The Immeasurable Love | For God So Loved | Pastor Alisa Keck

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hear me. Okay, all right, kids, you can come behind
and then just wait until it's your part. Good morning.
It is a privilege to deliver the message this morning.
Last week, Pastor Tara discussed the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus,
and in that conversation, Jesus told Nicodemus that you must

(00:21):
be born again. In case you haven't noticed, I don't
have a lot of funny stuff to start off the
beginning the way, Pastor Tara, Pastor Scott, I'm just jumping
right in. So you must be born again. And Nicodemus
was confused by what that meant. Even as a spiritual leader,
he did not understand what it was for a spirit

(00:41):
to live in someone to be a new creature in
Christ through faith. We will journey on that conversation just
a little bit further. So today's message is about a
word that inspires millions to compose songs about, to create
works of art, over to write bodies of novels and

(01:02):
poetry around. It is a word that is overused at times,
misused in some instances, and not used enough in others.
In case you haven't guessed it, the word is love,
specifically today the immeasurable love of God. Our days are
filled with measuring. So take a moment and consider all

(01:25):
the things you measured this morning before you even left
for church. The amount of toothpaste on your toothbrush, assuming
you brushed your teeth. Further, assuming you have teeth. How
many cups of coffee you're poured for yourself yourself? And
that makes me think of Kathy Kramer and her sidekick Bernie.

(01:48):
How many sprays of perfume or cologne. The truth is
we cannot escape measuring everyday things, gallons of gasoline in
our vehicles, time spent at the gym, money for groceries.
We are also the ones being measured by others, and
we measure ourselves. Examples include, but are not certainly limited to,

(02:11):
And I see my high school students down here in
front sat and act scores, time trials on a track course,
employee valuations, or letter grades on a report card. So
the children are up here, and our adult volunteers, I'm
going to ask Donna and Chris also to come forward,

(02:33):
because yes, come on, for just a minute, you can
stand to the right, and I'm going to ask the
rest of you to please stand as we read our
guiding scripture for today. If you open your bibles to
John chapter three, verse sixteen, should be familiar, and read
it aloud with me. For God so loved the world

(02:55):
that he gave his one and only son, that whoever
believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
You may be seated in the spirit of measuring. The
children are going to measure out and make chocolate chip cookies,
and Chris and Donna are going to lovingly bake them
during the rest of the service, and we just get

(03:18):
to smell all of that. So this is a bit
of fun, and it will also make a point about
measuring good thing is. Scripture tells us exactly what love
is and what love is not in First Corinthians, so
we don't even have to guess. First, we need to
make the environment just right for the cookies, So Chris
and Donna, if you would go back and preheat the

(03:40):
ovens to three hundred and seventy five degrees. Second, and
here's where it's gonna get messy. Two and a quarter
cups of flour, and you guys can go ahead and
start having the kids measure as I go two and
a quarter cups of flour, one teaspoon of baking soda,
and one teaspoon of salt are measured out and placed

(04:02):
into one bowl. They are patient and hopeful ingredients. They
cannot do anything until the other ingredients are combined and added.
They must wait and hope that they will be changed
into a new creation. They could stay in the bowl
all day and remain flour, salt, and baking soda. If

(04:26):
you want to capture the science of all of this,
these three ingredients will remain in their original state of being,
meaning that the properties have not changed even though they
are mixed together. So, third, and in a different bowl,
we're going to combine one cup of softened butter. I'm

(04:47):
gonna pause here for a quick minute because I think
that if butter were a person, it would be misunderstood.
Anybody with me. I mean, apparently you can replace butter
with apple so us now in many baking recipes. Whether
your truth is butter makes everything taste better, or a
cup of butter in a single cookie recipe cannot possibly

(05:11):
be healthy, butter is rejoicing in the truth. Next, we
have three quarters cups of each of our two types
of sugar. In this recipe, sugar is the trust. In
our recipe, white sugar granules are easily poured out, just

