Seeing God As He Really Is #1 (Love as God Intended)

Seeing God Love Overview

In this opening message of the new series Seeing God As He Really Is, the pastor of NTC Ministries introduces a foundational theme that shapes the entire Christian walk: how a distorted image of God limits everything believers can receive from Him. Drawing from Habakkuk 2:14, 2 Peter 1:2-4, and the landmark passage of John 3:16, the message unpacks the crucial difference between two Hebrew and Arabic words for love — chav, meaning a heartfelt love freely given to the world, and rakham, meaning a love that is completed because it is returned. Using the example of Moses on the mountain, the cognitive dissonance that keeps believers from intimacy with God, and the contrast between Pharaoh hardening his heart and the believer who responds to God’s word, the pastor shows that lack is the root of all temptation and that grace and peace are multiplied in direct proportion to one’s knowledge of God. The message closes with a powerful call to complete the love God has initiated — not merely receiving it intellectually, but responding to it in obedience, worship, and relationship — so that God dances over His people with joy as promised in Zephaniah 3:17.

Seeing God Love Outline

• 0:00 – Introduction to the New Series: The pastor launches the series Seeing God As He Really Is, explaining why misunderstood words in the church distort believers’ perception of God and limit their experience of His power and provision.
• 7:30 – Obstacles in the Heart and Cognitive Dissonance: An exploration of how pre-existing beliefs and wounded egos block the truth of God’s word from reaching the heart, using the concept of cognitive dissonance and the example of Proverbs 17:20.
• 16:00 – Moses, the Mountain, and Experiential Knowledge: The pastor contrasts head knowledge with heart experience, using Moses on Mount Sinai and the smashing of the tablets as a picture of living by the five senses rather than by the word of God.
• 25:00 – Lack Is the Root of All Temptation: Drawing from Genesis 3:4-6 and 1 John 2:16, the message reveals that Satan’s strategy in the Garden was to convince Eve she lacked something God had withheld, and that this same lie drives all temptation today.
• 33:30 – Two Words for Love: Chav and Rakham: A deep linguistic study of John 3:16 compared to John 21:20 reveals that God’s love for the world is chav — freely given but unreturned — while the disciple whom Jesus loved experienced rakham, a completed, reciprocated love.
• 43:00 – Zephaniah 3:17 and God’s Dancing Joy: The pastor unpacks two distinct Hebrew words for joy in Zephaniah 3:17, showing that when believers return God’s love in obedience, He responds with a violent, spinning, exuberant joy that releases His power and blessing.
• 52:00 – Completing Love Through Obedience: John 14:15-24 is examined to show that keeping God’s commandments is not legalism but the practical expression of returning His love, which results in the Father and Son making their home with the believer.
• 1:00:00 – Salvation as a Love Exchange: The pastor reframes salvation not merely as fire insurance but as the completion of a divine love relationship, supported by Romans 5:5 and a call for every listener to respond to God’s love in a personal prayer of commitment.
• 1:04:30 – Communion and Closing Exhortation: The service closes with communion as a remembrance of God’s goodness and love, and a practical challenge to find tangible ways to express completed love to spouses, family members, and coworkers.

Scripture References

Psalm 78, Habakkuk 2:14, Proverbs 17:20, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, John 8:32, Exodus 7:2-5, Exodus 8:32, 1 Peter 2:6-8, Genesis 3:4-6, 1 John 2:16, 2 Peter 1:2-4, Hebrews 1:1-2, John 3:16-17, John 21:20, Zephaniah 3:17, John 14:15-18, John 14:21-24, Romans 5:5, Psalm 8

Key Takeaways

• How you see God determines everything — a negative image of God causes you to interpret His word as hard and judgmental, while a true image opens the door to healing, provision, and intimacy.
• Lack is the root of all temptation: when you are fully persuaded that God has already provided everything pertaining to life and godliness through Christ, temptation loses its power over you.
• There are two distinct levels of love expressed in Scripture — God’s chav love freely given to all the world, and the rakham love that is completed and returned by the believer who chooses to respond.
• Grace and peace are multiplied to believers in direct proportion to their experiential knowledge of God, not merely their intellectual understanding of doctrine.
• When you return God’s love through obedience and continued faith in His word, He responds with a violent, dancing joy described in Zephaniah 3:17 and releases His saving power into every area of your life.
• Offense always comes from within, not from without — a heart filled with the truth of God’s word develops great peace and remains unoffended regardless of circumstances.
• Salvation is not simply a transaction to escape judgment but a love exchange in which the believer completes the love God initiated, resulting in the Father and Son making their home in that person’s heart.

