 Good morning. I think this is the most favorite subject of the Bible to tell us about the love of God and in this first session we will think about how much are we loved by the Father, our Heavenly Father. I want to read Jeremiah 31 verse 3 again. The Lord appeared to him and that was to Israel from afar saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness. When we look at the beginning of the Old Testament we find you know the Garden of Aden and Adam and Eve and God having such wonderful fellowship and they experienced God's love. But you know the story, you know when Adam and Eve sinned they were banned from Eden and there was a rift in their relationship with God, a very deep rift. But then when we keep on reading we find shortly after Eden people began to worship their own gods and when we come to the time of the Old Testament and the time of Moses and the time of Israel we read about the many different nations what all they worshiped. You look at the Egyptians there was the Son God and then the God of the now and they had thousands of gods and then the Canaanites where Israel was going to go to their promised land. They had each of these nations had their gods. We read in the Old Testament about Baal and Dagon and Asherah and Moloch. Moloch was a very vicious God. The people had to give him child sacrifices and they the Moloch had his arms stretched out and people would put their babies and their children in his arms and then they would burn them up with fire. Now people had all kinds of ideas about how God is how these gods are and in the New Testament of course in the time of Jesus and their Apostles people worshiped still all kinds of gods. The Greeks we read about Zeus and Hermes and one of them I thought was very interesting Nike was one of their gods the God of victory and then of course the Romans, Jupiter and Mars and Neptune and we know all these different names but now we are living in the 21st century did people get any better? Did they stop worship all these gods? Well when we look around the world and we look about Hinduism there are 330 million gods and goddesses they worship. We look about Buddhism, we look about animism. Of course Islam has one God but it's a different one than the one we know. Then of course we got atheism. What do they worship? They have their God too. It is self, itself worship and then I think the God that is very prevalent in the 21st century is materialism. People's love for money, possessions and entertainment and so on. So we have not stopped worshiping gods. Now in the Old Testament God revealed himself to Abraham and to Moses and to Israel and he revealed himself by different names. We read when God came on the scene he was saying I'm the creator of heaven and earth then he talked to Abraham he said I'm God Almighty and then at other instances when he encountered the different people of Israel he said I'm your defender, I'm your healer, I'm Lord, I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Another time he said I am your provider, I'm the holy one of Israel and in between all this he said he's our father. We read that in Isaiah 63, 16. Though, oh Lord, our father, our redeemer of old is thy name. So why did God introduce himself with so many different names? Why he didn't just choose one name? Actually names in the Bible times were very very important. My parents gave me the name Gisela not because it was an important name but I think it sounded good with together was my last name. But in the Bible it was different. You know people would give a name to a baby when they looked at it and he had some maybe distinct looks like Isau. Isau means Harry. The baby was all Harry. So he goes through life was I'm Harry and then they gave names to describe the character. Now there was Jacob. His name was Surplander or deceiver. Just imagine when Jacob was 18 years old and he wanted to open a bank account at the local bank and they say can you give us your name and he says my name is deceiver. That would be a setback. And then some events happened when a baby was born and so people gave the baby a name to mark that event. You remember Eli's sons the priest. They were killed in battle and he's one of his daughter-in-law was about to have a baby and when the news came she gave birth to a baby and she died and she called him Ichabod. Where is the glory or the glory has departed. The Ark of the Covenant had been taken by the enemies and her husband killed and Israel defeated. So this baby ended up with that name. And then people got names for great deeds they performed or expectations or prophecies like they named Jesus Emmanuel. Sometimes names were changed for some reason like Abraham was exalted father and when God changed his name to father of multitudes and Jacob they changed his name. God changed his name to Israel instead of deceiver he became Prince with God. And sometimes a name was added in order to give additional information about the person. When Jesus got his disciples you know the 12 apostles or future apostles he had two of them that were pretty impulsive and he called James and John sons of thunder. Imagine Jesus looks at you and calls you daughter of thunder. Now when you heard someone's name you immediately learned a lot who that person was just by listening to the name. It was actually people's resume or people's reputation was their name. When God told his name to the people of Israel I am your provider I'm your healer I'm your Lord. It actually meant he revealed his nature who he is. This each name the people of Israel learned they found more out about who God really is. What is his nature. Now in this session we want to look at the name father a little bit. It says our father Psalm 103 verse 13 says just as a father has compassion on his children so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Now when we look at God's name we find that it distinguishes him from all other gods. There is no other one that is creator of heaven and earth and there is no other savior. God says that so many times in the Old Testament there is no other savior. Now there is one name of God in the Old Testament we usually don't look for until we come to the New Testament and that is love. God is love. You know the picture we have of the God of the Old Testament is actually the picture the Israelites had at Mount Sinai. When they came to Mount Sinai Moses said God want to meet with you. And so God came down and we read in Exodus 19 16 verse 18 what kind of impression they had about God. It says there there were thunder and lightning flashes and a sick cloud upon the mountain