The Freedom of God's Love

I recently had a conversation with Alicia where we discussed how we sometimes do something special for someone in our lives, but don't always receive the recognition we feel we deserve for it. For instance, In 2019, Alicia left for a Womans retreat and while she was away, I was wanting to make sure she knew everything in the house was ok while she was away. And I also wanted to send her some sexy pictures of me, so I sent her these: ** Slide **(The one on the left is me washing dishes, and the other is me sweeping the floor.) You know ladies, there’s nothing hotter than a bearded husband doing house chores.

Amen? And guess what… no appreciation for any of the awesome things I did. Here’s another one for you… last year while my wife was away at another Womans retreat, we had a major leak in our bathroom. And so, to do what we husbands do best, I alerted the wife to our dilemma. Here’s the conversation. Show conversation slide - ** Slide ** Now at this point, Alicia knew what I was talking about because we’ve been fighting this leaky shower head for months.

We would tighten it and tighten it, and it just kept leaking and getting looser and spraying water everywhere. So, I fixed it… here’s a before picture of the leak. ** Slide ** No! Appreciation. And if you look close enough… you’d see that there was actually two leaks I took care of, not just one. It can be disheartening when we put effort into something meaningful and it goes unnoticed or unappreciated.

I’m sure you’ve experienced this as well. Maybe you did something, or made something, or fixed something and the recognition was lacking, or maybe you just wanted a simple thank you, but it never came. What do you do when those moments come into our lives? What do you do when it seems like relationships are just one sided? Or your work goes unnoticed? The Spirit has had my heart camped out in Hosea, and it’s a beautiful book.

Hosea is a lesser-known prophet. The book of Hosea tells the story of a prophet named Hosea who was instructed by God to marry a promiscuous and unfaithful woman named Gomer. And so throughout this book, Hosea’s relationship with Gomer serves as an analogy for God's relationship with Israel, which had strayed away from God and turned to idols. But Despite Israel's unfaithfulness, God remained faithful and continued to love them, just as Hosea continued to love and care for Gomer even when she was unfaithful to him.

So what we learn is that Hosea's story is a touching reminder that even when we stray from God, He remains faithful and loving towards us, and is always ready to welcome us back into His arms. Would it be ok for me share two scriptures that have deeply touched me. ** Slide ** Hosea, 6:6 says: “For I desire Faithful Love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Faithful love, is love that is a committed and unwavering in devotion.

It is a love that endures through the ups and downs, the good times and the bad, and still remains steadfast and loyal. Faithful love is greatly lived out throughout he life of Jesus and If I had to pick just one moment where we see faithful love in the way the Father had intended it, it would be the cross of course, but it would also be for me, the Gethsename moment.

In but a moment, 12 disciples that just broke bread with Jesus, who was fed by Jesus, who had their feet washed by Jesus, prayed over by Jesus, we’re now sleeping against a tree while Jesus wept in agony. When you’re willing to be ridiculed by others, alienated by others, criticized by others, and left alone in an olive grove, the place of pressing and trials because others have left or deserted you in your most vulnerable time of need…

and you’re still willing to go a little further, and fall to your knees and go, O my Father, Abba Father…, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: Yet, not as I will, but as you will. That’s Faithful love…. It’s loving without condition…… It’s faithful to the end.. even when death is inevitable. Faithful love is dripped in grace, and washed in mercy. And it continues on, even when others abandon you.

I’m not a fan of a certain phrase and I wish it would be forgotten, especially in our lives and in the church. Because there is no Biblical ground in my opinion for it. It’s this… “if you scratch my back, I’’fill scratch yours.” It’s not biblical. It’s actually faithless to say such a phrase. It sounds good… yeah. It sounds like brotherly love, it sounds like unity, but it’s missing something…

“if you scratch my back, I’’fill scratch yours.” …. It’s missing relationship. That’s why I hate it so much, because when this phrase and motto infiltrates the heart of the church, it immediately requires obedience without love because it’s more of a transaction than a relationship. THis is the kind of love that says, “Look at what I’ve done, or look at how many years, or look at me… when are you going to recognize what I’ve done, and do your part.” “if you scratch my back, I’’fill scratch yours.

comes in and instead of building a relationship, and trust, and unconditional love through mercy and grace, and looking for opportunities to love freely without condition, it will always demand for either of the parties to uphold what was bargained. And if, or I should say when, the agreement is breeched, It gives any side the right to leave, or to abandon or even be abusive. And leaving, and being abusive to others, by word or deed…

that’s not a faithful love. To me, that sounds like bondage. Turn with me to Hosea chapter 14. Here’s the second Scripture that had touched me. ** Slide ** “I will heal their iniquity, I will freely love them.” God desires faithful love, but even when we do not walk in faithful love, God tells us that through forgives and repentance, He will freely love. A love that is freely given, that’s a love without bondage.

It means "without cost or payment" or "given as a gift." Jesus tells his disciples to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons, and to do so "freely," without charging any money for their services. Matthew 10:8 Paul tells us in Romans, that believers are justified "freely by grace. Salvation isn’t earned, it’s given. As a gift. TO freely love also means "willingly" or “spontaneously." David worships in Psalsm, "I will freely sacrifice unto thee”..

what David means is that he will give without being compelled or obligated. It indicates an attitude without obligations. He wants to freely give because there’s no bondage. To love freely there needs to be freedom. Freedom is the key to love, and the key to freedom lies in having complete trust in God's love. The Father's love of life… which becomes available through the Son who made himself available. And it is all free, purchased by the death of Jesus, received by faith alone.

