The Healing Word

Jack Morris: But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Hey, did you get that? When was that that God poured out his love? When was it that God blessed us with this eternal life? While we were yet sinners.

Guest (Male): Welcome to today's Healing Word broadcast. On today's program, Pastor Jack Morris explores the love of God and how that love manifests itself to us in our daily lives. Let's go now to hear today's message of hope, God's Unreasonable Love.

Jack Morris: A question was asked, a good question, a question that needed to be asked, and a question that certainly needs an answer. And that is, why does God love me? That question was put to a hymn. Why does he love me so? Why does he love me so? Why did my Savior to Calvary go? Why does he love me so? Now that deserves an answer. That deserves some looking into, because it doesn't make sense that God would love a sinner who didn't love him and didn't care anything about him. Why does he love me so?

I want to talk about God's unreasonable love. I'm going to read a few scriptures real fast because I don't want to bore you with a lot of Bible reading today. But Romans 5, it says, "God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given." He has poured out. He has dumped bushels. He has dumped buckets. He has poured out, not just a little bit, but an abundance, a Niagara.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Hey, did you get that? When was that that God poured out his love? When was it that God blessed us with this eternal life? While we were yet sinners. When we didn't love him, we didn't care for him, we ignored him, we did our own thing, we sinned with a high hand, and yet he poured out his love. That's what I'm talking about. God's love doesn't make reasonable sense. It's nothing like anything that is found in this world today.

Notice in Jeremiah 31, "I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have drawn you with lovingkindness." Everlasting love, a love that knows no quit. There is no quit in God's love. And then one more scripture, Ephesians 3: "love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge." That's what I'm talking about. Love that is not logical. It surpasses knowledge. You can't really put it into words, but you can certainly experience it.

There was a man I'm going to call him Frank because he doesn't want his name known because of his son. Frank, a dad, lived in San Diego, California. His son was a street person in Denver, Colorado. His son lived on the street. He was a homeless boy, heavy into heroin. I mean heavy heroin. And the dad felt an intuition that my son is dying and I have to go find him. But he didn't know where in Denver. Denver's a pretty big place.

And so he calls Chris Connor, one of Denver's leading home advocates. He says, "Can you find my son for me? I want to come. I want to see him." So Chris Connor contacted Pastor Jerry Hershen and asked him, says, "Can you help?" Now, it was Pastor Jerry Hershen's church that every day at noon passed out sandwiches on the lawn outside the capitol of Colorado. Out there on the lawn, these homeless people would come and he would pass out sandwiches.

He found this boy and he called Frank, the dad, and he said, "I've found your son." So Frank goes to Denver. He finds this section of the city that he was told his son was in, and then he found the street that he was told his son was on. And Frank starts walking down that street looking for his boy. Now his boy's a grown man. And he sees his son at a distance and he walks toward him. Now, the son didn't recognize his dad.

The son was so heavy on heroin that he had to use a building support to get on his feet. Anyone else would have felt that this man is drunk. But the son got on his feet and Frank, the dad, walked up to him. And when the dad got right up to him, the son recognized him to be the dad. And the son tried to turn his back on his dad and his dad reached out and grabbed him, put his arms around him. And Frank said, "I squeezed him as hard as I could squeeze him."

And then here is something that Chris Connor, the Denver leading home advocate, said. He said, "I've never seen anything like this before or after. I've never heard of anything like this." The dad stayed with his son for one week and became a street person just like his son, with the exception of the heroin. He said, "I slept on the streets with my boy." He said, "I went to the and ate handout sandwiches that the street people were eating."

He said, "I shadowed him. He couldn't get away from me." And at night he said we would go down to the river and sleep on the riverbanks. And he said, literally, I had to swat the rats away. He said, for one week, I descended into homelessness. Is that not what Jesus did? We were dead in trespasses and sins, committing any other and every kind of sin imaginable. I'm talking about everybody, the whole human race.

