When you look at the people around you and, as we so often do compare yourself to them, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that you’re nothing special, right? But what if I told you that in God’s sight, you are so incredibly special?

You know, on the one hand the world’s always shouting at us that we’re special, that we deserve the best, that we should pamper ourselves and aspire to achieving this or that. By and large it’s the advertising industry hype reaching into our desire for significance. You realise though that what they’re really doing is playing on our insecurities in order to get us to part with our hard earned cash because quite obviously whatever it is that they’re selling will help us to feel secure. Of course it never works that way, it never does that. So they try and sell us the next thing and the next thing, that’s how the whole cycle works.

The result of this inexorable cycle is that most of us don’t think we’re anything special at all. Most of us have so much of the world’s dirt sprayed all over us that any specialness we might have had ends up being obscured, hidden as it were under layers of muck. And yet in each one of us there is something special, very special, not because you or I happen to be super clever or anything like that. Paul tells us that he knows that in his flesh in his human nature he’s rotten to the core and that there’s nothing good to be found there.

We’re special because you and I are made in the image of God and He’s given each one of us a special gift or ability to use for His glory, if only we could find it amidst all the muck. So today we’re going to have a look at what God has to say about all that.

If you’ve been with me this last week you’ll know that the thing we’re exploring on the program is the special gifting that God has given to each one of us because He has a purpose for our lives and you won’t be surprised if I tell you that who He made each one of us to be is a perfect match, an absolutely perfect match for what He’s planning for us to do.

Someone who’s call in life is to work with kids is going to have a special mix of compassion and a teacher and a encourager in their make up. And because that’s how they’ve been wired they’re going to absolutely love working with children every day. Whereas that would send me absolutely bonkers. And someone who does what I’m doing is going to love telling stories and have a way of putting words together and holding people’s attention so that they can do what they do and I’m sure that would drive the person who loves working with children absolutely bonkers too.

Now this is not just me saying this, it’s in God’s Word. God has brought us into His Kingdom through Jesus Christ not just to bless us but to let our gifts and our abilities be a blessing to other people. Have a listen, Ephesians chapter 2 beginning at verse 1:

You were dead through the trespasses of sins in which you once lived following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh following the desires of the flesh and the senses and we were by nature children of wrath like everyone else.

But God who is rich in mercy out of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through trespasses made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing, it is a gift from God, not the result of works so that no one may boast for we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

So God has done this amazing act of grace by saving us from death that’s certainly coming from our sin, it’s a glorious act of mercy and anyone who’s received that mercy, man we should be dancing in the streets. It wasn’t through our works but as a free gift from God so that none of us may boast. In fact what He did was to create us in Christ Jesus and we are what He made us to be and He created us with a purpose for good works, the works that He has already prepared beforehand for us to do.

So who we are, and what He’s made us to do, fit like a hand in a glove. But then having been saved, as we saw yesterday, we seem to want to fall straight back into our own ways. It’s like we’ve been let out of the mud, washed, clean and then we want to race straight back and roll around in the mud again. We’re pretty good at that actually.

And as Paul sets out to teach Timothy, when we do that, well we’re hampering God’s plan for our lives. Have a listen to this sobering instruction from the old Apostle Paul to his young protégé Timothy, it comes in the second letter of Paul to Timothy, chapter 2 beginning at verse 20. He says:

In a large house there are utensils not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay. Some for special use, some for ordinary. All who cleanse themselves with the things I have mentioned will become special utensils, dedicated and useful to the owner of the house, ready for every good work.

Shun youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with stupid and senseless controversies, you know that they breed quarrels and the Lords servants must not be quarrelsome but kindly to everyone. An apt teacher, patient, correcting opponents with gentleness.

God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth and that they may escape from the snare of the devil having been held captive by him to do his will.

You know the picture Paul paints here for me, it’s the picture of being a special vessel. Clean and pure in Gods hands. Made of gold or of silver. Being used to pour Gods Spirit and Gods love and Gods mercy and Gods grace into the lives of other people. I can’t go past that, to be a utensil like that in the hands of God is just the most awesome thing but some, some are clean so they’re special utensils, others are not and they’re just there for ordinary every day use.

And then again Paul goes on to list what appears to be an excerpt from the B list of sins, youthful passions, stupid and senseless controversies. It’s not murder or adultery or theft but smaller ones but sin is sin and all sin acts like a snare from the devil and so renders us unfit for use as a special vessel.

