Seeing God as He really is begins with understanding that His love flows in two directions. In this second message of the series, the speaker teaches that God loves the whole world, yet His power and presence are experienced most fully when that love is returned through obedience. Using John 3:16, John 14 and 1 John, he contrasts believers with disciples and shows why the love that flows back to God is what turns the lights on. It continues from Seeing God As He Really Is #1 — Completing the Love of God.
Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps for letting God’s love flow both ways this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was posted on March 24, 2026, as part two of the Seeing God as He Really Is series at NTC Ministries. It runs about 54 minutes and closes with a time of telling the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit how much the church loves them. The speaker explains that he is taking words people have misunderstood, such as love and wrath, and restoring their meaning.
He had planned to teach on wrath, but chose to finish the theme of love first and save wrath for the following week. The result is a message on why God’s love is the same for everyone, and yet not everyone experiences it in the same way.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | The speaker (not named in the recording) |
| Series | Seeing God as He Really Is, #2 |
| Main texts | John 3:16–17; John 21:20; John 14:21–24; 1 John 3:14–18 |
| Key theme | God’s love flows both ways, and obedience is where we experience it |
| Length | About 54 minutes, ending in worship and prayer |
Words Matter: Why Definitions Shape Faith
The speaker opens with the power of words. Words get hijacked and distorted until people no longer know what they mean, yet by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned (Matthew 12:37). Every word gives life or death, so guard your words and know what they mean. God created the whole world through words.
After the fall, people became bound to their five physical senses and rationalized everything. That is why Scripture says not to lean on your own understanding but to acknowledge Him in all your ways (Proverbs 3:5–6). In the old covenant God revealed Himself through names: the God who heals you (Exodus 15:26) and the Lord our banner. Because people only intellectualized those names, they kept falling away.
So God came in Jesus Christ to reveal who He really is. Hebrews 1:1–2 says God spoke in various ways through the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. When we give our lives to Him, He gives us a new heart, so we can know Him by experience and not only in the mind.
That knowing requires that we keep hearing, even when we see someone who was not healed or face lack. God is still the healer and provider. If He can turn what the enemy meant for harm into good, He can turn our mistakes around too, because all things work together for good to those who love God (Romans 8:28).
The word of God is a two-edged sword. It blesses, but the same word can offend. When offense comes, the speaker says, the issue is wrong thinking in the heart, not the word. Great peace have those who love God’s law, and nothing causes them to stumble (Psalm 119:165). Keep hearing until God deals with your heart, confess it, and He will cleanse you (1 John 1:9).
He adds that God speaks through those He places in authority. Even Paul said to imitate him as he imitated Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Someone who claims only God can speak into their life, while refusing every person God has placed over them, is not as open to God as they think.
Seeing God as He Really Is Through Two Levels of Love
The core of the message sets two verses side by side. John 3:16–17 says God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. John 21:20 speaks of the disciple whom Jesus loved, the one who leaned on His breast at supper. The Greek uses the same family of words, agape, love as God has it, for both.
Does that mean God loves the world exactly the way He loves us? The speaker answers yes, and also that there is a difference. When people only have a human idea of love, they conclude that they can do whatever they want and still go to heaven. That thinking, he says, leads to the idea that everyone, even Satan, will finally be saved, which is why he plans to teach on wrath next.
He points to the Aramaic behind these passages. As he teaches it, the word used for God loving the world describes love flowing from one person toward another, while the phrase “whom Jesus loved” uses raham, a reciprocal love exchanged between two people. They are two levels of love. God does not love anyone more than you; the difference is how much we love Him back.
John leaned on Jesus’ breast because he wanted to, and so there was a completeness of love between them. Love that is not returned, he says, has no song to dance to and no rhythm. That is why the Bible says hell has to enlarge itself (Isaiah 5:14); not everyone will go to heaven.