And Jesus came down to this sin-infested world to street people like us, and he became one with us. He ate what we ate, he slept where we slept. He was one of us. Now Frank's boy got very sick after a week and was put in the hospital several times. And Frank stayed there. Frank said he didn't take a bath. Frank didn't bath. Frank said, "I became like my boy. I let my beard grow. I ate what he ate. I was a street person."

He said, "But when my son was put in the hospital, I told my boy, 'If you die, your mother and I will die with you. We may still be breathing, but inside we will be dead.'" And somebody asked Frank later, "Why did you do that and go through what you went through for your son?" You know what he said? "Because we loved him." God so loved the world. He loved you, friend, whether you're a street person or multimillionaire, educated or not educated. It makes no difference.

Jesus is coming to where you are. But so many of us, like Frank's son, Jesus came to us and when we recognized what was happening, we turned our back or we at least tried to turn our back. How many of us have heard the Gospel and heard the Gospel and we kept turning our back on the Gospel? Somehow we resisted giving our heart to Jesus. We just turned our back on him. Now, Frank pursued his son.

His son was a worthless heroin stealing for a living so he could have money to buy heroin. But Frank pursued his son. Do you know what it means to pursue something or someone? Whatever you pursue, it simply means you value it. If you pursue education, you value education. If you pursue money, you value money. If you pursue rank, you reach for rank. Whatever you pursue, you value.

Now, why Frank would value that boy, Frank answered the question honestly. He said, "Because his mother and I loved him." Why should he love me so? Why should my Savior to Calvary go? Why, tell me why should he love me so? Now here's the problem with that song and with that question. Why should he love me so? We're looking to ourselves to find an answer. We're looking in the wrong place.

If Frank had looked to his son, there was nothing in his son that would have attracted Frank's affection. It wasn't the son. The son didn't stand over here and say, "Why should my dad love me so?" No, the father was over here saying, "I love him and the love is coming out of me and there's nothing in him that's attracting that love. It's just there. Just there, that's all." Why should he love me so? Not me.

I can't find anything in me. The Apostle Paul said, "In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." It's God. That song doesn't answer the question. That song does not work. Why should he love me so? It's not me. It's him. Not looking to me, looking to him. It's coming from heaven. It's coming from him. Not because I'm lovable, no. There's nothing in me that is lovable that attracts God's affection.

It's not because I'm good. Not by works of righteousness. It's not because I help old ladies across the street, help somebody with a flat tire, or give somebody a meal. Jesus said there is only one that is good, and that is God. Friend, we're not good. What are we? We're sinners. But some of us are sinners saved by the grace of God, not by our lovableness, not because we are good, not because we have been nice to God, because we have not been nice to God, no nicer to God than Frank was nice to his dad by turning his back on his dad.

Why, we take from God everything that God hands out. We eat the food without giving thanks. we breathe the air that's clean, we drink the water that's clean, we use the brain that God gives us to get our education, we use that brain to get a good job to make money, build houses, take beautiful vacations. We just take, take, take. We came into this world with nothing. God gave it all. We take from God and God just keeps on giving. Isn't it amazing?

He doesn't stop giving because he doesn't stop loving. Love is God's everlasting gift. God loves us. Oh, I wish I could say it today in such a way that it would come through to your heart. I prayed, Lord, take the words that I'm saying and somehow impress it. Get it through, get it through, get it through. Not because I'm speaking it, but because they are God's words. And he says, "I love you with an everlasting love."

But it's so hard to believe that. So hard for Frank's son to believe that dad and mom still loved me in that terrible heroin addiction that I was in. But God loved me. God needs somebody in his own image that he can pour out love. And remember the scripture, God has poured out his love. So he made Adam and Eve so he now has an object to love. God has to. He must. He is compelled. He must love.

And he loves us all with an everlasting, non-ending love, even when we sin. I think of the last evening that Jesus was on Earth, only hours before he was crucified. He takes a basin of water and a towel and the Savior kneels down and washes the disciples' feet. I don't know whether I'm going to be able to get any of this across to you and I don't even whether know whether it's getting across to me.