Seeing God Love Notes

Misunderstood Words Block God’s Truth

The pastor opens by establishing that the same word can mean entirely different things depending on the condition of the heart receiving it. Just as a gangster’s phrase take care of them carries a violent meaning while a loving father’s identical words signal protection and provision, so believers with wounded or deceived hearts will consistently misread God’s intentions. Proverbs 17:20 warns that a twisted or deceitful heart finds no good and will not prosper — not because God withholds blessing, but because the heart’s condition prevents it from receiving what is freely offered. Cognitive dissonance, the inner reflex that rises up to protect a false belief when confronted with truth, is identified as the primary spiritual obstacle to intimacy with God.

Moses and the Power of Heart Experience

The sermon draws a compelling contrast between the Israelites who received God’s names intellectually — Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Shalom — and promptly forgot them, and Moses who had a transformative face-to-face encounter that literally made his face glow. The pastor argues that God is not primarily interested in filling minds with correct information but in reaching hearts with living experience. Moses smashing the tablets after the golden calf incident illustrates the danger of reverting to five-sense, emotion-driven living even after receiving a direct word from God. The New Covenant promise is that God writes His law not on stone but on the heart, making obedience the natural overflow of genuine relationship.

Two Hebrew Words Redefine Completed Love

One of the most striking moments in the message is the linguistic discovery that John 3:16 and John 21:20 use two different words for love in their original languages. The word chav, used when God loves the world, describes a deep heartfelt love that goes out but is not returned. The word rakham, used of the disciple whom Jesus loved, describes a love that has been completed because it is mutually acknowledged and reciprocated. This distinction dismantles both the heresy of universal inclusion — the false doctrine that everyone is automatically saved because God loves everyone — and the common Christian passivity that receives God’s love without ever genuinely responding to it with obedience and devotion.

Zephaniah 3:17 Unlocks God’s Dancing Response

The pastor unpacks two separate Hebrew words for joy packed into the single verse of Zephaniah 3:17. The first, sima, means God will have great pleasure and rejoice over His people. The second, ghoul, describes a spinning, dancing movement driven by the violent emotion of love — the same exuberant joy expressed at a wedding celebration. The pastor connects this directly to the believer’s practical experience: when love is returned and the relationship is completed, God’s power flows in tangible ways — prayers answered, families restored, doors opened, promotions granted. This is not a distant theological promise but a present-tense reality triggered by the choice to love God back through continued obedience to His word.

Obedience Is Love Made Visible

John 14:15-24 is the doctrinal backbone of the closing section. Jesus explicitly links keeping His commandments with the act of loving Him, and the Father’s response to that completed love is to send the Spirit of truth and to make His home in the believer. The pastor is careful to distinguish this from legalism: obedience here is not a condition for earning God’s favor but the natural language through which love between persons is expressed and proven. Just as a husband who never provides for, protects, or shows compassion toward his wife cannot genuinely claim to love her, a believer who consistently ignores God’s instructions reveals that the love relationship has never truly been completed.

Practical Steps to Complete Love Daily

The message closes not with abstract theology but with immediate, actionable exhortation. Believers are challenged to identify what God has been asking of them for years that they have been putting off, and to take that step as an act of returned love rather than waiting for favorable feelings. The congregation is also encouraged to look for tangible ways to complete love in marriage, family, and workplace — affirming spouses, supporting colleagues, and choosing gratitude over complaint. The pastor reminds listeners that wherever completed love is expressed, the power of God flows, and that communion itself is the recurring declaration of a love relationship that has been welcomed, returned, and celebrated.

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