God’s looking for men and women who are mature in Christ. Those who pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace from a pure heart. Those who are kind, correcting people with gentleness. That’s the sort of person Gods looking for, to be a special utensil in His mighty powerful hands because if we’re dirty on the inside, well He can’t use a dirty vessel to pour His love and mercy and power and grace and joy and peace out on someone else, can He? It’s obvious.

So here’s the sobering thing that God wants to say to you and to me today, we may all well have a dream, we may be aware of the gift that God has placed in us, we may have a great hold on the purpose that He has for our lives but persistent sin is going to hamper that plan. It’s going to hold us back from being the special vessels set apart for a very special purpose that God has for us.

And friend only God Himself can get us clean, through our faith in Jesus as He forgives us and as He wipes us clean and through the Holy Spirit whom He would place in each believer to grow us and to mature us and to cleanse us and to get us fit for the special purpose that God has for each one of our lives. This is why some people have an apparent gift that makes little or no impact in the world because they’re not yet cleansed.

Some people today are missing out on living their dream because they haven’t cleansed themselves through faith in Jesus and through cold, hard, brutal repentance, turning away from their sin towards God and that my friend, that is really sad.

Too may Christians, in fact, way too many Christians, are living lives that fall so far short of the life that Jesus promised. When Jesus promised power, they instead end up living a life of powerless-ness. I wonder if you know anyone like that.

I wonder if this scenario sounds at all familiar to you. At some stage, way back when, you decided to believe in Jesus. Perhaps you, like me, can remember the day that you took that step. Or maybe like many people I know, you can’t remember a time when you didn’t believe in Jesus.

So you’ve believed … and believed … and believed … and somehow life doesn’t seem to get any better. You seem to have the same challenges, successes, failures … whatever, as all the other people you know who don’t believe in Jesus. In fact, often times, they seem to be living a better life than you are and on top of that, they’re not wracked by guilt the way you are, because by not believing in Jesus, they don’t have to worry about the idea of temptation, or falling short of God’s ideals, or any of that stuff.

Does that sounded all familiar? Sadly, it’s de rigour for many a Christian. Most Christians in fact. The Christian life doesn’t seem all it’s cracked up to be.

Wasn’t it Jesus who said:

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)

So where is that abundant life (the original Greek word used there actually means super-abundant!) Where is this super-abundant life that Jesus promised us? Why is everything so difficult? Why is it that I’m not filled with the joy and the excitement that I first felt when I gave my life to Jesus?

Can I tell you, I speak to a lot of people, all around the world, who come to me with basically that scenario; basically that same story. Here it is in a nutshell:

I know that my life isn’t what it’s meant to be in Christ. I know that. But I don’t know why. I don’t know what to do about it.

And that’s why today we’re kicking off a brand new series of messages called ‘Power Unlimited’. Because the thing that’s lacking in the lives of these people – perhaps in your life too – is the power to live the life that Jesus promised us. The devil comes along and whispers in our ear You’re not good enough for God. And actually He’s right.

That’s exactly what the Apostle Paul says of himself (and remember God called him to write almost half of the books of the New Testament).

For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. (Romans 7:14-21)

So Paul, as it turns out, has exactly the same problem that you and I have. But happily, he doesn’t give up, because the old Paul, God bless him, also has the answer. The only answer that has the power to make a difference:

Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 7:24)

You see I have some very good news for you today. Listen carefully so you don’t miss it: God has already placed within you all the power that you need, to live the super-abundant life that Jesus died and rose again to give you.

God has already made the resurrection power, the very same power that raised Jesus from the dead, available to you, here and now, to live the super-abundant life that Jesus came to give you. I know, I know … you don’t believe me. Good, you shouldn’t believe me, it’s not within my purview to grant you that power. But will you believe what God says in the Bible:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:17-22)

Do you see? Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians is that they would discover the immeasurable greatness of God’s power for us who believe … the very same power that raised Christ from the dead. Each year we celebrate Easter, the death on the Cross (which receives most of the focus) and the resurrection (which frankly, we don’t focus on as much).

But this resurrection is the evidence of the immeasurably great power that is available to you and me, so that we can live a new life. The life that Jesus promised. As Bible teacher Casey Treat once said … we need to stop praying for power, and start praying with power, the power that we already have.

One of my Bible college lecturers from years ago, Dr Barry Chant, once said that if he were to transliterate the original Greek words used there for immeasurably great power, it would sound something like this: hyperballistic, megathonic, dynamic power!

Do you get it? Do you realise the immeasurable greatness of God’s power that He has placed at your disposal to live your life for Christ? Hello, wake-up!