(05:33):
like the trust of a child, whereas brown sugar must
be pressed and packed firmly into the cup until it
assumes the shape of the cup when it is turned
upside down into a bowl. This kind of trust we
build in our christ while under pressure. Trust is built

(05:54):
on a savior whose goodness resides in our being transformed
into the shape and character of him during tests and trials.
And then at the end we add one teaspoon of vanilla.
Vanilla is our kindness. Kindness is a little bit can

(06:15):
go a long way. Fourth, we're going to add eggs,
eggs protein. This single ingredient provides all the evidence we
need that chocolate chip cookies are indeed healthy. The eggs
provide protection, thank you. I did not know that, But

(06:40):
we're going to talk about chocolate in a minute. The
eggs provide protection, which is another attribute of love in
First Corinthians. So did you know that egg whites are
made up of forty different kinds of proteins? And if
we talk about science again, proteins help repair and build
tissue drive metabolic reactions help maintain pH and fluid balance,

(07:04):
and many other actions. So kids, after the butter, sugar, vanilla,
and eggs are thoroughly combined, how you coming along? Their Lynn?
She might need some help. Guys. After the butter, sugar, vanilla,
and eggs are thoroughly combined, you can add the flour, salt,

(07:26):
and baking soda. This is the moment that those ingredients
have impatient and hopeful for. As the stirring and mixing
is carried out by persevering hands, we look to the
final ingredient that can be added. Chocolate chips. They speak
for themselves. This ingredient was accidentally added to Ruth Wakefield's

(07:52):
butter Drop cookies in nineteen thirty seven. As a trained dietitian.
Ruth noticed that the chocolate chips did not entirely melt
as Baker's chocolate did. The chips only softened and maintain
their form in the baking process. Fire in the form
of an oven is the catalyst by which all ingredients

(08:17):
are forever changed, and maybe Linru will also be forever
changed by this experience, never to return. Chocolate chips are
our love and Brenna. The chocolate chips that are in
the front. They're totally measured out into two cups. Oh
you already have them, all right? Good. The immeasurable love

(08:39):
of God changes us internally and eternally, even though we
may look the same on the outside. John John the
Baptist says in Matthew three to eleven, he will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and fire. God bless you.
We will not melt in this fire. We will be softened.

(09:02):
As they finish up. Let's give our children an adult
volunteers a hand Alison Lynn. Whenever you're ready, you guys
can all take those ingredients to Chris and Donna, where
they will probably finish mixing. It took a lot of

(09:24):
me to not just grab a handful of those, yeah,
because it's like any chocolate. Once you get started, it's
all downhill. I'm just eating the whole thing. So all right,
And kids, if you want to go see matt he
has the paper and pencil for you, because, as per
our usual family Sunday, if you fill out your paper

(09:44):
during the rest of this message and bring it to
me after the service, I will have a treat for you.
It's truly a blessing to have our children in church
and to be active participants in the service. The cookies
are fun and for sure a delight to eat, Yet
every ingredient, including love, was measured to some degree. The

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ingredients I discussed in the cookies were certainly not all
inclusive of what love means, nor did they address what
love is not. In his first letter to the Corinthians,
Paul addresses what love is not. It does not envy,
It does not boast. It is not proud. It does

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not dishonor others. It is not self seeking, It is
not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love
does not delight in evil. And we're not going to
dive into those today, because that's a whole other message
in its own. But as I was studying and praying
about God's guidance on love, I spent considerable time figuring

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out how to narrow this message to really focus on
God's immeasurable love. And you may say, what about this
verse and what about that verse? And I would say, yep,
you are right, and I pray that you go and
read all of those. The truth is, the word love
is found in the Bible anywhere between three hundred and

(11:19):
ten and more than seven hundred times, depending on the translation. However,
I do not have seven hundred minutes. So for our
purpose in time today, I will present three passages that
the Holy Spirit repeatedly placed before me to share with
you on the immeasurable love of God. Here's the thing.

