Embracing Love and Hope Amidst Grief

 

Summary

In today's gathering, we took a moment to honor the life and legacy of Norma Walters, a cherished member of our church community who recently passed away. Norma was a spiritual giant, a prayer warrior, and a beacon of faith for many. Her life exemplified what it means to live faithfully and walk with the Lord. While we mourn her loss, we also celebrate her transition to eternal life with God, where she is now worshiping in His presence. This duality of grief and hope is a profound reminder of the Christian promise of eternal life.

As we continue our Advent series, we focused on the theme of love, exploring the complexities of receiving and giving love. Many of us struggle to open our hearts to love due to past wounds, feelings of unworthiness, or fear of rejection. These barriers can hinder our relationships with others and with God. However, the love of God, as demonstrated through Jesus, offers healing and restoration. God's love is not just a concept to be understood intellectually but an experience to be felt deeply. Through Jesus' sacrifice, we are invited to experience God's love in a transformative way that can heal our deepest wounds and reshape our understanding of worthiness and acceptance.

In 1 John 4, we are reminded that God's love was made manifest through Jesus, who came to earth to demonstrate the depth of God's love for us. This love is not contingent on our actions or worthiness but is a gift freely given. By embracing this love, we can overcome our fears and insecurities, allowing God's love to flow through us and into our relationships with others. As we open ourselves to this divine love, we are called to let it transform us, enabling us to love others more fully and authentically.

Key Takeaways:

1. Grieving with Hope: While we mourn the loss of loved ones like Norma Walters, we hold onto the hope of eternal life. This hope is rooted in the belief that our loved ones are in the presence of the Lord, worshiping Him. This duality of grief and hope is a testament to the Christian promise of eternal life. [19:31]

2. Barriers to Receiving Love: Many struggle to receive love due to past wounds, feelings of unworthiness, or fear of rejection. These barriers can hinder our relationships with others and with God. Recognizing and addressing these barriers is crucial for experiencing the fullness of love. [40:16]

3. God's Love Manifested in Jesus: God's love was made manifest through Jesus, who came to earth to demonstrate the depth of God's love for us. This love is not contingent on our actions or worthiness but is a gift freely given. Embracing this love can heal our deepest wounds. [46:57]

4. Experiencing God's Love: God's love is not just a concept to be understood intellectually but an experience to be felt deeply. Through the Holy Spirit, we can have continued experiences of God's love, which can transform our hearts and lives. [01:08:50]

5. Opening to Divine Love: By opening ourselves to God's love, we can overcome our fears and insecurities, allowing His love to flow through us and into our relationships with others. This transformative love enables us to love others more fully and authentically. [01:10:20]

Youtube Chapters:

- [00:00] - Welcome
- [19:31] - Honoring Norma Walters
- [36:25] - Advent Series: Love
- [38:28] - The Struggle to Receive Love
- [40:16] - Barriers to Love
- [41:20] - Vulnerability and Trust
- [42:28] - Feelings of Unworthiness
- [44:00] - Fear of Rejection
- [45:29] - God's Love Manifested
- [46:57] - Experiencing God's Love
- [49:14] - Practical Examples of God's Love
- [50:48] - Misunderstanding God
- [51:56] - God's Anger and Love
- [54:26] - Propitiation and Redemption
- [55:53] - A Father's Love
- [57:29] - Healing Through Redemption
- [01:02:01] - Adoption and Acceptance
- [01:10:20] - Opening to Divine Love
- [01:14:11] - Worship and Response

Study Guide

Bible Study Discussion Guide

Bible Reading:
- 1 John 4:9-10
- Romans 5:5
- Ephesians 1:7

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Observation Questions:

1. How does 1 John 4:9 describe the manifestation of God's love among us? What does this reveal about the nature of God's love? [46:57]

2. According to the sermon, what are some barriers that prevent people from receiving love? [40:16]

3. In Romans 5:5, how is God's love poured into our hearts, and what role does the Holy Spirit play in this process? [01:08:50]