And the purpose of this power, the whole point of this power, is to enable us to live the new life, the born-again life, the resurrection life, the super-abundant life, that Jesus came to give us. Yet so many Christians, most Christians, fail to live that life for one reason and one reason alone. Because they don’t lay hold of that power. We live on a spiritual battlefield. The Apostle Paul puts it this way:

… our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:12-17)

No I’m an old soldier from way back. And I can tell you that as I look at each of the elements of that spiritual armour that Paul lists there, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes, the shield the helmet, each of them those is a defensive piece of armour. Defence is important to protect yourself, but you don’t win a war by defending. To win, you have to attack. And the only offensive weapon in that list is … what? The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God!

That’s the only attack weapon in the spiritual armoury that God has given you. And the truth is that most Christians leave it in its scabbard. They leave the sword of the Spirit at home, and then they wonder why the devil keeps on winning!

And that … that’s something we’re going to talk a lot more about over the coming days.

One of the things God talks about in His Word is baptising us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Wow – hasn’t that caused some controversies across the church? But let’s forget the denominational baggage for a moment. Question is, if God wants to drench us in His Spirit, well, that’s a good thing, isn’t it?

One of the things that I’ve been learning as I journey through my life with Jesus at my side is that I just can’t achieve much on my own. Now let me explain that. People do clever, brilliant, powerful and effective things apparently without the help of God all the time. Plenty of brilliant musicians, gifted leaders, effective counsellors and so on who don’t believe in Jesus, and before I came to faith in Christ almost two decades ago now I was able to do plenty of pretty good things.

I was part of building an international IT consulting firm, I can make a piano sing as it were but when I came to faith in Jesus, what I discovered was that when it comes to doing things of eternal significance like the thing that I’m doing right now with you, on my own I can do nothing. I could probably entertain you, I can probably engage you and a whole bunch of other things but the one thing I cannot do is effect a change in your heart that will impact you eternally.

It turns out that that’s something that only God can do. How do I know that? Because Jesus told us, John chapter 15, verse 5. He said:

I am the vine and you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit because apart from me you can do nothing.

So in order for you and for me to bear fruit – fruit that really truly makes a powerful difference in the lives of others – we need to be connected, grafted into Jesus who is the vine. And when you think about it the thing that flows from the vine to the branches to allow the branch to thrive and to grow and to bear fruit is the sap of the plant. In this analogy of Jesus that’s the Holy Spirit.

One of the things that makes me really sad is, that the Holy Spirit and how He works in our lives is the source of so much conflict and disagreement between the different denominations of the Church. It seems that everyone has, well, a different perspective. But as we saw yesterday on the program John the Baptist said something interesting about the Holy Spirit and what Jesus would do through the Spirit in our lives. Matthew chapter 3, verses 11 and 12:

I baptise you with water for repentance but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork in his hand and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

He said that Jesus would baptise us with the Holy Spirit and as it turns out with fire. Well that’s something of a mixed metaphor because that baptism really means the Greek word ‘baptidso’, to be drowned and drenched and changed in something. For instance if a ship sank and went under it had been baptidso’d. If a piece of cloth was put in some dye and changed it’s colour it had been baptidso’d. So to be baptised in the Holy Spirit means to be dunked and drenched and changed by the Holy Spirit.

Imagine that piece of fabric coming out of the liquid dye. It’s dripping, completely saturated and on top of that it’s a brand new colour. That’s the picture, that’s what it means to be baptised in the Holy Spirit. Now much of the controversy in the Church surrounds the question of timing. When does this happen? Does it happen to every believer? The moment they believe or is it something that happens later?

Seriously, as though we can put God in a box like this and tell Him He either has to do it this way, at this point of coming to faith or at some later time. Can I tell you something? My Bible, I don’t know about yours, but my Bible actually contains an historical record of both instances. For instance Cornelius and his family when Peter the Apostle preaches the good news to them for the very first time, Acts chapter 10, verse 44:

While Peter was still speaking the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word.

Right when they first believed. But in Ephesus you know what, it happened totally differently. Acts chapter 19 beginning at verse 1:

While Apollos was in Corinth Paul passed through the interior regions and came to Ephesus where he found some disciples. He said to them, ‘did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ They replied, ‘no, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’ Then he said, ‘into what then were you baptised?’ They answered, ‘into John’s baptism’. Paul said, ‘John baptised with the baptism of repentance telling the people to believe in the one who is to come after him, that is in Jesus.’