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I do not have to prove his immeasurability. It is
my full belief, and I'm guessing it's your belief as well,
that the Bible inherrantly reveals the word of God. All
I can do is point you in a direction that
leads you to Him. Our first passage comes from John one,

(12:02):
John four seven through eleven. Beloved, let us love one another.
For love is from God. And whoever loves has been
born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not
love does not know God. Because God is love. In

(12:27):
this the love of God was made manifest among us.
That God sent his only son into the world that
we might live through him. In this is love. Not
that we have loved God, but that He loved us
and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved,

(12:53):
if God so loved us, we also ought to love
one another. Harvey wrote about the part of the verse
that says, let us love one another. That it is
more than an exhortation. It flows naturally from the statement
that love is of God. I like this statement here.

(13:17):
Such love does not depend on the quality of its object.
Such love does not depend on the quality of its object.
If a man has fellowship with God, is born of God,
and walks in the light, he will invariably love others,
because love is of God. If God is love, and

(13:41):
he lives in us, and his light shines through us,
then we have love in us. With that the love
we are commanded to love one another. I don't believe
there's any way to measure this kind of love. So
I will put this another way. And because it's family

(14:02):
Sunday and I have a microphone, I will share this
bit of family friendly inspiration. Raise your hands. If you
have read or at least heard of the book. If
you give a mouse a cookie, which I tried several
of you, does anybody here have a copy? I could
not find my copy. Pastor Tara, you know what, if
you weren't busy at gold weekend, I would have called you.

(14:25):
It is definitely However, I think my favorite one is
if you give a mousa muffin, And the only reason
is because there's a page in there where he creatively
makes sock puppets and they're so cute, and I just
think that that is anyway, all right? Say that again.
I do have that one too, somewhere. I don't know
where it's at, So here it goes. If you give

(14:50):
oop here. If you give a person a smile, they
will want to smile back at you. The smile remind
you that smiling is free. The free smile leads you
to look at your own smile in a mirror. You
are quickly reminded that when you smile in the mirror,
you are smiling back at yourself. When you see the

(15:14):
reflective smile, you feel joy. This joy reminds you that
Jesus's love is freely given and freely received. So you
turn on the song Jesus Loves Me, and you sing loudly.
The lyrics tell you that you know of Jesus's love
because the Bible tells you. So you see your Bible

(15:37):
out of the corner of your eye, and you remember
that you are disciple. Jesus commands his disciples to love
one another as he loves us. How you love will
show others that you are a disciple of Jesus. Being
a disciple means reflecting God. This thought reminds you of

(15:59):
your reflection in the mirror. You quickly run upstairs to
your favorite mirror, and chances are if you smile in
the mirror, your reflection will smile back. And I know
all this is fun and cute and everything and even more,

(16:20):
the Bible tells us. Jesus tells his disciple disciples after
washing their feet in John thirteen, a new commandment. I
give you that you love one another just as I
have loved you. You are also to love one another.
By this, all people will know that you are my

(16:42):
disciples if you have love for one another. In the
text by Joseph H. Mayfield, he writes, the command of
love for one's neighbor was not new. That's found in
Leviticus and Luke. But to love as I have loved you,
that was new. Jesus's command would allow for love to

(17:08):
be extended to a person like a Judas or a Peter,
a betrayer and a denier. Jesus gave all love to all,
without any guarantee of human response. Jesus loves us, regardless,

(17:28):
regardless of what, just regardless. The second passage I was
repeatedly drawn to is found in Paul's Letter to the
Romans in chapter eight. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ shall tribulation or distress, or persecution or

(17:49):
famine or nakedness, or danger or sword? As it is written,
And this is from the book of Psalm Psalm forty four.
For your sake, we are being killed all the day long.
We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in
all these things we are more than conquerors through Him

(18:11):
who loves us. For I am sure that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor
anything else in all of creation will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ, Jesus

(18:34):
our Lord. Further Romans five eight says, but God shows
his love for us that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us. God's everlasting love is through the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our faith becomes manifest

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in this love that our God would send his son
to make a way for us to live with him
in eternity. Again, I don't know how you would measure
this kind of love. I was praying about how to
give an analogy to measure this kind of love that

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can never separate us from the love of God. And
the best I could come up with was this ask yourselves.
Can distance across the state or a country separate the
love you have for your children or a beloved friend.