in the very loud trumpet sound so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in fire and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace and the whole mountain quaked violently. In Deuteronomy 4 verse 24 we read what the people said for the Lord your God is a consuming fire. That was the impression of God. Actually one wrong move and you are dead at that time. We see the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. They got sapped when they went into the top knuckle and they were going to bring some offering and they used a different fire than what God had prescribed and they fell dead. So at Mount Sinai the revelation of God's was absolute righteousness and absolute holiness. And the Israelites learned they could not get away with any kind of sin. God could not overlook it. In order to stay alive they needed to bring a sacrifice for their sin. And that experience pointed them forward to the cross. When Jesus the Lamb of God would die for the sin of all humanity. But then there was another occasion besides Mount Sinai. There was an occasion when God himself introduced himself to Moses. Moses wanted to get to know the Lord little closer. He said I really want to see you. And God said well you can't see my face but you can see me from my back. And I will pass in front of you and declare my name. Now we just said names were so important. God was saying I declare to you I show you exactly who I am. And so Moses was standing at the cleft of the rock and the Lord passed by and then God was telling Moses his name. And he said the Lord the Lord God compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth. And then he added a lot of other things to it. But he said my nature my name who I am is loving kindness abounding in loving kindness. Love is my name. Now we see quite a lot of promises in the Old Testament where God says to Israel that he will love them. Deuteronomy 713. And he will love you and bless you and multiply you. And then Hosea 144 we read. Then God says I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely. And then we have a lot of testimony from different people in the Old Testament where God where they testify. Yes God loves us. We read from the exiles that returned for he is good. His loving kindness is upon Israel forever. They said that out of the experience they had with God. And David was saying because thy loving kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee. Psalm 63 verse 3. And then he says also in Psalm 86 15 but though O Lord are a God abounding in loving kindness. We read in Psalm 89 verse 1 I will sing of the loving kindness of the Lord forever. And on and on we read in the Psalms that God's loving kindness God's love is great. Now the New Testament and that is the time we live in. Of course we live a little bit further down but we live after the cross. It confirms what the Old Testament says about God's love. The Apostle John wrote the one who does not love God does not know God for God is love. 1st John 4.8 1st John 4.16 and we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love. Now that means the very nature of the very nature is love and he always God always acts in accordance with his nature. We need to remember that. God's very nature is love and he always acts in according with that nature. He never departs from that. Now we found out God is love but how much exactly does our father love us? Do you know is there a limit? Well we can look in the scripture and see how much does God love us. God our Father. Well he loved us so much that he created us into his image. We read that in the first page of the Bible Genesis 1.27 to have fellowship with him forever and then he loved us so much that he didn't abandon us in Eden. You know when Adam sinned God could have easily walked away from mankind. After all when the angels fell and rebelled he gave them up. He didn't go after them but God loved us so much that he came looking for us. You know God didn't stay away from Adam and Eve. He came and he said where are you? Where are you? I'm looking for you. I need to find you. He loved us so much that he didn't annihilate us in the flood. You remember mankind became verse and verse and God had to stop them and send Noah's flood but he didn't cut off mankind completely. He loved us so much he started over with Noah and then he loved us so much that he didn't leave us in spiritual darkness. You know it got darker and darker and darker the more mankind went away from God but then he gave us his word. In Psalm 119 verse 105 says, thy word is a lamp to my feet in the light to my path. And then God the Father loved us so much that he gave us a promise he told Adam and Eve one day the seed of the woman the Messiah will come. There will be a savior for you and then we have the promise of Emmanuel will come Isaiah 714 and ever since mankind was waiting for this Messiah to come and then God loved us so much that he sent Jesus to be our savior John 3 16 for God so loved the world that he gave. He gave the best he could and he laid the sin of the whole world on the Lord Jesus and imagine he loved us so much that he watched Jesus suffer and die the most cruel best you can imagine. I I just think that most of you saw the film by Mel Gibson the passion of the Christ God the Father loved us so much that he didn't stop in the middle and said I can't take it any longer I can't watch my son suffer that bad he didn't stop them with the scorching and the crucifixion and he loved us so much that he turned his face away from Jesus when he was hanging at the cross and he loved us so much that he raised Jesus from the death so we will have hope. This is how much the Father loves us. Now what about how much does Jesus love us? Well the Bible says he loved us so much that he decided to become our savior even before the foundation of the earth. We read that in 1 Peter 1 verse 20 imagine that before God ever created the earth and Adam and Eve Jesus already volunteered and said I will love them so much that if they sin and he knew they would I will die for them that much he loved us and then he loved us so much that he came and lived among us he tasted our lives he tasted our struggles and he tasted our agony and our pain we read John 1 14 and the word became flesh and twirled among us Philippians 2 7 and 8 he emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient until death even death on the cross and then he loved us so much that he suffered and died for us while we were still sinners you read that in Romans 5 8 that was before any of us showed even one sign of repentance and