On hearing this they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid his hands on them the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues and prophesised. All together there were about twelve of them.

Seems to me that the point isn’t when or how, God’s going to do what God’s going to do and I for one am not about to put Him in a box and tell Him how He has to do things. Whilst every believer may have the Holy Spirit in them and again God’s Word makes it clear that unless we do we don’t belong to Christ (Romans chapter 8, verse 9) not every believer is drenched in the Spirit.

Not every believer has yielded their lives completely to God and given the Holy Spirit sway in every part of their lives. Not every believer is drenched in the Spirit. Plenty in fact walk more in the flesh, in their own worldly desires than they do in the Spirit. Again that’s something God’s Word makes absolutely clear. Romans chapter 8, verse 5:

For those who live according to the flesh will set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the spirit they’ll set their minds on the things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.

So my friend the question for each one of us is simply this, have we yielded our lives to Christ? Have we invited Him to have complete sway in every corner of who we are? Every nook, every cranny or are we holding something back? I know people for instance who say they love God and they do, absolutely, and yet they choose to live together, man and woman, without being married.

See that’s holding something back. That’s doing something God says don’t do. That’s not honouring to God. And people who deliberately hold something back can’t be fully drenched in the power of the Spirit because it’s like wrapping cling wrap over part of our lives. You go down to be baptidso’d in the Spirit and you come out and not all of you can be changed.

I decided a long time ago after being caught as though in limbo by this futile senseless argument about how and when we’re baptised in the Holy Spirit to give the whole thing a miss. When and how is completely not the point. The point is that I can be drenched in the Spirit that every part of me, every bit of sin and stubbornness within me is opened to the Spirit of Christ, that I hold nothing back and that way, that way when Jesus comes into my life with His winnowing fork to get rid of the chaff, to burn that sin, that horrible stuff, that useless chaff in the unquenchable fire He has free reign and free access to do so.

Because what I want to do with my life, I really want to walk in the Spirit, to be guided in all things by Christ, to have the power of God, to travel the roads He calls me to travel and to go through the trials He calls me to go through.

Now walking in the Spirit is something we’re going to talk a whole lot more about next week but for the moment let me ask you this, have you been drenched in the Spirit of God? Have you yielded your life completely and utterly to Christ so that He can get about sorting out the wheat from the chaff? Because Jesus wants to baptise each one of us with the Spirit and with fire.

One of the reasons that so many people who love Jesus, who believe in Jesus, don’t go on to live the life that God has planned for them is that there are obstacles on the road. Obstacles that seem completely insurmountable and that stops them dead in their tracks.

For many people and I’ve been in this space too from time to time, there seems to be a yawning gap between what they hear being preached on Sunday morning and how their lives play themselves out Monday through Saturday. You see there seems to be a huge gap between the powerful statements about faith and Gods plan and overcoming obstacles on the one hand and actually living life on the other.

How often have you heard or read these words from Jesus in Matthew chapter 17 verse 20?

Truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you’ll say to this mountain ‘move from here to there’ and it will move and nothing will be impossible for you.

Well that’s just fine and dandy, thank you Jesus but that doesn’t seem to be how my life works. There are these obstacles in the road and they don’t seem to be moving and so I’m stuck in this rut. Here I am, I want to serve the Lord but things just aren’t happening. And then Jesus comes along with His very high statements about faith and prayer. Here’s another one, John chapter 15 verse 7.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

You see the dilemma don’t you? The Bible, in fact Jesus, seems to promise one thing and yet our cold hard experience in life seems to declare the complete opposite. How often have you asked God for something and it hasn’t happened? The answer for anybody who’s been praying for any length of time is lots of times, right?

And it’s this dilemma that discourages so many people from stepping out and living the life that God has planned for them. You see it’s this yawning gap that has many people turning back in droves, back to their old lives, back to their comfort zones, back to living for themselves rather than pouring out their lives for others in Jesus’ name. Fact: Obstacles make us want to turn back.

Over the course of this week, over the last couple of weeks we’ve been talking a bit about the old Moses, this man whom God called from obscurity to go tell Pharaoh ‘to let my people go’. I’m going to fast forward just a bit from where we were the other day, Moses goes and confronts Pharaoh, Pharaoh says no, so now God sends ten plagues on Egypt.

Eventually Pharaoh relents and the Israelites flee through the Red Sea which God has miraculously parted for them and then the Egyptian army is destroyed as the sea comes back and drowns them. The greatest military machine on earth was completely destroyed by God. I mean that’s all pretty miraculous wouldn’t you say?