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Can death divide us from the love we have for
one who's resting place is with our Father in heaven.
Pastor Tara, Melissa Griffin, and Brie. You haven't even seen Caroline,
but you love her. How do you measure that you can't.

(20:00):
These examples of how love is beyond measurement points directly
to Paul's message in Romans eight. What can separate us?
In the answer is nothing. The last passage that was
repeatedly on my heart is found more than two thousand
years prior to Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection Genesis twenty two.

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Beginning with verse two, he said, and this is God
speaking to Abraham. Take your son, your only son, Isaac,
whom you love, and go to the land of Maria
and offer him there as a burnt offering on the
mountains of which I shall tell you. I do picture

(20:49):
Abraham saying here, I'm sorry. What you want me to do?
What I would have a difficult time marching up a
mountain with firewood and no animal for a sacrifice. This
verse is the first time the word love appears in
the Bible. I do not believe we should assume that

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God did not love his people prior to this reference
to Abraham's love for his son, simply because the word
did not appear here. I want to focus on how
God was specific to say, your son, your only son, Isaac,
whom you love. We already established a few moments ago

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in First John that God is love. Because God is love,
he recognizes the love Abraham has for his own son,
and now God has commanded Abraham to sacrifice him to
take away the blessing. Abraham did not refute God, and

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I think it's notable that neither did Isaac. And Isaac
was not a wee little boy. He was late teenager,
early twenties, so he was a man. We can go
on and on about this scene and the relationship as
father a son, but I believe that that is for

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further study and another message, yet with a firm and
righteous faith. When asked by his son about the lamb
for the burnt offering, Abraham simply said, God will provide
for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son,

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I thought it was interesting that God did not say,
I will provide you, Abraham with an animal. God will
provide himself for the sacrifice for the lamb. In the
book East of Eden Finding Our Way Home, stan Key
writes that God's purpose for this entire scene is a

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test of Abraham's faith. God never wants his children to fall.
He arranges tests not because he is sadistic or cruel,
but to strengthen and prepare his children for what lies ahead.
The test on Mount Moriah was to see if Abraham
loved God more than his own son. Let that sit

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for just a moment. I know I love my children dearly.
So does Matt, so does Terror, so does Melissa, I
mean all of you. But I do feel that sometimes
in our current society, our children are lifted up higher
than our Christ and we have to really be careful

(23:45):
of how we love our children and who is really
truly first in our hearts. So you all have heard
the term helicopter parent. Right. My kids remind me frequently
that I was a helicopter parent. I'm like, no, I wasn't.
Denise was not this Denise, a different Denise, And then
they think, oh, yeah, she kind of was. So the

(24:07):
new term, and I've seen this around in about the
last few years, is the bulldozer parent. Anybody hear of that.
You'll recognize it as soon as I tell you, if
you haven't already figured it out. This is the parent
that loves their child so much that they bulldoze a
path for their child to walk on, ensuring that they

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experience a life without hurt or disappointment or failure. One
of the many unintended outcomes from that is our children
rely on us to save them instead of Christ. What
I see in this passage with Abraham and Isaac, among
many things, is Abraham taking his son Isaac from behind,

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putting him in front, and saying, here, God, he is yours.
This blessing came from you. This blessing is yours. I
know as a parent, I've often shielded my children from
things that I would knowingly hurt them. I'm not suggesting