4. What examples from the sermon illustrate the struggle to receive love due to past wounds or feelings of unworthiness? [45:29]

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Interpretation Questions:

1. How does the concept of propitiation in 1 John 4:10 help reshape our understanding of God's anger and love? [54:26]

2. In what ways does the sermon suggest that God's love can heal feelings of unworthiness and rejection? [57:29]

3. How does the sermon describe the transformative power of experiencing God's love through the Holy Spirit? [01:10:20]

4. What does the sermon imply about the relationship between understanding God's love intellectually and experiencing it emotionally? [01:08:50]

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Application Questions:

1. Reflect on a time when you struggled to receive love due to past experiences. How can you begin to address these barriers in light of God's unconditional love? [40:16]

2. The sermon discusses the duality of grief and hope in the Christian promise of eternal life. How can this perspective influence the way you handle personal losses? [19:31]

3. Consider the ways you might have a skewed view of God due to past experiences. How can you actively work to reshape this view through prayer and scripture? [50:48]

4. Identify a specific area in your life where you feel unworthy of love. How can embracing God's redemption help you overcome these feelings? [57:29]

5. The sermon encourages opening oneself to God's love through the Holy Spirit. What practical steps can you take this week to invite more of God's love into your life? [01:10:20]

6. How can you apply the understanding of God's love as a gift freely given to improve your relationships with others? [46:57]

7. Reflect on the role of worship in experiencing God's love. How can you incorporate worship into your daily routine to deepen your relationship with God? [01:12:16]

Devotional

Day 1: Grieving with Hope: Embracing Eternal Life
In the face of loss, Christians are called to navigate the duality of grief and hope. The passing of a loved one, like Norma Walters, reminds us of the Christian promise of eternal life. While we mourn the absence of those we cherish, we also celebrate their transition to eternal life with God. This hope is not a denial of our sorrow but a profound assurance that our loved ones are in the presence of the Lord, worshiping Him. It is a testament to the belief that death is not the end but a passage to a new beginning. [19:31]

"For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Corinthians 5:1, ESV)

Reflection: How can you hold onto the hope of eternal life while grieving the loss of a loved one today?


Day 2: Overcoming Barriers to Receiving Love
Many people struggle to receive love due to past wounds, feelings of unworthiness, or fear of rejection. These barriers can significantly hinder our relationships with others and with God. Recognizing these obstacles is the first step toward healing. By acknowledging the pain and insecurities that prevent us from opening our hearts, we can begin to address them. God's love, as demonstrated through Jesus, offers healing and restoration, inviting us to experience love in its fullness. [40:16]

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." (Isaiah 43:1, ESV)

Reflection: What past wounds or fears are preventing you from fully receiving love today, and how can you begin to address them with God's help?


Day 3: God's Love Manifested in Jesus
God's love was made manifest through Jesus, who came to earth to demonstrate the depth of God's love for humanity. This love is not contingent on our actions or worthiness but is a gift freely given. Embracing this love can heal our deepest wounds and reshape our understanding of worthiness and acceptance. By accepting this divine love, we are invited to let it transform us, enabling us to love others more fully and authentically. [46:57]

"In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him." (1 John 4:9, ESV)

Reflection: How can you embrace the unconditional love of God today, allowing it to heal and transform your heart?


Day 4: Experiencing God's Love Deeply
God's love is not just a concept to be understood intellectually but an experience to be felt deeply. Through the Holy Spirit, we can have continued experiences of God's love, which can transform our hearts and lives. This transformative love invites us to move beyond intellectual understanding to a heartfelt experience that reshapes our lives. By opening ourselves to this divine love, we can overcome our fears and insecurities, allowing His love to flow through us and into our relationships with others. [01:08:50]

"And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Romans 5:5, ESV)

Reflection: In what ways can you open your heart to experience God's love more deeply today?