If you or I had been one of the Israelites following Moses out of Egypt, I mean you would have been totally amazed. Wouldn’t it have completely changed your perspective of God having seen that? Sure it would but listen to what happens the moment the Israelites discover that there isn’t any food to eat or water to drink out there in the desert.

So God’s done these amazing miracles and now they need food and water. Exodus chapter 16 verses 2 and 3.

The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The Israelites said to them, ‘if only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt when we sat by the flesh pots and ate our fill of bread. For you have brought us out in the wilderness to kill us, this whole assembly with hunger.

The moment they run into their very first obstacle they hanker to return to the safety and the predictability of Egypt even though back there they were oppressed as slaves. Why is that? Because the obstacle confronting them, the lack of food and the lack of water for a million or so people out in the desert appeared to be completely insurmountable and in human terms it was.

A wise person once said ‘when God is about to do something great He starts with a difficulty but when God is about to do something truly magnificent He starts with an impossibility’. Would you like to know what God did next for the Israelites? It comes in the very next verse, Exodus chapter 16 starting at verse 4.

The Lord said to Moses, ‘I’m going to rain bread from heaven for you and each day the people will go out and gather enough for just that day. In that day I will test them whether they will follow my instructions or not. But on the sixth day when they prepare what they bring in it will be twice as much as they gather on other days.

So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, ‘in the evening you shall know that it was the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt and in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord because yes He has heard your complaining against Him. For what are we that you complain against us.

And Moses said, ‘when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning because the Lord has heard the complaining that you have uttered against Him. What are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the Lord.

And then God did what He said, He rained food down from heaven because that’s what God can do. What seems impossible to you and me is simply an opportunity for God to display His power and His glory. Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 17;

Ah Lord God, it was you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing is impossible for you.

And all that you and I need is just a mustard seed of faith, that’s all. Just stop and think about it. To move a mountain you don’t need faith that’s bigger than the mountain, that’s what we normally think, the laws of nature, the laws of physics that we understand and live by require the force that moves the mountain to be bigger and more powerful than the mountain.

So we get to thinking that we have to be bigger and more powerful, that our faith has to be bigger and more powerful when all along simply a mustard seed of faith will do. Why? Because God created the universe and nothing is impossible for Him. To Him that mountain, that massive obstacle on your road is less than a speck of dust.

When are we going to finally wake up to the fact that obstacles are par for the course, obstacles are the opportunity for God to do the miraculous, obstacles are simply no excuse for a wasted life.

When I stepped out into the ministry of Christianityworks back in 2004 the ministry was dead broke, we weren’t producing any radio or TV programs which is our reason for being and everything looked impossible. Fortunately I was still young enough as a Christian to have child like faith, simply to believe that God would do it.

I didn’t have a clue about anything much really. No idea on how to produce radio messages, no idea about how to approach radio stations even if we had something to put to air. No idea about how to get people to support the ministry so it could go on, nothing, not a clue. But God had all He needed. He had a mustard seed of faith in my heart and that is all He needed.

These days people look at the ministry of Christianityworks, the ministry that produces these daily programs and they smile at how successful it is, millions of listeners around the world each week, wow – amazing. Yeah but you have no idea how many mountains have been moved along the way each time testing our faith, each time taking us to the edge, each time having us down on our knees imploring God to intervene.

There have been so many impossible situations, so many times when this ministry should have folded since it was founded in 1957 but each time God showed up. Not in the way we had planned, not always to make it easy but to take us to the next level and the next level all the time growing our faith, all the time testing our resolve, all the time walking with us, going ahead of us, preparing the way even though we couldn’t see it.

Obstacles are no excuse for turning back. Obstacles are no excuse for a wasted life because nothing is impossible for God.

Words are cheap aren’t they? If someone says ,”I love you” well that’s fantastic but it doesn’t prove a thing. The evidence of love is in what they do. It’s true of people and it’s true of God, I mean if God was put on trial being accused of loving you would there be enough evidence to convict Him?

Now, the Bible says that God is love, the Bible says that God loves us, you, me and every other homo sapiens on this earth. The Bible says that we’re created in His image and that despite our rebellion, despite the fact that the original image has been marred and disfigured almost beyond recognition, God still wants to restore us back into His original image, the Bible says.

Now at this point I know that more than a few people are thinking, “well the Bible says, whoopy do, big deal, come and look at my life, come and look at my lousy marriage, my rebellious children, my loneliness, my pain, my financial hardship, the losses I’ve been through, the complete lack of hope that I have for the future, come and look at that and then tell me what the Bible says.”

