12 Jul Hands On Experience Of Gods Love #2

Gods Love Experience Overview

In this powerful continuation of his series on experiencing God’s love, the pastor explores how God designed humanity for intimate, personal relationship with Him from creation. Beginning with Adam and Eve’s first encounters with their Creator, he demonstrates that God’s primary desire is for us to know Him intimately before anything else. The sermon delves into Romans 5:1-8, revealing how hope anchors our faith and never disappoints because God’s love is actively poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This isn’t mere intellectual knowledge about God, but a transformative, hands-on experience that changes who we are. The pastor emphasizes that religion falls short because it offers knowledge without encounter, while true Christianity provides daily intimate communion with the Creator. Through suffering and perseverance, believers develop character and hope, constantly expecting God’s better plans. This divine love casts out fear and creates new creatures in Christ, requiring daily personal encounters with God to maintain spiritual vitality and fulfill His extraordinary purposes for our lives.

Gods Love Experience Outline

• 0:00 – Recap: Biblical Principles of Putting God First: Review of how God created Adam and Eve to encounter Him first before anything else.
• 3:30 – God’s Creative Process: Words vs. Hands-On Formation: Contrasting how God spoke creation into existence but personally formed mankind.
• 8:15 – The Breath of Life: Intimate Divine Encounter: Exploring Genesis 2:7 and Adam’s first face-to-face experience with his Creator.
• 12:45 – Religion vs. Relationship: The Tragic Difference: Distinguishing between knowing about God versus having personal encounters with Him.
• 18:20 – Marriage Design: God First, Then Spouse: How Eve’s creation reveals God’s pattern for intimate relationships.
• 25:10 – Romans 5:1-8: Hope That Never Disappoints: Examining how justified believers gain access to grace and develop unshakeable hope.
• 35:40 – Love Poured Out: The Holy Spirit’s Ministry: Understanding how God’s love is experientially received through the Holy Spirit.
• 42:00 – Daily Encounters: Maintaining First Love: The necessity of consistent personal time with God to fulfill His purposes.

Scripture References

Genesis 1:26-27, Genesis 2:7, Genesis 2:21-22, Romans 5:1-8, Romans 8:32, Ephesians 6:17, 1 Thessalonians 5:8, Revelation 2:4, 1 John 4:18

Key Takeaways

• God designed humanity for intimate, personal relationship with Him as the primary relationship in life, even before marriage.
• True Christianity requires hands-on encounters with God, not just intellectual knowledge about biblical stories and doctrine.
• The Holy Spirit actively pours God’s love into believers’ hearts, creating transformative experiences that change our very nature.
• Hope (elpis) means having creative imagination and expectancy for God’s better plans, even during suffering and trials.
• Daily personal encounters with God are essential to maintain spiritual vitality and avoid the fear that comes from distance.
• Perfect love from God casts out all fear and torment, replacing anxiety with confidence in His goodness.
• God’s plans and desires for our lives far exceed our own imagination – He does exceedingly abundantly above what we ask or think.

Gods Love Experience Notes

This sermon powerfully illustrates God’s original design for intimate relationship with humanity, beginning with creation itself. While God spoke the rest of creation into existence with simple commands, He took a dramatically different approach with mankind. The Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – deliberated together, saying ‘Let us make man in our image.’ Then God personally gathered dust, formed a human body with His hands, and breathed the breath of life directly into Adam’s nostrils. This means Adam’s first conscious moment was a face-to-face encounter with his glorious Creator – exactly the type of intimate relationship God desires with all humanity.The pastor emphasizes that this divine design extends to all relationships. When God created Eve, He didn’t immediately present her to Adam. Instead, Eve’s first encounter was also with God Himself, establishing the principle that our primary relationship must always be with our Creator before any human relationship, including marriage. This foundational truth reveals why so many relationships struggle – when we don’t maintain our first love relationship with God, fear and insecurity creep in, causing us to expect from others what only God can provide.The sermon’s centerpiece focuses on Romans 5:1-8, where Paul describes the progressive development of Christian character through justified faith. Believers gain access to God’s grace and rejoice in the hope of His glory. Even suffering becomes productive, developing perseverance, character, and ultimately hope. This hope (elpis in Greek) represents a creative imagination that constantly expects God’s better plans, regardless of current circumstances.Crucially, this hope never disappoints because it’s anchored in an experiential reality – God’s love poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This isn’t mere intellectual assent or emotional feeling, but a supernatural encounter that transforms believers into new creations. Just as marriage requires consummation to fully experience marital love, our relationship with God requires ongoing spiritual encounters to experience His transformative love.The pastor warns against the tragedy of religion without relationship – people who know biblical facts and stories but have never experienced personal encounters with God. Jesus warned that many will claim religious activities in His name, yet He will say ‘I never knew you.’ The difference lies in intimate, personal relationship versus mere religious knowledge.Daily maintenance of this divine relationship is essential. Like the Ephesian church that lost its first love despite doing many good works, believers must prioritize consistent personal time with God. When we neglect this intimacy, fear gains entrance and we begin doubting God’s goodness, just as Satan tempted Adam and Eve to believe God was withholding something good from them.The sermon concludes with the encouraging truth that God’s plans exceed our imagination. His desire to bless us is demonstrated by His willingness to give His only Son – if He didn’t withhold Christ, He certainly won’t withhold any good thing. This reality should fuel our hope and expectancy, driving us to pursue the ‘good, better, best’ principle of never settling for less than God’s extraordinary purposes for our lives.

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