I've read it and studied it. But I think, just like I, why does he love me so? Why do you wash those men's feet? You know very well, Jesus, that Thomas is going to doubt you, and yet you're going to wash his feet. You know very well, Jesus, that Peter is going to deny you, yet you wash his feet. And Jesus, you know very well that that hypocrite Judas is going to betray you and put you on a cross, yet you wash his feet.

Why does he love us so? Why does he go into the garden and take three of his most trusted disciples and say, "Can't you just watch with me one hour? All I'm asking is an hour of your time." Just an hour. And they couldn't do it. And then all of them forsook him and fled. Friend, has anybody ever let you down, forsook you, and fled? Jesus knows the feeling that you have. He knows. What a savior.

He's a savior that won't quit, and his love doesn't vary. Sometimes we get ticked off and we'll sort of let down and absent ourselves for a while and we're just upset a little bit. That never happens to the love of God. God, may he pour out the love of Jesus into our hearts that we might be Jesus in good times and bad times and all times and in all situations that we might be Jesus.

The scripture says in John 13:1, "Having loved his own, he loved them to the end." No matter what they did, how they did it, and how ugly they were toward him, immeasurable love. I want you to put on the screen and I want you to read this with me. I'm bringing it to a close right now, but you must, must get this scripture. Come on, read it with me. "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge."

Now notice at the bottom: "to grasp how wide." If we could only grasp it, somehow when we are now in the house of God, if the Holy Spirit would reach out and grasp you and get a hold of you and get a hold of me so that he can pour love into us. But we have come and some of us are spectators, hoping to get something that will turn us on and thrill us. If not, we will look elsewhere. Friend, what kind of love is that? That is not love.

That is sentiment, that's affection, that's goodwill, but love never. Listen to me, what is it about never that you and I don't understand? Love never fails. What can separate us from the love of God? Nothing. What is there about the word nothing that you and I don't understand? But I want you to look up here. He says about the same thing repeatedly. What is the first word underlined? Wide. Wide.

You see, those words wide, long, high, deep meaning it does not have borders on it. So if something does listen, if something doesn't have borders, how can you measure something without borders? Well, that's how we're talking about God's love. You can't measure it. It says God to grasp it. I can't grasp it. I'm trying to. To grasp how wide and it's simply meaning that love abides with me through all the experiences of life.

It is as wide as my life. How long is it? That love continues the length of my life. Not only the things that I experience all my life long, but the length of my life, it's that long. How high is it? It's a love that is higher than the third heaven. It's higher. That love is a rapture. It's an elevation. It goes high, high, high until it goes out of sight. How deep is that love? It goes down to the deepest, sorrowing, depressed person.

How wide, how long, how high, how deep. That's how much God loves you. You can't measure it. I can't measure it either. It's just too much. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. You know why? Because love never fails. Love never fails. Are you ready to give your heart to Jesus today and accept him as your Lord and Savior? Because he's come to you and will you like Frank's son say, "I heard the word, but I'm going to turn my back on it. Maybe a more convenient time. Maybe I'll try it next Sunday or some other time, but not today."

Christian, if you've been let down in any way, there's a love that is deep enough to reach you. God's love never fails. We're going to bow before the Lord and we're going to open our hearts to his wonderful wide, long, high, deep love, his immeasurable love. Would you bow with me please? Oh, Father God, you desire to care for us, to pour your love into us. You have pursued us, you have valued us.

And I keep asking the question, why, why do you love me so? It's not me, it's all you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your grace. Now, Christian, either you're going to serve God, you're going to read the word, church is going to have a high priority, meaning the fellowship of God's people, the most important people on Earth because you're now part of those people.

Because those people belong to God and now you belong to God. You're going to have to put some time and energy and action into it because love puts time, energy, and action into it. Love doesn't work in a vacuum. In human terms, the love of God is hard to understand. Why would the almighty Creator love us when in so many ways we've rejected him over the years?

While the answer to that question may remain a mystery until we join him in eternity, through faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can accept that love and know that he has the best plan for each one of us. If today's message strengthened your faith, we invite you to stand with the Healing Word through your prayers and your generous support. Every gift helps us take the Gospel to more people who desperately need to hear that Jesus still saves.