God and You

1: God loves you and He wants you to know Him

How can you know God loves you?
“God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

God’s Plan:
Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10 NIV)

But why is it that most people are not experiencing life to the full? Because...

2: All of us have done, said or thought things that are wrong. This is called sin. Our sin has separated us from God.

We prefer to go our own way instead of God’s; we may openly disobey God who made us, or simply ignore Him. It’s this self-centred attitude that the Bible calls ‘sin’.

We are all sinful:
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

We each suffer the effects of sin:
“That way of living leads to certain spiritual death.” (Romans 8:13)

God is perfect, we are sinful, so there is a gap between us. We may try to feel better through work, relationships, sport, religion, living a good life. But all our attempts inevitably fail, because we have ignored the real problem – turning our back on God.

The third point below gives us the only answer to this problem...

3: Jesus is God’s only provision for our sin. Through Him we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our life. By giving His life for us, Jesus Christ opened up the only way to friendship with God.

Jesus is unique:
“I am the way, the truth and the life!” Jesus answered. “Without me, no-one can go to the Father.” (John 14:6)

Jesus died in our place:
“God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Jesus rose from the dead and has power over death:
“Christ dies for our sins...He was buried...He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures...He appeared to Peter, then to the Twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred...” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6 NIV)

“For forty days after Jesus had suffered and died, He proved in many ways that He had been raised from death. He appeared to His apostles and spoke to them about God’s kingdom.” (Acts 1:3)

Jesus took the consequences of our self-centredness by giving up His life on the cross. He proved he had broken sin’s destructive power by rising from the dead. Jesus offers us freedom from guilt and a bridge back to God.

It’s not enough just to know all this...

4: We need to accept Jesus, so we can know and experience God’s love, forgiveness, friendship and plan for our lives.

We need to accept Jesus:
“Some people accepted him [Jesus] and put their faith in him. So he gave them the right to be called the children of God.” (John 1:12)

Accepting Jesus involves:
1. Agreeing with God that we are to blame for turning our back on him
2. Trusting God to forgive us completely because Jesus has paid the price for our self-centredness
3. Choosing to follow Jesus.

Jesus gives this picture:
“Listen! I am standing and knocking at your door. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will eat together.” (Revelation 3:20)

It’s not enough just to know or feel that these things are true. We have a choice to make. Receiving Jesus involves turning to God from self (repentance) and trusting Christ to come into our lives, to forgive our sins, and to make us what He wants us to be. Just to agree intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for your sins, is not enough. Nor is it enough to have an emotional experience. You receive Jesus by faith, as an act of the will.

When we receive Jesus, we experience a new birth:
Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (John 3:3 NIV)