LOVING THE FATHER’S WAY

FOUNDATION STATEMENT: As believers we are to love other people the way that God loves us.  When we lack revelation of the Father’s love for us, it will show up in our love for others, and cost us dearly in our lives.  It is a revelation of the Father’s love that will enable us to love other people the way that He loves us.

I. Your willingness to grow and develop in the character of love will directly determine your ability to get results in life (Acts 19:13-16)

A. No Character = No power – No power = No results

1. Power is the ability to get results

B. Without the character of love in place you will get no results

1. Before there is ever a release of God’s power there is always call for character. 

a. Represent God in character and He will represent you in power

2. For us to walk in the power of God like we never have before, we are going to have to walk in the character of love like we never have before   

a. The higher you go in character the further you’ll go in power and the more results you’ll see in your life

II. Our ability to love people is limited to the revelation and the consciousness that we have of God’s love for us

A. You first of all must find out how the Father’s love for you, before you are going to be able to love anybody else with that kind of love (John 13:34)

1. If you don’t know the way that he loved you, then you cannot love others that way

a. You are limited to the way you can love others, by the revelation and/or consciousness that you have of the Father’s love for you

B. We all know that God love us, but the revelation of the way He loves us has not been on the forefront of our minds, consequently we have been falling short in ministering that love to others 

1. You got to ask yourself all the time, “How does did God love me?” and then extend that same love towards others

III. God’s love for you – Let’s remind ourselves of how God loves us and then extend that love to others

A. God’s love for you doesn’t begin with your obedience and end with your disobedience.  His love for you doesn’t start when you start doing what he likes and it doesn’t end when you start doing  something he dislikes (Romans 5:6)

1. Christ died for the ungodly – He died for the unlovely, the nasty, the filthy, and yes the ones that got on his nerves

a. Ungodly – one who lacks of reverence towards God, wicked, one who was not like him

b. God didn’t start loving you when you got everything right; he loved you enough to die for you, when you were doing everything wrong and not even caring about what was right – He died for us when we were wrong

c. When you were at your worst God loved you enough to die for you (Ephesians 2:1-6 AMP)

2. It doesn’t make sense to love someone who is not worth loving, but that’s what the love of God is

a. It may not make sense to love that person who treated you poorly, who dogged you out, who hurt you, or who gets on your last nerve; but that’s the way He loved you and that’s the way you’re to love others

3. The loved that moved Jesus to die for a bunch of people who didn’t appear to be worth dying for has been poured out in your hearts by the Holy Ghost (Romans 5:5)

a. You have the potential to love like this, but potential that is not exercised will never be developed and brought forth  

4. When you start doing wrong God’s love for you doesn’t stop.  Therefore your love for others doesn’t begin with them doing right and it doesn’t end with them doing wrong

a. We’ve tried to say that we can’t love people because they don’t act right, the don’t live right, and they get on our nerves, but how many times did we not act right and get on God’s nerves, but he kept loving us

B. God’s love for you is exceedingly patient (Psalm 86:15)

1. No matter how many times you missed it God just kept on loving you

a. Psalm 145:8 – He is not easily annoyed or touchy

2. Then your love for others is exceedingly patient

a. Colossians 3:12-14 – That means whatever you do, I can put up with it, and keep on loving you

b. Proverbs 15:18 – Be slow to anger and annoyance and it will quench strife  

c. Proverbs 16:32 – He that is slow to anger and operates in the character of love will have access to the power of God

C. God’s love for you is quick to forgive (Colossians 3:14)

1. God forgives you of your sin the moment you confess them  (1 John 1:9)

2. Colossians 1:14-15 – Your sins are blotted out

a. Hebrews 10:17, Isaiah 43:25 – I don’t want the remembrance of your wrong to effect the flow of my love

IV. God’s extended His love towards us and we are obligated to extend that same love towards others (1 John 4:19-20)

A. What does it mean to love the Father?

1. To love God is to keep his commandments (1 Jn 5:3, Jn 14:15)

2. If I don’t love you, then I cannot say that I love the Father because to love Him is to keep his commandments and his commandment to me was to love you (1 John 4:20)

B. I love Him, I keep His commandments,  or I love you because – THIS IS WHY – He first loved me

1. I don’t love you because I feel like loving you – I love you because I know the way that he first love me when I was out there acting like a fool and I’m obligated to show you that same kind of love

a. I know how patient he was with me; I know how long-suffering he was with me; I know how much he put up with; I know how much mercy he showed and how much grace he showed me and that’s why I love you

2. That’s the way that you begin to exercise love towards others; you develop a consciousness of the Father’s love for you

a. You think about all the stuff that you’ve done and how many times you must have been getting on God’s nerves.  You need to go back and recollect all the patience and mercy and grace that God showed you.

C. If God loved us that way, then we ought to extend that same kind of love, patience, mercy, and grace towards one another (1 John 4:11)

1. Ought – to owe, to be in debt, be obligated

a. Romans 13:8 – I owe you my love because of the love that was extended to me

i. Owe – obligated, owe, ought, must, indebted

ii. I owe you love even if you don’t deserve it, because I was shown love even when I didn’t deserve it

2. Matthew 18:22-35 – There is a spiritual law here that says whatever is grace and love is granted to you by the Father, you are required to grant that same grace and that same love towards other people

a. You owe the same love, the same grace, the same patience towards others as God has showed towards you and it’s that character of love that will cause the power to show up