A very long time ago, There was a boy that lived next door to us. At that time he was about twelve years old, the youngest of several children. He lived with his mother, who was seldom home, and his grandmother, who could be seen daily chasing after Andy, hitting him with a broom handle for his wrong doings.
 Andy was the neighborhood bully, and often got into scrapes with my three sons.
 
 For some reason he seemed to enjoy hanging out at our home. On one of these occasions, I was preparing to go into town to pay bills and buy groceries. The paycheck was cashed and in my purse, I just needed to finish dressing my infant daughter before leaving.

 I was drinking a coke, and I noticed Andy was looking at that coke as if it were gold. I didn't have another, so I asked him if he'd like to have mine. He looked surprised, but he didn't refuse it.

 After he finished the coke, I told him I was leaving soon, and it was time for him to go. As he went out the door something about the dejected way he looked made me call out "Andy", and when he turned back to look at me, I simply said "Andy, I love you."

About 15 minutes later, there was a knock at my back door. I opened it to find Andy standing there. He had a fist full of money......and a face full of tears.

 He put that money into my hands, telling me he had taken it from my purse while I was in another room for a moment. OUR WHOLE PAYCHECK, and I hadn't even missed it yet!!

 I asked him why he returned it. His answer? 
"You told me you loved me….and I know you do because you gave me your coke. No one in my whole life has ever done that before."

There is an old song, "What the world needs now is love, sweet love. That's the only thing that there's too little of."
 There is another old country song that says, "Looking for love in all the wrong places. Looking for love in all the wrong faces." The reason people are looking for love in all the wrong places is because they really do not understand where love can be found and yet God has so constructed the human being that all of us need love. If we don't find it in the normal places, many times, unfortunately, we look for that love in some other places.

 God has designed the human heart to need love. An automobile is designed so that it has to have oil in order to function correctly. If the engine doesn't have oil, it won't run right nor will it run for long without it. God has made your heart in such a way that you need love. If you do not get love, you do not function properly and you won't function efficiently without love. We are living in a world that is starving for love, and many are looking for love in all the wrong places. It's true that what the world needs now IS love and some of you in this room understand that ultimately where you have to go to find love is God Himself.

John 3:16 say's "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

I guess that's the greatest statement in the entire Bible concerning the love of God. Think about what this scripture is saying—the greatest reality—God. He talks about the greatest experience—love. He talks about the greatest group of people—the world. He talks about the greatest experience you can have—believing on the Lord. He talks about our greatest danger—to perish. And our greatest hope—have everlasting life. But the primary thought of this verse of Scripture is the wonderful amazing love of God.

 Have you experienced the love of God? Do you really understand that every one of you in this room—God loves you and He loves you in an individual and in a personal way.

We know many things about God. We know that God is a God of wrath. He hates sin.

We know that God is a God of justice. Would not the God who created all the earth do right?

But the fundamental assertion in the Bible, if you don't understand anything else about God, is God is love. Twice, I John makes that simple little statement. God is love.

Let's look at that scripture closely. It's starts with….

GOD SO LOVED

God's love is not like that leaking faucet in your kitchen—just a drop or two along. The love of God is like a fountain that flows and it never runs dry.

Jeremiah 31:3 quotes God by saying, "I have loved thee with an everlasting love." The word literally means from vanishing point to vanishing point. My grandkids would put it this way—out of sight! God is saying, "I love you with an out of sight love." He loves you with an eternal love. Do you see what that says to you and me? That says that there is nothing that we can do that will cause God to love us. If God loved us before we were ever born. then we didn't have to do anything to get God to love us. Yet a lot of folks seem to think they have to try to get God to love them. That they have to try to earn God's love or merit God's love or deserve God's love. No. God loves you with an everlasting love. He loves you from eternity past.

He love you with an "everlasting love."

That also means that God loves you with a future love. There will never be a time when God won't love you. Think about that. When the stars fall from their sockets or when the planets quit spinning in their orbit and when this earth is no more, God says, "I will still love you." If God loves you in eternity past there was nothing you could do to get God to love you. Then, if God loves you forever in eternity future that means there is nothing you can do that will stop God from loving you. That is an INCREDIBLE love.

Then John 3:16 continues by saying:

GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD.

ALL 6 BILLION PEOPLE OF THE WORLD….like the song I learned as a child…."red and yellow, black and white...they're all precious in His sight."

That gets pretty incredible when you think about what kind of people make up this world. I read things that I will never be able to understand. I read about a live-in boyfriend who takes a six-month-old child and sexually abuses it and give it AIDS. I read in the newspaper about a drunken father who takes his child and to stop it from crying, takes its little hand and puts it over a gas stove and burns its fingers off. Does God love people like that? Does God love people who do things like that? There are no restrictions on this statement. It says, for God so loved the world.

"Rinda, you don't know what I've done." No, I don't know what you've done, but I know what God says. God says He loves you. "You don't know how bad I've been." No, I don't know how bad you've been and I don't need to know how bad you've been. But God knows, and regardless of how bad you've been, God says, "I love you with an everlasting love."

If you don't walk out of this room with anything else today I want you to walk out of here saying, "Jesus loves me. I am precious to God. God loves me." That is an INCREDIBLE love. God loves you with an incredible, UNCONDITIONAL love.

God Loves you with an INDISPUTABLE love. You can't dispute it. You can't doubt it.

John 3:16 says:
GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON

The gift of God's Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for this world puts the love of God beyond dispute.

I have four children and five grandkids. Believe me...I know the depths of the love a parent has for a child. My oldest son is 41 years old. When he was 18 his drug addiction led to armed robbery, which led him to the Oregon State Pen. He's been out now for several years...but not free. There are worse prisons than a jail cell, and his is heroin. His is not the lifestyle that a mother wishes for her child. But I love him with all my heart, and as much as I love God, if He told me, right this minute, that I could save the world by allowing my boy to be killed, I really don't think the world would stand much of a chance at salvation.

Yet God loved the world so much that he was willing to allow Jesus to be ridiculed, humiliated and finally to die nailed to a cross as a sacrifice for OUR sins. MY SINS...YOUR SINS.

THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT HAVE EVER LASTING LIFE

Do you want to go to heaven when you die? I have never met any person I thought had normal intelligence who didn't say, "Yes, I would like to go to heaven when I die." There is only one way for sinners like me and you to ever got to heaven. That's to turn from our sins and by faith invite Jesus Christ into our heart and into our life.

I ask you to please accept God's gift of love to you…. to get down on your knees and accepted Jesus as your personal Savior….or let your heart whisper to Him, that you accept His incredible, indisputable, unconditional, everlasting gift of love.

He will hear, because the only thing we have to do to reap the benefits of God's great sacrifice is to Believe in Him. To believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that he died so that we might be saved. Doesn't seem like much of a price for eternal life with God, does it?

John 14:27 says "I am leaving you with a gift---peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid."

And if you listen, You will hear Jesus whisper, "I love you."

I wish His peace for you