Growing in Love with Jesus

Sometime as Christian, we lose our love for God because it becomes a routine.

We will study the life Peter, one of Jesus disciple, who failed.

Read John 13: 36 – 38.

Read Luke 22:54-62

Peter was so in love with Jesus, but when Jesus was about to be crucified, he denied Him three times.

Question:
Are we also like Peter, when we first knew Jesus we were so in love with Him but when hard times comes we will suddenly deny Jesus and say I am not a Christian anymore. Or all things are good, happy, and successful, we will forget God? Or are we following Jesus at a distance?

Sometime we are afraid to come close to Jesus because of our sins.

But even if you fall out of love for Jesus, even if you deny Him and forget Him, even if you do not pray and trust Him any longer, Jesus love for you remains constant, unchanging and He will love you just the same.

We do change. But Jesus won’t. We do fail. But Jesus won’t. We may run out of love for Jesus, but Jesus love for us will never run out.

John 21:1-14

First Point – Come Back to Jesus

Jesus always invites you to come back to Him. He will never deny you whatever mistakes you have made, and He will always give you the chance to return to Him.

Second Point – Humble yourself to Jesus

Read John 21:15-17

Jesus is redeeming Peter. Peter denied Jesus three times, now Jesus is asking Peter three times as well if he really love Jesus. Jesus wants a humble kind of love.

Third Point – Be filled up with the Love of God
Peter can only love Jesus to a certain limit because he is human. So like Peter, we need to kneel down to God and tell Him honestly that we need Him. We need God to fill us up so we can love Him back.
We can never love unconditionally – unless we know the love of God

1 John 4:16 – “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”

Fourth Point – Do not focus on yourself but begin to care and love others

Take care other people – If someone is in need, help them. Don’t be selfish and thinking of yourself alone – think of others as well. Think of others as God loves them too.

Conclusion:

If God was to measure the love of God in your heart – like a thermometer – how is your love for God?

Begin to grow in love for God.

Pastor Shalom Gasilao-Barbero

A Parable about a lost son – a lesson in salvation

Luke 15: 1-32

1-2 the Jewish Religious Leaders always opposed Jesus and this time they were complaining against Him that He associated with sinful people

3-32 Jesus tells them 3 parables

# 1 4-7 the parable of a lost sheep and how the shepherd upon finding the lost sheep invited everyone to come and celebrate with him

7 ‘In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven’t strayed away’!

# 2 8-10 the parable of the lost coin and how the woman upon finding the lost coin invited everyone to come and celebrate with her

10 ‘In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents’

# 3 11-32 Jesus tells them a 3rd parable – the parable of the lost son

In this parable: a son demands his inheritance from his father, his father gives it to him, the son leaves home.

The son wastes all his money, he ‘hits rock bottom’, and finally he comes to his senses and returns home to his father

In this parable: the father represents God & the lost son represents all sinners

This parable teaches us that lost sinners can be found again

If you are a lost sinner let me explain how you can be saved

1/ the first step to salvation is: confess your sin

12 This son had a sinful heart – he loved money more that his family and wished his father was dead so that he could claim his share of the family business (Jesus said this is the same as committing murder)

But the father was still alive so the son demanded his inheritance ‘now’!

13-16 On receiving his inheritance the son left home and wasted his money until it was all gone

17-18 Finally, the son came to his senses, confessed his sin and returned to his father

The first step to salvation is to confess your sin – “I have a heart of rebellion against God, I am a sinner separated from God, I need forgiveness from God for my sin”

1 John 1: 8-9 ‘If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness’.

2/ the second step to salvation is: Go to God

20 Now that the son confessed his sin he knew he had to go to his father and ask for forgiveness

In this life we can solve most problems quite easily

How do you solve financial problems? – go to work (get money)

How do you solve health problems? – go to a doctor (get medicine)

How do you solve relationship problems? – go to a counsellor (get advice)

In this life there is one problem that money, medicine and good advice cannot solve = the problem of our sin

How do you solve your sin problem? – go to God (get forgiveness)

The second step to salvation is go to God – ask Him for forgiveness

Acts 3: 19 ‘So you must change your hearts and lives. Come back to God, and He will forgive your sins’

3/ the third step to salvation is: Get right with God

21-23 Look and learn from the son’s attitude – ‘I am no longer worthy of being called your son’

Immediately the son’s attitude of repentance moves the father’s heart to forgiveness and the father restores all the symbols of son-ship to his returned son who ‘Was lost, but now is found.’

The third step to salvation is get right with God – humble yourself before God

James 4: 6 ‘God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’

Are you a lost sinner – Jesus told this parable just for you!