then he loved us so much that he saves us when we call upon his name in faith whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved Romans 10 13 and he loves us so much that he remembers our sin no more he forgives us and remembers what we did no more he proves 8 12 I could go on for another half an hour telling you how much he loves us he loves us so much that he gave us the Holy Spirit to teach and guide and empower us he loves us so much that he cleanses us continually of all unrighteousness and he doesn't give up when we fail you remember how badly Peter failed he went after him he restored him he loves us so much that he carries all our burdens and our fears you read that first Peter 5 7 he loves us so much that he gave us a whole book full of promises and he loves us so much that he said I'm always with you till the end of the age Matthew 28 20 and he loves us so much that he said I will come again and I will receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also John 14 3 this is how much God the Father and Jesus loves us and actually when we look at the love of the Father and the love of Jesus we find that both are identical there is no difference between the love of the Father and the love of Jesus Jesus said he who has seen me has seen the Father John 14 verse 9 and then Hebrews 1 3 and he's the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his nature he exactly represents the love of the Father he has for you the love of the Father has become visible for us in Jesus and the love of Jesus and the love of the Father are one and the same now God has given us a detail description of his love for us how that love looks like he wants us to be at peace and not tremble like the people in the old testament that was before there was the cross they had to tremble but we don't have to tremble now more and so he describes his love for us the divine love and we read that in 1st Corinthians 13 verse 8 love is patient love is kind and is not jealous love does not break and is not arrogant does not act unbecomingly it does not seek its own it's not provoked does not take into account a wrong suffered does not rejoice in unrighteousness think about it we can say the Father is patient the Father is kind the Father does not take into account a wrong suffered or we can say about Jesus love is patient love is kind this is the description of how God loves us I think we are the most privileged people on earth that we get to worship a God of love when you look into some of the other religions like we find in Hinduism you know their gods are different than our God and it depends how high you are in the caste system you know if you are a high caste person God loves you more and if you are lower he loves you less and then if you are all the way on the bottom like the untouchables I think you heard about them the untouchables the Dalits there are about 300 million of them they are taught from birth God hates you they are at the very bottom God hates you that is a child grows up being taught God hates you and therefore they can't walk on the same path like a high caste person they can't live in the same section of town they are not allowed to draw even water from the same well when they go to the temple to worship they have to stand from afar they can't even come close even their very shadow defiles someone if their shadow falls onto someone that is from higher caste that person will get defiled just by the very presence they only can do the lowest of the lowest jobs like cleaning the latrines disposing of dead animals sweeping the dirt most of them are illiterate bonded laborers terrible poverty despised rejected hated exploited they have no value now I want you to understand that you know the law says in the country everybody is equal but the practice is not and even if they get educated and all they never can change their caste and among them are about 15 million child laborers now at gospel for asia we have child sponsorships where we educate these young people sent them to school and these children have will have a future and we also shared the love of christ wisdom just imagine a little child that was taught from birth god hates you and all of a sudden he hears about Jesus loves you and he even died for you and he wants you to come close to him it is incredible news for these people there is a god that loves us a god that wants us and these little children go home and they tell their parents guess what I know of a god that says he loves all of us now we just studied a little bit that god loves us and we studied how much does he love us but does god ever withdraw his love from us you know like people do all the time you know when we don't meet their expectations you know for example maybe there is a candidate out there he will take a four election and he will sponsor your lunch and give you tickets to the ball game if you vote for them but if you don't vote for them you'll you are history he won't love you anymore so what about god does he ever withdraw his love from us for instance if we don't listen to his word does he still love us or if we are not careful and we fall into Satan's traps does he still love us if we disobey him if we betray him with our mouths and our actions does he still love us if we are weak and we fall into temptation does he still love us if we sin and bring dishonor to his name does he still love us if we go astray if we mess up our life does he still love us you know Christmas is coming up and there is Santa Claus and Santa Claus got a nice list and a naughty list if you are on the nice list you get presents and if you are on the naughty list he don't get nothing you know I grew up in Germany and we put our shoes out you know and Santa Claus comes in the night and he fills your shoes with chocolates and nuts and some nice things and if you wasn't good you didn't get any nice things you got a switch and you got some coals in your shoe but what about god does he have a nice and a naughty list as well you know we were told as children you know god loves little girls that eat their spinach that don't spill the milk and that go to sleep without making trouble so we got the message god loves us as long as we are good and he doesn't love us when we are bad now we need to look in the bible to see if that's true you know Jesus knew we all will fail in one or all of these areas we talked about and we were wondering you know he saw and experienced our weaknesses and failures firsthand that chosen people of god you know they broke his covenant a thousand times they made a golden calf they murmured they