What does Paul say to the Galatians…. ** Slide ** He tells them, “For Freedom, Christ sets us free.” Not one ounce of the fathers love is available to you or me without Jesus. Jesus tells us, no one comes to the father unless through me. You have no access apart from Christ. Think of it like this… my son wants to use the car to take the trash out… he thinks it’s great to drive over the trash…

well, he can’t drive the car unless the father gives him the keys. The key is what makes the car start… it’s what gives permission for the car to say, let’s go… let’s ignite. The car is only able to do what it’s intended and designed to do, with the key. Otherwise, without the key, everything about that car is useless. For us, Christ is our key. Jesus is the key, the only key to receiving love, and grace, and fogginess, and mercy from the Father.

Think of it this way, Can I read to you something from Oswald Chambers, I found this bit in a Devotional from Utmost for HIs highest, ** Slide ** Oswald writes: "The springs of love are in God, not in us. It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally, it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.” Paul writes: For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.

(Romans 7:18-19) Apart from Christ, nothing good dwells within me… apart from Christ is noting but emptiness. This is why so many people with wealth will come to the end of their years and go, I’ve accumulated it all… and I still feel empty. Charles Darwin, the famous biologist, reportedly said "I am not the least afraid to die" shortly before his death, but also expressed a sense of emptiness at the end of his life.

He wrote in a letter to a friend: "I have very little satisfaction in life — but have been sustained by a conviction that my work has been useful”. He felt empty because they’ve never tasted freely given, faithful love. Listen, church, Freely given and faithful Love is motivated by the joy of sharing the fullness of what we have in Christ Jesus, but the works of the flesh are motivated by the desire to fill our emptiness.

What does Paul mean, works of the flesh? He doesn’t mean our bodies… What he means is our pride. Our inner ego that which feels a deep emptiness and uses the means within its own power to fill that emptiness. For some… that’s religion. They may use the law. If it’s something that’s ungodly, or faithless, it could be other things, like booze, or tobacco, or unhealthy relationships that bring no honor to Christ.

It is enslaved to one desire after another in its effort to fill an emptiness which only Christ can fill. Look with me… in Galatians 5… ** Slide ** x 2 We’re looking for the freedom to love and Paul tells the Galatians in Chapter 5, verse one, this freedom you seek, is Christ… Christ sets us free. And then in this verse, verse one, he says something very important… Paul then goes on to say, Don’t submit again, to a yoke of slavery….

He’s talking about sin. He’s saying, you’ve been set free, by faith in Christ, but don’t fall back into who you once were… We have a tendency to do that.. We also have a tendency to come to faith in Christ, and then we stop pursing Christ. Most times, we stop pursuing Christ because we come to Christ with this mind set, Jesus, if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

And many times, we’re like, Jesus, I come to church, I pay tithes, I serve here and I do this… and ya know.. I Don’t feel like I’m being blessed right now. You’re not doing your part. That’s not freedom, but again, that’s bondage. That’s a transaction… I give, you give… listen, the transaction has already taken place… it was between Christ Jesus and God the father when our sin debt was paid.

Now why do I say all of this? I say all of this because of this reason..… “When you and I do not love freely, or Faithfully in Christ, we will enviably attack one another.” Look with me in verse 13: 13 For you were called to be free, brothers and sisters; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another. Faithful love is free love, and free love is made available through Christ, and Christ makes us free to love those around us. Without love… from Jesus… we will do nothing but bite and devour one another. Didn’t Jesus say, They will know that you are my disciples by what? Because you came to church?..

No… by how you pay your tithe? No… by how you dress in a certain way?… no… I was praying the other day and I had this thought… if Jesus showed up to his church today to just listen in and see if there’s any transformation thier loves… I guarantee you there will be people bickering over the fact that he wore sandals to church. They will know that you are my disciples by what?

Jesus, in his sandals said, You are my disciples by how you, love one another. Where not to clothe ourselves in our sin or our old selves, but in perfect love because we’ve been set free. When, Perfect love casts out fear, and when we love Christ and one another freely and faithfully, we’ll experience the freedom and joy of Fathers love. What we learn is this.. here’s todays main idea for the message, this is what Jesus wants us to know today…

When we freely love others as God loves us through Christ, we break down walls of division and build bridges of grace and reconciliation. If we as a church desire to be a church of love, and unity… it begins by all of us clothing ourselves in Christ. Colossians says, "And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” (Colossians 3:14) The choice is ours… we will either create division because we feel that the other person isn’t paying their debt owed to us, or we will freely give the love we received through forgiveness.

My prayer, for us as a body of Christ,….. is that we abound more and more in love for one another and for all men (1 Thessalonians 3:12). We can only love if we are freed to love. What are you not free of this morning? Jesus promises.… “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Freedom begins with repentance and forgiveness.. and is then lived out through holiness.

Holiness is perfect love. Did you know you can have perfect love right now… You and I do not need to wait till heaven to be perfected in love. It’s available to us right now in Jesus. His Spirit, within your chest right now… has the ability to perfect you in love, right now, in this moment…. But You’ll never experience perfect love with an imperfect attitude. You’ll never experience perfect love with a “if you do for me, I’ll do for you attitude.” Because when the other person doesn’t pay what you feel you deserve, you will always, and eventually cancel the agreement of friendship and love and try to collect the debt somewhere else.

The debt has been paid… Stop trying to collect a debt that you have no right to collect. *