And if you relate to any of that, just a bit of that, then today I want to share some good news with you, I want to put God’s love under a microscope for you. Let’s make like we’re in a court of law in a trial that accuses God of loving us; the question I want to answer here is this, ‘is there enough evidence to convict Him?’

Now please don’t write in or email or call, I don’t mean that disrespectfully in any way. I simply want us to see what the evidence tells us as to whether God loves us or not.

So where do you begin? Well let’s begin at the beginning, let’s take a look, Genesis chapter 1 verses 26 to 31:

And God said ‘let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind, cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind’ and it was so, God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind and the cattle of every kind and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind and God saw that it was good.

Then God said, ‘let us make human kind in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created human kind in His image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.

And God blessed them and God said to them, ‘be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over every fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’

God said, ‘see I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit, you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has breath of life, I have given every green plant for food’ and it was so. God saw everything that He had made and indeed it was very good and there was evening and there was morning on the sixth day.

So God goes on to create this whole universe and then, the last act of Creation is He gives it all away to you and me, the whole cotton pickin’ lot. But it’s not just that, it’s not just an act of incredible generosity, it’s also an act of incredible vulnerability, not on our part but on God’s part because He creates us knowing full well that having given us free will, we would turn our backs on Him, we would rebel against Him.

In fact if you like that’s the whole story of the Old Testament in a nutshell, God’s people rebelling against God. The name Israel literally means ‘to struggle with God’ and through all the ups and downs of the Old Testament one thing becomes abundantly clear, it’s this, that in our relationship with God we will never ever, ever be able to hold up our end of the bargain, we’ll always fall short and that’s exactly what the Apostle Paul writes in the New Testament, Romans chapter 3 verse 23:

For there is no distinction since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And then Romans 6 verse 23:

For the wages of sin is death.

So, what to do, what to do, what to do, what to do? Now God has a dilemma. If He truly is a God of love does He put sinners to death? That is after all what it says here, I mean if He truly is a God of justice He has to follow through doesn’t He? So His response to this dilemma is a real test of His love for us. How can He have justice and love? So what’s His response? Well let’s look at the whole of Romans chapter 6 verse 23:

For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The price of God’s justice is paid when Jesus, the Son of God, takes our sin on His shoulders, punished on the cross so that we could be forgiven. In fact when you think about it, this is the only possible way that God could have solved the dilemma, by meeting both the requirements of justice and love.

So forensically what does this tell us about God’s love? Well Jesus put it this way, John chapter 15 verses 12 and 13:

This is my Commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, than to lay down his life for his friends. You’re my friends if you do what I command.

Just the other night on the evening news where I live there was a story of a father who had died, drowned in the surf saving his son who was caught in a rip. Now you might expect a father to do that for his son right? After all it’s his son, he loves the son. If I had to put my life in harm’s way for my children I don’t think I’d even think a second about that, I love them, they’re my children.

The question however is would you put yourself in harm’s way for someone who’s treated you badly? Would you lay your life down for someone who’s rebelled against you, spoken badly of you, turned their backs on you? Well would you? Have a listen, Romans chapter 5 verses 6 to 8:

While you and I were still weak just at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. Indeed rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, no perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die but God proves His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

And that my friend, right there, is proof positive of God’s love for you. I know that things in your life may not be perfect in every department, I know that you may be suffering over this or that and I know, believe you me I know, I’ve been there, that life can sometimes look so bleak, so desperate that you can’t even see how you’re going to make it through until tomorrow.

But right in the middle of whatever it is that you’re going through at the moment, God has something to say to you today; through His Word He is saying, “I love you more than words could ever say, just look at my Son, look at how He suffered and died for you, that’s how much I love you, that’s what you’re worth to me.”

And you know it’s not until we feel loved that we can love other people. If you don’t feel secure in love you don’t have any love to give away. So many people are missing out on the abundant life that Jesus came to give them because they know about God, they just don’t know Him personally. And if that sounds like you then why not pray this prayer with me today.

Father God, I’ve heard about your love today, I’ve heard about Jesus, Jesus who died for me and rose again for me and I want to accept this Jesus as my Saviour and the Lord of my life. I want to experience for real this love that I’ve heard about today. So Lord please forgive me, please accept me just as I am, please fill me to overflowing with your Holy Spirit, and with your love. I ask you that in Jesus’ name. Amen

If you just prayed that prayer you are forgiven, you have been made whole and your life has just completely changed forever and ever and ever.