you are looking for significance then this is where you will find it. Life begins at the cross. Life grows from the resurrection. Significance happens when we realize that God loves us.