Sermons from Good News: The mission of love

Church 2/10/2024

Offertory scripture:

Jesus is the answer no matter what.

2 Corinthians 9:7-8

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

When you allow God’s Word in your heart it will transform you. Money challenges are really a matter of the heart.

It isn’t about whether your “luck” will change; it’s about God’s grace transforming your life.

Sermon message:

Thesis: The mission of love.

Alternatively, the purpose of love.

Love would not exist in this world without God.

1 John 4:8

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

With God there is love.

Point #1: The mission of love is to create good things.

Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:4

God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.

Genesis 1:12

The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:18

to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:21

So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:25

God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

When God created something at the beginning, it was good. (Before Genesis 3 and the fall of man.)

God creates good things, and love creates good things.

Genesis 1:31

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

Point#2: The mission of love is to instill hope

Genesis 3:15

And I will put enmity

between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

he will crush your head,

and you will strike his heel.”

God instilled hope from the very beginning.

Psalm 119:49

Remember your word to your servant,

for you have given me hope.

1 Timothy 1:1

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

Our hope is in Jesus Christ. We can always give someone hope because of what He was done for us.

Philippians 4:13

I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

God is a good friend and One who gives hope and help.

Point #3: The mission of love is to give life.

Love gives life. Love doesn’t take life; it gives life.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Point #4: The mission of love is to restore.

Love restores. God is a restorer.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

God’s love restores, not condemns.

Luke 4:18-19

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

2 Corinthians 5:18

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: