19 Feb You Belong Here | Part 5 “What Kind of Love is God’s Love” | All Locations

Announcements:

IMPORTANT***** Please add

Go to your email, add no-reply@churchcenter.com to your contacts (PLEASE ASK ME IF YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND) THANKS!

no-reply@churchcenter.com to your email contacts so that you do not miss an email from Planning Center and have your members add it as well.  This will ensure you do not miss a member request or any emails that come from the Planning Center site.

NEW ENGLAND LOCATIONS:

(NEW**) ENGAGE – L&G LOST TREASURE ESCAPE ROOM!  APRIL 14! We have a fun night planned for you!  Please read the descritpion on the registration for details!  Engage is for anyone 36 and over!  Bring a friend along too!  REGISTER USING LINK BELOW!

ENGAGE L&G LOST TREASURE ESCAPE ROOM REGISTRATION

(NEW**) SOCK DRIVE – ADULT SOCKS ONLY NEEDED FOR 500 bags our action groups are bringing to the homeless.  Drop in the bins in the lobbies of each location by February 26!

ALL LOCATIONS

LIFE GROUP LEADER MEETING: MARCH 21 from 6-8:30.  Please register yourself, your apprentice and your children.  Food and child care provided.  NE AND APOLLO BEACH WILL ZOOM IN TOGETHER.

LIFE GROUP LEADER MEETING REG FOR NEW ENGLAND

LIEFE GROUP LEADER MEETING REG FOR APOLLO BEACH

All announcements and the Waters Event Calendar can be found at:  waterschurch.org/events

(*NEW SEASON STARTING) Alpha:
  ◦    Alpha spring series kicks off Thursday, March 2nd!  Alpha at Waters is a 9 week series of conversations for people seeking to learn more about God, those on the fence about faith, or questioning what religion has to do with it all.  The purpose is to meet people where they are in a non-threatening environment while enjoying a meal and guided conversation.  Please invite your non-believing friends, co-workers and family members!  Sign up today @ waterschurch.org/alpha (https://waterschurch.org/alpha)

Location Text Alerts:

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Key Verse: John 3

If there is one thing the world loves is the idea of love.  We celebrate love with holidays like Valentine’s Day and there are endless pop songs about love.

Ice-breaker:

Q.  What are some of your favorite love songs? (If you are married, do you have a love song you share?).

We love love but many times we don’t get the love of God right. We are made for his love but we don’t understand it.  We need love but many look for love in all the wrong places, we need to be careful of the loves we seek and measure ourselves by.

Our need for LOVE is a hidden DESIRE for GOD.

1 John 4:8 (ESV) God is love.

The love we need is found only in God.

What kind of love is God’s love?

1. God’s love is a SELF-GIVING Love.

John 3:16 (ESV)

The word ‘SO’ means ‘thus’ – describing the love of God.  ‘So’ does not mean the amount of God’s love, it is how God loves us.

John 3:14-15

As Moses did this SO God will do that

When God loves he gives himself.  God’s love is the best love in life, it is not possessions, accolades, nor money.  He came to give us Himself.  He never loved us wrongly a day in our lives and we need to connect with that because the enemy knows we need God’s love and he will offer all kinds of false options.

Q. How have possessions and things the world offers become less in your life and God’s love become more real to you in the past year?

As described in the story about the Israelites only needing to look at the fiery serpent to be healed from it’s bite (Numbers 21:5,6,8-9 ESV) that is how simple it is for us to be forgiven and be made right with God eternally.  We need only to look at Jesus.

2. God’s love is a WIDE-OPEN love.

John 3:15-18 (ESV)

Whosoever – it does not matter who we are, how far we have strayed, what our upbringing was like, or how badly we messed up in life.  His love is wide open and he wants everyone to hear and receive this love for themselves.  God’s love is based on God not us.

Deuteronomy 7:7-8 (ESV)

God chose the Israelites not because they were great or impressive, but because the Lord loved them.

Q. How has God’s love changed you in the last couple of months?

God does not LOVE me because of ME.  God loves me because of who HE IS.

This is where we get our joy of salvation from, that His love is fixed in the heavens, it is eternal.

1 Timothy 2:4 (ESV); 2 Peter 3:9 (ESV)

3. God’s love is a FORGIVING love.

John 3:17-18 (ESV)

Condemnation weighs on every human heart.   We stand condemned if we don’t believe.  This is why our world is so hateful and nasty to each other, why it is getting worse and people don’t get along.  The sense of condemnation resides in the hearts of lost people.  Those not in Christ feel guilt and condemnation because of their sin.  Jesus came to lift that off of us and He gives us a clean bill of health before our Father.  As believers, we are washed completely of all our sins!

CONDEMNED people CONDEMN people.

FORGIVEN people FORGIVE people.

John 8:1-11 (ESV)

Q. In this story regarding the woman caught in adultry, with whom would you most identify and why?

4. God’s love is a WORTH LIVING FOR love.

When we have it we are willing to give up everything for it.  His love changes us and there is no other love worth our effort than the love he as given us.

John 3:19-20 (ESV)

Reasons people don’t believe is because they want to do life on their own terms and don’t want to be exposed, for the light to shine on their sin.  It is the biggest eternal gamble people can possible make. It is not because there is not enough proof of God’s existence, but because their hearts are locked into the jail of sin.  A prison of shame.

John 3:21 (ESV)

Weekly Challenge:  Share the love of God by serving someone this week. 

Ongoing Challenge: Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a heart for the lost and to forgive those that you may have difficulty forgiving.