disobeyed they didn't believe they sinned they walked away they went astray and then Jesus experienced his own disciples how often they failed they misunderstood what he was doing Peter said the wrong things at the wrong time James and John want to call fire from heaven for those that didn't want to listen to Jesus they often lacked faith they all fled when he was arrested and betrayed so even after the Holy Spirit came Christ's followers were still not perfect you know Peter acted hypocritical there in Antioch Paul was unmerciful to Mark he didn't give him a second chance and then he got in a fight with Barnabas and the Corinthians you know they used the gifts of the spirit in the wrong way they tolerated sin in the church they didn't respect the Lord's supper the Galatians went from grace back to law and the Cretans had problems with lying and laziness so Jesus knows all that so so how do we know for sure that God still loves them and us after we mess up so badly how do we know we know it by God's reaction to our failures did you know that we know that God still loves us by how he reacts to our failures he cares and doesn't just let us go our merry way to destruction instead he corrects and disciplines us diligently like a father we read in the new testament that he disciplines out us out of love with hope and faith and with instructions I want to read you a couple of verses Proverbs 3 11 12 my son do not reject the discipline of the Lord or those his reproof for whom the Lord loves he reproofs even as a father in the son in whom he delights not the son whom he hates but the son whom he loves he disciplines diligently for those whom the Lord loves he disciplines and he scorches every son he receives he proves 12 6 and Revelation 3 19 those whom I love I reproof and discipline I remember we used to teach our children and when they messed up you know we had to discipline them and my little daughter was maybe three years old and after she got her spanking she was sitting in her room and she was so sad and usually after a few minutes we will go and talk with them and pray with them and hug them and say we love you and always well so my husband was about to go there and he saw our little son he was a few years older than Sarah he he was sitting with her on the bed and she was crying and our son was explaining to her Sarah he said do you know why daddy spanked you and then he said he spanked you because he loved you our children learned that we spanked them because we love them because we care for them and then God's word says he proves 12 10 verse 11 he disciplines us for our good that we may share his holiness all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful yet to those who have been trained by it afterwards it leads the peaceful fruit of righteousness that means God disciplines us not only out of love but this our future in mind I remember when I was maybe six or seven we had uh well our piece of land was where our house stood was next to a farmer's orchard and one day I went out and my cousin was with me and we saw some fruit laying on the ground in the farmer's orchard so my mom wasn't around no one else was around so I took a pair and I ate it but I didn't realize my mom was looking out the window and when I came home she loved me so much that that she spanked me uh this is spanking that I never forgot my life it cured me for life about not taking anything from anyone God discipline God disciplines us to cure us with our future in mind you know discipline and correction for a child of God is the surest proof of the believer that he is loved by God you know sometimes we think God hates us because he spanks us and because he doesn't let us get away with anything but the surest proof that God loves you dear sisters is when he disciplines you you can actually rejoice when you get a spanking by God he cares so much for you he loves you so much that he don't let you go away and then we know that God still loves us when we mess up because what Jesus told us about the father Jesus told us a parable the prodigal son to teach us how God will react when we totally mess up now we read it in Luke 15 11 through 24 the son leaves home and squanders all his inheritance ends up with the pigs the father's heart is grieved but he still loves him and then the father waits and looks and when he sees him return in racks he feels compassion for him because he still loves him and when he sees him from afar he meets him he runs and embraces and kisses him because he still loves him and then he restores him fully and he puts on a celebration because he never stopped loving him Jesus told us this parable so we would know that God never stops loving us however bad we mess up and then the third thing from what we know that God still loves us after we done all kinds of wrong things is the promises he put in his eternal word lamentation 3 22 through 23 the Lord's loving kindness indeed never sees for his compassion never fail never is never you know this morning you woke up to God's loving kindness not to his disappointment about you did you know that we often wake up in the morning and the first thing our failures come to mind but not so this God each morning you wake up to his loving kindness Romans 8 35 38 and 39 who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulations or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword for I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come no powers no height nor death nor any created things not even yourself shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord do you know what that means his love remains unchanged no matter what we face or how we perform in our struggles his love is everlasting because he is everlasting and his love is the most secure place for us in this whole universe if you are not sure if God loves you look at the cross the price he paid is equal to the love he has for you and you as a believer if you are not sure if he still loves you check out if he still disciplines you if he still corrects you through his word and if you find he does rejoice he still loves you his love is never ending he says I have loved you with an everlasting love therefore I have drawn you this loving kindness shall we pray Lord Jesus we are so glad that you are a god who loves us and who is love thank you for the discipline thank you that you have our future in mind thank you for the price you paid for us at the cross you proved your love so many times to us Lord we pray that you help us to receive it and balk every day in your love and thank you that your love is everlasting amen