Day 5: Opening to Divine Love
By opening ourselves to God's love, we can overcome our fears and insecurities, allowing His love to flow through us and into our relationships with others. This transformative love enables us to love others more fully and authentically. It calls us to let go of the barriers that hold us back and to embrace the fullness of love that God offers. As we do so, we become conduits of His love, impacting the lives of those around us in profound ways. [01:10:20]

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:11, ESV)

Reflection: Who in your life needs to experience God's love through you today, and how can you intentionally show them this love?

Quotes



"God you know the you know through your time on earth Jesus what it feels like to lose and to have a loved one go on and so Lord we praise you for that because you understand what it means to grieve and to mourn we praise you because you understand what it means to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and I pray that over and out of your abundant resources of love and peace and goodness that you would pour that out on the Walters home and the family that they would sense just an overwhelming sense of of comfort this morning as if your arms are surrounding them and caring for them I pray that you would fill them with a peace that surpasses understanding I pray for our church family for those that are that are walking this road who have lost a friend or a mentor I pray Lord that you would bind us up by the goodness of your presence even this morning and that you would begin to to walk us through that process of mourning in the way that only you can, Lord. You heal in these times. You heal the heart. And so we're asking that you would do that for our church." [00:17:11] (88 seconds)


"For most of my life, it was difficult for me to open up to love from my family or from my friends or really from anybody who ever got close to me. And so for most of my life, I've kept my guard up. I've held people at arm's length and struggled to accept it. And I think for many of us in this room, I'm probably not alone. I think for many of us, we struggle to receive love. It's difficult for us to open up. And in fact, it's probably because of the world that we live in. In this world, it's so broken that from an early age, many of us experience moments where someone close to us, maybe a mom or a dad, maybe a sibling, maybe a friend at school, that we open ourselves up to them. And in that moment, they betrayed us. Or abused us. Or neglected us. And it didn't have to be just a big T trauma. It could have been a small thing. But in that moment, it changed our heart." [00:39:14] (62 seconds)


"See, we get these wounds on our hearts. And over the course of time, those wounds, what they do is they'll callous over and they'll harden into a scar. And when that happens, we become a person that has a lesser capacity to receive love from others. And so we push them away. We hold people emotionally and physically at arm's length and we close off. And so I want to, for a moment, just take a minute and just ask a few questions. Just a little test here to sort of explore this idea. If maybe it's possible that you have closed off your heart to love in some way. So these questions are not all encompassing. They're really just an opportunity for us. Maybe for God to reveal our inner life as we work through them. And so if you'll sort of walk through this with me on the screen. Do you struggle to receive love? So our first question is this. Is it hard to be vulnerable with other people?" [00:40:53] (51 seconds)


"See, love is available to us, and it's this beautiful, beautiful thing that can heal us. And I think for some of us, it's hard to receive love because, well, I'll give us three reasons this morning. Number one, I think sometimes we have a skewed view of the person that's trying to love us. We associate them with somebody else that hurt us in the past. And so we think they're going to hurt me like my mom did. Or they're going to pour out anger at me. Or they're going to pour out anger on me like my dad did. Or they're going to destroy me like that other person did. Or this person just wants to use me. Other people have used me. They just want to use me. And so they don't really want to love me. They just want to get close so they can get something from me. And so we have this skewed view of somebody, and we put this barrier up between us and them. Number two, sometimes it's difficult to receive love because we're afraid that we'll be rejected again." [00:44:00] (48 seconds)


"In 1 John 4, 9 it says this, it says, In this the love of God was made manifest among us. I love this because in the Greek the word manifest is phanerao. And this word actually means to make something appear, to make it known. To reveal it to people so that they can truly understand it. And so John says God has made His love known to us. There's something that He's done. So that we can know His love. We can experience His love. And it can open our hearts to Him and maybe even find some healing. And so John writes this. How has this love been made known? Here's what he says. In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Very simple reality. It's going to lead us into where we're headed this morning. Jesus is the manifestation of God's love to us." [00:47:33] (48 seconds)


