The One Jesus Loves: Living Rooted in Love

God’s own self-revelation drives the whole call: God is not distant, moody, or ashamed. God is love. John says it straight. This is love, not that humans loved God, but that God loved and sent the Son. That love is not an add-on after moral clean up. That love is the engine, the origin, the home. The Spirit does not recruit performers with full heads and hard hearts. The Spirit seizes people by the power of a great affection and makes them alive.

Jesus shows what the Father is like. There is no split screen where Jesus is soft and the Father is stern. Hebrews calls the Son the exact representation of God’s being; Paul says all the fullness of deity lives in him. So the face that leans toward sinners, touches lepers, clothes the naked demoniac, and calls the unclean “daughter” is the Father’s face. The disciple whom Jesus loved got it and dared to live inside that identity.

Exodus 34 anchors the picture. When Yahweh proclaims the Name, he does not lead with scolding. Yahweh, Yahweh, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in hesed and emet. Grace gives undeserved favor, so Legion becomes a missionary. Compassion moves like a parent’s womb-love, so a widow’s grief stops Jesus in his tracks and a bleeding woman hears the word daughter. Slowness to anger protects the vulnerable. Hesed and emet hold fast when shame says run.

The mental image of God shapes life more than most admit. If God’s face is imagined as annoyed, people hide. If it is imagined as relentlessly kind, people trust, listen, and risk. The Spirit keeps pressing that image in, even through unlikely messengers and in hospital hallways, until hope breaks into raw moments with words like he will wipe every tear.

Paul’s great prayer asks for power to grasp what can’t be measured. Width, length, height, depth. Love that surpasses knowledge. Not earned, not maintained by output, not lost by collapse. God made people in love and for love. When that truth lands, performance quiets, mission warms, and holiness stops being a grind and starts feeling like freedom. The world God so loves becomes the field for that same compassion, near and far, enemies included, because that is who he is.

Key Takeaways

• 1. God’s love precedes performance. [58:05] This love is prior, not reactive. John says love begins in God sending the Son, not in human effort warming up a cold deity. Starting here dismantles anxious spiritual bookkeeping and opens the heart to honest confession. When love is origin, repentance becomes returning home, not negotiating parole. [58:05]
• 2. Jesus is exactly like the Father. [01:08:23] Hebrews and Jesus himself refuse any wedge between them. The Christ who touches, feeds, forgives, and restores is the Father seen and heard. Praying to the Father, then, means expecting the same nearness and mercy that meet sinners in the Gospels. This heals the divided mind that trusts Jesus but tiptoes around God. [68:23]
• 3. Exodus 34 names God’s heart. [01:10:41] Yahweh self-describes as compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in hesed and emet. That claim does not stay abstract, because Jesus enacts it with Legion, with the widow of Nain, with a bleeding woman, and with a leper no one would touch. Reading the whole Bible through this Name keeps judgment tethered to protective love. Discipline then looks like rescue, not rejection. [70:41]
• 4. The mental image of God forms life. [01:00:22] Tozer is right about the secret law of the soul. People drift toward the God they imagine, either hiding under shame or leaning in with trust. Letting the Spirit rewrite that inner picture is not sentiment; it is sanctification at the root. A true image fuels prayer, risk, and durable joy. [60:22]
• 5. Love comes close to the untouchable. [01:19:35] Jesus does not heal at arm’s length when shame has exiled someone. He says, I am willing, and he touches what others avoid. Proximity becomes sacrament, restoring dignity before fixing symptoms. That same love sends the church toward margins with hands open, not fingers pointed. [79:35]

Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [38:15] - Love in this house
• [47:46] - Skid Row: Shorty remembered
• [50:54] - Bridge verse transforms Arnold
• [52:10] - Seized by a great affection
• [53:44] - Ankle healed, Why me?
• [55:21] - What is God like?
• [58:05] - Not that we loved God
• [65:31] - Power to grasp love
• [68:23] - Jesus exactly like the Father
• [70:41] - Yahweh: gracious and compassionate
• [72:52] - Legion clothed and sent
• [79:35] - I am willing, touching leper
• [81:51] - Franciscan benediction

1. In Exodus 34:6-7, what specific attributes does God use to describe Himself? How do these contrast with common misconceptions about His character?
2. According to 1 John 4:9-10, where does love originate? How does this redefine human efforts to earn God’s approval? [58:05]
3. The sermon mentions Jesus touching a leper (Mark 1:40-42). What does this act reveal about God’s posture toward those society rejects? [01:19:35]

1. Why is it significant that God’s love in 1 John 4:9-10 is described as prior to human action? How does this reshape our understanding of repentance and forgiveness?
2. The sermon shares Arnold’s story of transformation after hearing a Bible verse. How does this illustrate the power of grasping God’s love “that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19)? [50:54]
3. If Jesus is the “exact imprint” of God’s nature (Hebrews 1:3), how does His compassion toward the bleeding woman or the widow of Nain redefine our view of the Father? [01:16:02]

1. What mental image of God do you most often default to (e.g., distant, disappointed, relentlessly kind)? How might this image affect your willingness to trust Him with your struggles? [01:00:22]
2. The leper asked Jesus, “Are you willing?” (Mark 1:40). Where in your life do you hesitate to bring your shame or brokenness to God, fearing He might not want to help you? What step could you take to lean into His willingness?
3. Arnold’s life changed when he believed God loved him despite his past. Is there a lie about God’s love (e.g., “I’m too broken,” “I need to clean up first”) that you need to confront? How could you actively replace that lie with truth? [50:54]
4. The sermon describes love that “comes close to the untouchable.” Who in your life feels “untouchable” (due to shame, sin, or social stigma)? How could you reflect God’s proximity to them this week?
5. John called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23). What would it look like to start your day declaring, “I am the one Jesus loves”? How might this shift your perspective on failures or insecurities? [01:08:06]