Unearnable Love

Where are you beginning to feel like it is too much, that you're doing too much? I want us to take a moment this morning and realize that God loves you for who you are. I was chatting with Nigel yesterday, one of the elders. And I said sometimes we have to help people realize who God has made them to be and how God sees them rather than how they think they need to be seen and who they think they should be. I want us to be a church where we live free of comparison and striving. [00:25:24] (52 seconds)  #LovedAsYouAre

But we can't, and we don't. And God didn't set the world up that way that we could earn our salvation, that we could earn eternal life. In actual fact, the Apostle Paul warns us about this in Ephesians two verses eight to nine. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and that is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, Not by works so that no one can boast. You see, the elder brother was basically boasting in this story. Wasn't he? Look how good I've been all of these years. Look how I've, you know, in that video, how I've cut the grass, I've filled the gas up, how I've been a good boy. [00:18:59] (51 seconds)  #SavedByGrace

We have to come from a place of accepting that if we've that that if we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we become a son and daughter of God. And that we are part of his family. And that if we mess up, and unfortunately, we will, and I'm not encouraging us to mess up, he will still welcome us back because he is a caring, loving father. I've got two kids. They mess up. Does it mean I don't love them? No. I love them dearly, and they would always be welcome. [00:23:14] (44 seconds)  #ChildrenOfGod

And I think as Christians, for those of us that are followers of Jesus, some of us have got into that habit of striving. They're thinking that I've got to do this. I've got to do that. I've got, you know, I've got to get up at 05:00 every morning and read my bible or I've got to, you know, I've got to pray for an hour. We strive. We we become workspace. We become obsessed with doing. In an actual fact, we've got to move away from striving to accepting. You don't have to strive, you have to accept. [00:22:36] (39 seconds)  #FromStrivingToAccepting

That we become completely content living in God's grace, but we display faithfulness and willingness to serve without it being a burden. We need to operate from a place of love, not from a place of transaction. That is my challenge to us this morning, that we realize whatever happens, God loves us. And if we've accepted him as our as Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then we can be guaranteed that we have eternal life. [00:26:15] (47 seconds)  #ServeFromLove

The elder brother was behaving in a way that suggested that his mother's love had to be earned. That to be loved, had to do something, be something. And there's a real danger with that. And when we think about that in the the context of salvation and of eternal life, we will see that it gets amplified. You see, if there is a way that we could earn God's love, that we could earn our salvation, then we would have the right to boast almost about our own abilities. Look how great I am. [00:18:11] (48 seconds)  #LoveIsNotEarned

Maybe even you're good for the two weeks and if you're super good at dieting, you're good for three weeks but eventually, the dieting halo is going to slip. The lure of the golden arches or the piece of chicken walking down the street is gonna call you and you're gonna be dragged back away from that healthy living. We all slip up. It's the same with sin. [00:21:12] (34 seconds)  #WeAllSlip

And that is how it is with God. You do not have to perform for God's love. You just have to accept it. So my challenge to you this morning is where have you been striving? Where have you been striving? Where have you been keeping score? Where, you know, social media is a is a blessing and a problem. And especially in pastors' worlds because we you know, our our pastor friends, they post on Facebook photos from church and, you know, and and all of this. Oh, and you can start keeping score, can't you? You [00:24:15] (49 seconds)  #StopKeepingScore