The Reciprocal Flow of God’s Power
The speaker uses electricity to explain. Run a positive wire to the lights all day long and they stay dark. Bring a return wire back, and suddenly the lights come on, because there is a reciprocal flow of the same power. Many people believe in Jesus but are not His disciples, so His power goes toward them but nothing comes back, and little changes in their lives.
When we love God in return, His power flows: the lights come on, the stove heats up, the house stays warm. A home grows cold in the same way when love only flows one direction. People who keep loving someone who rejects them can end up feeling like machines. Seeing God as He really is means understanding how He functions.
Zephaniah 3:17 says the Lord your God in your midst will save, will rejoice over you with gladness, quiet you with His love, and rejoice over you with singing. He teaches that to save means to deliver, heal, prosper and empower. The second word for rejoice, as he explains it, means to spin around dancing under a strong emotion, the joy of love that is returned.
That same joy is why heaven rejoices over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10). He compares it to a shotgun wedding where the bride does not love the groom: there is no dancing. When you see God’s goodness flowing in someone’s life, it is not because God loves them more. It is because their love for Him has woken up the flow of His power.
1 John 4:7–8 calls us to love one another, because everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He encourages the church to begin each morning asking the Father to tell them again how much He loves them, and then to tell Him how much they love Him. He who is forgiven much loves much (Luke 7:47), and every one of us has been forgiven much.
Believers and Disciples
Israel knew God’s acts, the speaker notes, but Moses pressed in and knew His ways (Psalm 103:7), and his face glowed. In John 14:21–24, Jesus says that whoever has His commandments and keeps them loves Him, and He will manifest Himself to that person. When asked why He would show Himself to them and not to the world, He answered that the Father and He would come and make their home with whoever keeps His word.
Jesus died for everyone, but not everyone experiences the benefits. John 1:12 says that to those who believed, He gave the power to become sons of God. That power is the line going out; maturing as sons happens as love flows back. Paul addressed the same letter to the saints and to the faithful in Ephesus (Ephesians 1:1), two groups in one church.
The table below follows the speaker’s comparison of the two.
| Question | Believer | Disciple |
|---|---|---|
| How love flows | Receives God’s love | Returns God’s love through obedience |
| His picture | A single wire, so the lights stay dark | A return line, so the lights come on |
| Ephesians 1:1 | The saints | The faithful |
| What they see | The acts of God | The ways of God, and His manifestation |
| How commandments look | Religious work | A way to express love |
Jesus Himself modeled this. John 13:1 says that having loved His own, He loved them to the end. Reading from other translations, the speaker draws out that Jesus now showed His love the most, because He was about to do what He did not want to do. In Gethsemane He prayed, “not My will, but Yours” (Luke 22:42–44), presenting Himself as the living sacrifice Romans 12:1 describes.
Love in Action, Not Only in Words
Until God’s love is believed and experienced, people can feel condemnation and rejection and assume it comes from God. Colossians 1:21–23 says we were once enemies in our minds, not in God’s mind, and are now reconciled, if we continue in the faith. The speaker applies this to a Sunday when people had been told to stay off the roads and many stayed home: going to work rather than church weighs a perishable benefit against an eternal one.
1 John 2:1–6 says Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and for the whole world, and that by this we know Him, if we keep His commandments. Propitiation, he explains, means everything needed for peace and harmony with God has been satisfied. The crooked heart sees commandments as religious work; the righteous heart sees them as a way to express love.
1 John 3:14–18 says we know we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren, and asks how God’s love can abide in someone who sees a brother in need and shuts up his heart. The speaker says he cannot love his brothers if he is not loving God first.
He tells of a fixer-upper house he and his wife had renovated to sell. As the sign went up, a man stopped and explained that his wife had been paralyzed in a fall and they had just lost their home. The speaker and his wife gave them the house, carrying two mortgages and two tax bills while the family lived there for a couple of years, and he says God provided.
