Showing Love of GOD

Real love involves sacrifice

Abraham (showing love to a relative)

12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your
father’s household to the land that I will show you.

13:5 Now Lot, who was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents. 6 But the
land could not support them while they were living side by side. Because their possessions
were so great, they were not able to live alongside one another. 7 So there were quarrels
between Abram’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen.

Trusted the LORD

Bargaining for mercy (Genesis 18)

He knows he is speaking with the Almighty who is about to show his wrath.
24
What if there are fifty righteous people in the city?
28
what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for
lack of five people?”
29
Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”
30
Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found
there?”
31
Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can
be found there?”
32
Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten
can be found there?”

Only one person, righteous Lot (2Peter 2:7), was found in the cities. He and his family are personally
escorted out of Sodom before fire rains down from heaven and completely destroys the two sinful cities.
Abraham – Friend of GOD

Judah (showing love to his family) (Genesis 44)

Genesis 49:8-12
Judah, you are the one your brothers will honor; your hand will be on the neck of your enemies; your
father’s sons will bow down to you. Judah is a lion’s cub; from the prey, my son, you rise up. He lies down
and crouches like a lion; like a lioness—who dares disturb him? The scepter won’t depart from Judah, nor
the ruler’s staff from among his banners. Gifts will be brought to him; people will obey him. He ties his male
donkey to the vine, the colt of his female donkey to the vine’s branches. He washes his clothes in wine, his
garments in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.

Judah
-hatched the plan to sell his own brother as a slave (Gen. 37:27)
-had broken faith with his family by marrying a Canaanite (Gen. 38:2),
-had raised such wicked sons that the Lord put two of them to death (Gen. 38:7, 10),
-had treated his daughter-in-law as a prostitute (Gen. 38:24)

In the final episode of Joseph’s testing of his brothers, Joseph framed Benjamin
for an imaginary crime and claimed Benjamin as a slave in recompense. When he
demanded that the brothers return home to Isaac without Benjamin (Gen.
44:17),

He exhibited unexpected compassion in telling of

- the family’s heart-wrenching experience of starvation,
- his father’s undying love for Benjamin, and
- Judah’s own promise to his father that he would bring Benjamin back home, lest Jacob literally
die from grief.
Then, in an ultimate expression of compassion, Judah offered to substitute himself in place of Benjamin! He
proposed that he be retained in Egypt for the rest of his life as the governor’s slave if only the governor
would let Benjamin go home to his father (Gen. 44:33-34).

Moses (Exodus 32) Golden Calf

9
“I have seen these people,” the LORD said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now
leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I
will make you into a great nation.”
31
So Moses went back to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have
committed! They have made themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, please forgive their sin—but if
not, then blot me out of the book you have written.”
David Enrolls the Fighting Men (II Samuel 24)

2
So the king said to Joab and the army commanders[a] with him, “Go throughout the
tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know
how many there are.”

3
But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred
times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king
want to do such a thing?”

4
The king’s word, however, overruled Joab and the army commanders; so they left the
presence of the king to enroll the fighting men of Israel.

15
So the LORD sent a plague on Israel
17
When David saw the angel who was striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “I have
sinned; I, the shepherd,[c] have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your
hand fall on me and my family.”

Jesus the Supreme Lover

At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will
anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”
(Romans 5:6-8).

John 10:17–18
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one
takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

Abraham – friend of GOD (James 2:23)

Moses – friend of GOD (Exodus 33:11)

David – A man after GOD’ s own heart (1 Sam 13:14)

Gujarat - Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) -2002 China

Pastor. Rajan Thomas

(1)We are unable to accept and love people because we have preconceived notions about them.
We know only lateral view but only GOD knows the top view, i.e., the truth
A legend says that Moses once sat near a well in meditation. A wayfarer stopped to drink from the well and
when he did so his purse fell from his girdle into the sand. The man departed. Shortly afterwards another
man passed near the well, saw the purse and picked it up. Later a third man stopped to assuage his thirst
and went to sleep in the shadow of the well. Meanwhile, the first man had discovered that his purse was
missing and, assuming that he must have lost it at the well, returned, awoke the sleeper (who of course knew
nothing) and demanded his money back. An argument followed, and irate, the first man slew the latter.
Whereupon Moses said to God, “You see, therefore men do not believe in You. There is too much evil and
injustice in the world. Why should the first man have lost his purse and then become a murderer? Why should
the second have gotten a purse full of gold without having worked for it? The third was completely innocent.
Why was he slain?” God answered, “For once and only once, I will give you an explanation. I cannot do it at
every step. The first man was a thief’s son. The purse contained money stolen by his father from the father
of the second, who, finding the purse, only found what was due him. The third was a murderer whose crime
had never been revealed and who received from the first the punishment he deserved. In the future, believe
that there is sense and righteousness in what transpires even when you do not understand.”
Faith in God is the sole answer to the mystery of evil.
Therefore, whatever we conceived through our five material faculties need not to be always true.
Let us accept people (with their limitations) as Christ accepted us.
(2)Don’t judge others,
Different people are in
-different level of maturity
- different state of Christian journey
- inner struggling
(3)We forget to have eternity in view, and believe that our earthly life is going to be forever.

Life on Earth is fleeting

We are sojourners in this world and our imperishable inheritance is in heaven

(4)We forget who are we, we are the children of GOD

We are called to suffer for sometime
With Christ, our life is renewable and truly sustainable. Without Christ, life is perishable and mortal.
Romans 5:5
5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the
Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Revelation 1:5,6 To Him Who Loves Us And Has Freed Us From Our Sins By His Blood, 6 And Has Made
Us To Be A Kingdom And Priests To Serve His God And Father—To Him Be Glory And Power For Ever And
Ever! Amen.