"And so when we see in Jesus' ministry on the earth, when we read it in the scriptures, when He's healing. When He's helping people. When He's saving people. When He's protecting people. It's a picture for us of God's love. It gives us an image of what God wants to give us in His love. And so we, in our life, all we've really seen are counterfeits of love. We've seen these broken vessels of love all around us. We've experienced it. And yet God's love comes in. And He asks us, will you just trust me? Will you open my heart to this love? Because if you do, there can be healing here. If we would just take the risk to receive love from Him, He could change our hearts in ways that we never could have known if we would let Him in." [00:48:21] (46 seconds)


"Many of us will push God's love away because we think, I'm unworthy of it. Like, why would God want me to be unworthy of it? I mean, he's seen my life. I've done a bunch of dark things. I've destroyed relationships. I've done a lot of bad around me. I've hurt a lot of people. Why would God possibly want me? Like, why would God want me in any way? I'm damaged goods. God, I'm not worth much. Sure, he could love that guy that I see sitting across the room. He does everything right. He could love that woman. She's perfect. Why would he love me? I'm not worthy of him. And so in our shame, we actually push God away in our self -driven guilt. We push God away because we have these feelings of unworthiness, and we hold him at arm's length. We tell him, God, I'm not worthy of love. But I want to ask you a question. Did you know that the worth of something is actually determined by what someone is willing to pay for it?" [00:57:49] (49 seconds)


"Before you have a relationship with God, the Bible is very clear that it teaches that you're a slave to sin. You're in bondage to the darkness. We're hopelessly captive to the enemy. And yet in Ephesians 1, it says this, in Jesus, we have redemption. This is a word that means to buy back, to purchase back somebody. In Jesus, we are bought back through his blood by the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished upon us. It's this word picture that we're getting here. It's as if we're stuck in a dingy, dark place, and we're surrounded by guards, and we're never going to get out. And yet Jesus comes in, and what he does is he pays for our freedom. He pays for our deliverance with his life." [01:00:37] (46 seconds)


"Internally, some of us have a feeling that God's going to reject us. Maybe for you, people have been leaving all your life, and you think, man, if God really knew me, if he knew my past mistakes, if he knew what I'm currently struggling with, if he knew the real me, at some point, God would reject me because he would find out who I really am. And so you try to do religious things to cover that up, and you try to do the right things in order to find out who I really am. And so you try to do religious things to cover that up, and you try to do the right things in order to prove something to God, to perform for him. And you think, I got to prove that I deserve his love. If I can just obey enough, if I can just say the right things, if I can just do a bunch of Bible studies, or go on missions trips, or do activities at the church, or if I can just guilt myself enough after sin, or if I can just put on the right facade at church, or if I can just learn all the right theology, or know all of the right things, then God can possibly think I deserve to be loved. Then I can put myself in God's favor, so that he won't reject me. But I want you to see that that's actually not love. What you're saying to God is, if I do all of the right things, God, then you have to accept me. If I live by some sort of standard of obedience, then you can't reject me. But that's not love, that's a business deal." [01:02:38] (68 seconds)


"In Romans 5, it tells us how. It says this. God's love has been poured into our hearts. We'll come back to that phrase. Through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. When you become a follower of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells you. And with that comes the love of God. And in this verse, there's actually two tenses. You're going to see a tense here. The Holy Spirit is given to you once, and you have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit from that time on. It's never taken away. He's there in you. The tense before that talks about being poured into our heart. This is a different tense that is, it's active. It happened once, but it can happen over and over and over and over again. And so Paul in Romans is saying, he's saying you can have continued experiences poured out into your heart of the love of God into your life in a way that you know it, not just with your mind, but with every part of your being. The love of God can flow out of God through his Holy Spirit into you." [01:09:26] (69 seconds)


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Transcript
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