Years later, the congregation dropped from around 250 people to 40, with heavy monthly costs. The Lord reminded him that He feeds the birds of the air (Matthew 6:26). A woman from southern Wisconsin sent a large check every January until the dry season ended, then stopped without explanation. He likens it to Elijah being fed by ravens. He then reads 1 Corinthians 13, where love surpasses faith and hope.
Living Reciprocal Love This Week
The speaker closes by leading the church to tell the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit how much they love Him, and by asking God to raise up disciples like John. Here are practical steps drawn from the message:
- Start the day with love both ways. Ask the Father to tell you again how much He loves you, then tell Him you love Him.
- Obey when it is inconvenient. Doing what He asks is where His love becomes real to you.
- Keep hearing through offense. When a word stings, ask why you were offended and let God deal with your heart.
- Rejoice in others’ blessings. Love refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else.
- Love with action. If you have the means to meet a need, meet it.
- Do not forsake the assembly. Hebrews 10:25 urges gathering together all the more as the day approaches.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Words matter: love as God intended it
- 1:17 Human reasoning and the names of God
- 2:40 God revealed in Jesus Christ
- 4:47 Hebrews 1 and avoiding offense
- 7:07 Guarding the heart and submitting to authority
- 8:17 John 3:16 and the disciple whom Jesus loved
- 10:26 Two words for love
- 11:34 Two levels of love
- 12:59 The electrical circuit of love
- 15:22 Love must be returned; Zephaniah 3:17
- 17:52 Dancing over returned love
- 20:35 Forgiven much, loves much
- 23:05 Moses knew God’s ways; John 14:21–24
- 24:19 Believers and disciples; John 1:12
- 26:32 John 13:1: loved them to the end
- 28:56 Gethsemane and Romans 12:1
- 30:19 Colossians 1:21–23: reconciled
- 33:02 The saints and the faithful
- 34:28 1 John 2: the test of knowing Him
- 37:53 Commandments as an expression of love
- 40:19 1 John 3:14–18: love the brethren
- 42:43 Giving away a house
- 45:49 1 Corinthians 13: love surpasses all
- 49:14 Provision in a dry season
- 52:45 Telling God you love Him
Seeing God as He Really Is Series
This message is part of the Seeing God as He Really Is series at NTC Ministries. Go back to the previous message or continue with the next one:
- Previous: Seeing God As He Really Is #1 — Completing the Love of God
- You are here: Seeing God as He Really Is #2: The Love That Flows Both Ways
- Next: Seeing God As He Really Is #3: What the Wrath of God Really Means
Frequently Asked Questions
Does God love some people more than others?
No. The speaker is clear that God does not love anyone more than you. What differs is how much a person loves God in return. When you see someone constantly experiencing God’s goodness, it is not favoritism; their love for Him has completed the circuit, so the flow of His power is visible in their life. Love from God to the world is the same, but the experience of it is not.
Why does he say not everyone will go to heaven if God is love?
He says a merely human idea of love leads people to think God’s love means no consequences, and even that Satan will be saved. Because love must be returned to be complete, he teaches that rejecting God’s love has real results, and he points to the Bible’s statement that hell enlarges itself. He announced that the next message would explain how wrath works.
Why does the speaker refuse to accept members from other churches?
He explains that when he came to the church he decided not to let people move over from another congregation, and he still holds to it. If someone cannot pray through a problem where they are, he says, they will have the same problem in a new place. Young Christians watching such moves can begin to doubt. He wants every church to grow, not only his own.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- John 3:16–17 — God so loved the world
- John 21:20 — the disciple whom Jesus loved
- Zephaniah 3:17 — He will rejoice over you with singing
- John 14:21–24 — I will manifest Myself to him
- John 13:1 — He loved them to the end
- 1 John 2:1–6 — the test of knowing Him
- 1 John 3:14–18 — love in deed and in truth
- 1 Corinthians 13 — the greatest of these is love
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
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