God’s Great Love
Valentine’s Day has arrived and all around our country expressions of love are being exchanged.Children will trade Valentine’s Day cards, couples will go out to eat or send flowers, and some individuals will become engaged. As great as those moments are, others experience Valentine’s Day as a day of loneliness, pain, and depression. For those experiencing the expression of love in this season let me share with you a great love. For those experiencing the pain of the season, let me offer you a great love of hope. When Jesus was speaking to a religious leader named Nicodemus, he said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, will not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). This simple statement extended an eternal Valentine gift from God to man.
First, note the love of God. The love of God exceeds the love of man. Often individuals extend love to others as long as the love does not require or expect too much. God’s love is a great love that flows from His very character and is extended to His creation. God’s love is so great that man struggles to completely understand it, but desires to experience it.
Second, notice the price of God’s love. God’s love reached so deep that God gave everything. He gave His one and only Son so that people may have a way to have a relationship with Him. God’s love did not withhold anything from man, but rather gave everything. The depth of God’s love was so deep that God knew that the only hope for man would be the cost of His Son.
Third, recognize the audience of God’s love. The love of God extended to every individual. In fact, the desire of God’s love is that every person would reach out and receive the gift of love that was purchased by His Son. God does not force a person to take the gift available, but rather makes it available for whosoever will receive it. God’s audience was everyone and God’s offering of the love gift was to everyone.
Fourth, identify the eternal promise of God’s love. Unlike flowers that fade away or cards that slowly decay, the love of God gave an eternal present that never fades or decays. The love of God offers a promise that those who receive Christ as Lord and Savior will inherit life everlasting. The offering of God’s love gives man an avenue to victory over the death sentence of sin.
On this Valentine’s Day, the greatest gift you could receive is the gift of God’s love. All one needs to do is receive the gift that has already been purchased and is being extended to man. Have you reached out to receive the gift? If not, why not receive the greatest Valentine’s Day gift of all time, the gift of everlasting life that is given in the love of God.
