“NOBODY GREATER!”
John 15:11-17
INTRODUCTION
“Cause I Love You.” “Love and Happiness.” “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” “Greatest Love of All.” “Love Overboard.” “No One’s Gonna Love You.” “Stop in the Name of Love.” “Love Train.” “Endless Love.” “Where Is the Love?” “I Will Always Love You.” “When a Man Loves a Woman.” “No Ordinary Love.” “I Just Called to Say I Love You.” “If It Isn’t Love.” “Loving You.” This a non-exhaustive list of some of the greatest love songs of all time. They attempt to capture and express the essence of love that can be shared between human beings. Unfortunately, ON ITS BEST DAY, the love human beings express will never compare or amount to the love God made available to us through Jesus Christ! This is because human love is conditional, temporal, inconsistent, and nonexclusive. This is precisely why we can fall in and out of love so quickly and easily!
Conversely, God’s love is exceptional, everlasting, exclusive, and efficacious! The first Bible verse that many of us can recall learning as infants, toddlers, and children was “God is love!” Our fore-parents, Sunday School teachers, and communities wanted to ensure we got this simple, yet powerful truth about God’s nature deep into our DNAs. 1 John 4:8 captures the essence of this thought, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” Unfortunately, the toxicity and potency of the spirits of self-rejection, low self-esteem, low self-worth, and hate continue to escalate causing us to feel internal strife and make it difficult to fully embrace God’s love. Today’s message is simple! When it comes to experiencing real love, there’s “Nobody Greater!”
II. GOD’S LOVE IS EXCEPTIONAL!
- God’s love has no strings attached! John 3:16-17
- Parental favoritism can distort God’s love! Genesis 37:3
- Don’t project human experiences with love onto God! Psalm 27:10
III. GOD’S LOVE IS EVERLASTING!
- God’s love is everlasting even when we reject it! Psalm 139:7
- God’s love permeates to generations! Psalm 100:5
- God’s love is better than life! Psalm 63:3
IV. GOD’S LOVE IS EXCLUSIVE!
- God’s first word to Jesus Christ is “Beloved!” Luke 3:21-22
- You are “dearly beloved”; “the object a special affection & special relationship.”
- Being in Christ makes us Beloved! Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:27
V. GOD’S LOVE IS EFFICACIOUS!
- There’s no fear in God’s love! 1 John 4:18
- Our identity is found in loving others! John 13:34-35
- Build as opposed to destroy! Ephesians 4:14-15, 32
VI. CONCLUSION
Many of us are looking for love in all the wrong places. Our negative experiences with love have left holes in our physical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological lives that only the Holy Spirit can fill. When we accept that God loves us despite our flaws and faults, God expects us to go and do likewise. Whitney Houston’s song claims that the greatest love of all is learning to love ourselves. We cannot love ourselves or others effectively until we know and accept that God’s love is selfless, sacrificial, serves, and is submissive to God’s own will. God did this just for us because there’s “Nobody Greater!”
Source: Nouwen, Henri J.M. Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World, New York, NY: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1992.
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