God Loves Uniquely (Ephesians 1:3-10)
Gary McManus, 06/28/2020Part of the God's Love; Beyond Belief series, preached at a Sunday Morning service
June 28, 2020 Ephesians 1:3-10
Loving other people. . .
Loving people who are not like us.
Jesus even said, “Love your enemies.”
(Matthew 5:44)
How can we love all those people that
we put in the “other” category?
Mother Teresa’s SAINTLY answer was
to see Jesus in people who need help.
(based on Jesus’ story in Matthew 25:31-46,
Matthew 25:40)
Love God and neighbor. (Luke 10:27)
Our motivation to love others is God and
God’s love for us, yes? (See 1 Jon 4:10-11,
four times in John’s Gospel: 13:34, 15:9,
15:12, 16:27)
Today’s topic: “since God so loved you. . .”
UNDERSTANDING God’s love for us, even though
the Apostle states. . .”we can never fully understand
God’s love for us.” Ephesians 3:18-19 (NIV)
“this love that surpasses knowledge
Do we know ENOUGH about God’s love. . .
so that WE DO love others?
The Apostle wrote (Ephesians 1: 17)
so that you may know him (God) better.
The Apostle is praying for his church to know God better.
God’s Word for today, verse 5 (Ephesians 1:5)
[SKIP over the topic of “predestination” for today.
Substituting the word “determined” might help.]
The Greek word for “adoption to sonship”
is a legal term.
IN LOVE God set us up for adoption through Jesus
The word for his pleasure means. . .
favor/desire/choice
[SO notice, It pleased God to love you.]
Did you know that?]
How can we miss this bold statement that God
wanted to love us, and takes delight in loving us?
Other uses of this word in the Greek elsewhere in the NT:
At Jesus’ baptism and again when Jesus is transfigured:
Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5.
With the same words the Apostle describes God
to you and me:
according to the good pleasure of His will,
See John 15:9
Now does God love everyone the same. . .
OR does God love everyone uniquely since we are
each unique?
The “sameness” of God’s love may be it’s depth=
infinity. See Jesus’ three stories of the lost (Luke 15):
the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son.
Are you not irreplaceable to God.?
Jesus’ landowner’s pay is not equal to the work. (Matthew 20:14)
See Pastor Francis Chan, Crazy Love.
If you are not sure, what would it mean for us
to be the apple of God’s eye” (Zechariah 2:8)
You are God’s beloved in ways you may not even know.
God delights in, takes pleasure in
making YOU and ME one of his many children.
Amen.
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