(25:14):
that we send our children to the grocery store when
they're four years old with a fifty dollars bill and
then say, hey, have fun. Hope you make it home alive.
So I'm not suggesting that, but I am suggesting that
we equip them to turn to God when trials and
tests are at the doorstep, and they will be. Before

(25:37):
Abraham was instructed to take his son Isaac. Verse one
in the chapter twenty two says, after these things, God
tested Abraham and said Abraham, so he had lots of
tests in the chapters leading up to God to this point.
So God calls out to Abraham. Abraham. Now, I would

(26:02):
think that he would just be like, yeah, I'm ghosting him.
I'm not calling him, I'm not answering he's gonna put
me through another test. But he doesn't. He says, here
I am. When a test is at your doorstep, do
you ghost God, or do you say here I am?

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Do your will in my heart. The story unfolds just
as Abraham was about to strike with the knife, he
is stopped by the Angel of the Lord, and God
provided a ram for the sacrifice. And every time I
read that passage and I know how it's going to end,

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I've read it numerous times I still think, God, don't
let him do it. Don't let him do it, spare him,
and he does. All three passages point to a love
that cannot be made. And this kind of love is
called agape, agape agape for the kids. That's how it's

(27:09):
spelled on your papers. That's a hint. It is the
highest form of love. It is full of humility. First,
John says again, we love because He first loved us.
He also first forgave us. If anyone says I love

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God but hates his brother, he is a liar. For
he who does not love his brother, whom he can see,
cannot love a God who he cannot see. And this
commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also

(27:53):
love his brother. In the Book of Matthew, Jesus says
that if we are bringing a gift to the altar
but have unresolved issues with a brother, we need to
leave the gift and be reconciled with our brother first,
then come back to give the gift. God love is

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not holding a grudge. It just isn't. The moment we
have an issue is the moment we limit our love.
Limits begin with phrases such as I love you when,
or I will love you if. The when and if
are dependent upon some future fulfillment or earning of one's

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love based on works that should sound familiar as to
what God's love is. Not. When we place limits on love,
we are measuring it. I do want to be clear
on this point. Limits are folks. Sorry, Limits are focused

(29:00):
on me. Boundaries involve relationships with other people. Do not
confuse limits with boundaries. How does this story in Genesis
make the short list of on the immeasurable love of God?
Genesis twenty two provides the foundation for understanding the Gospel

(29:24):
of Jesus Christ. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only son. In a sermon by Dennis Kinlaw,
he recalled an evangelistic preacher named Henry Clay Morrison, and
he had some thoughts with regards to Genesis twenty two.

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And this is where I'll be closing. I'm sorry, I'm
really fast. I'm a fast talker, but not I don't
know if you have a song all right, that's not
as smooth and polished as Pastor Tara, but it'll work
the Triune God. And this is Henry Clay Morrison saying

(30:06):
this the Triune God was looking on at the sacrifice
of Isaac. One member of the godhead said to another one,
this is not the last time we're going to be
on this mountain, is it? And the first person of
the Blessed Trinity said no, it will be about two

(30:28):
thousand years, and we will be back right here. And
the second person of the Blessed Trinity said to the
first person, and when we come back here next time,
it's not going to be one of them on the altar,
is it, sorry? And the first person of the Blessed

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Trinity said no, when we come back next time, it
won't be one of them. It will be one of us.
And then the second person of the Blessed Trinity said
to the first and when they put me on that
altar of sacrifice, are you going to say stop, don't

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touch the lad No, the father said, we will never
ask them to do and symbol what we haven't been
willing to do in reality. If I speak in tongues
of men and angels, but I have not love, I

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am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. And if
I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge and if I have all faith as to remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing. If I give

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away all I have, And if I deliver up my
body to be burned, but have not love, I've gained nothing.
So now, faith, hope, and love abide these three. But
the greatest of these is love.