John 3:16
What the World Needs Now
I have been feeling for several days that I should speak on love
today. You might think that would narrow down the subject matter but
love is a big topic. I could preach on:
The Power of Love The Effect of Love
The Definition of Love God’s Love
Examples of Love The Gift of Love
Or about a dozen other topics. After much consideration, I feel lead
to speak on a very narrow topic, the need for love.
I. Everyone Needs Love
A. I think most of us would accept that statement.
1. Both sinners and saints need love.
2. Both the young and the old need love.
3. Both the good and the bad need love.
4. Both the educated and the ignorant need love.
5. Every color needs love.
6. Every nationality needs love.
7. Every time period needs love.
8. Everyone needs love.
B. We all accept that statement as being true but is there any
evidence it is true?
1. I think there is.
2. John 3:16 - God gave everyone love.
3. I don’t see God giving some thing that is not needed. If
God gave everyone love, then everyone must need love.
II. Everyone makes up everyone. Who Makes Up Everyone?
A. Sinners make up everyone. Sinners need love.
1. \\#John 8:3-11\\ This woman was a sinner. This woman
needed love.
2. I am hesitant to mention her because I did not very
long ago, but I do so because she was unique.
a. She was not unique because she is a sinner. All of us
are.
b. She was not unique because she got caught in her sin.
1. We have all been caught, whether we know it or
not.
2. Not only have we been caught, we have been caught
by the only One that matters.
Lu 12:2 For there is nothing covered, that shall
not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be
known.
3 Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in
darkness shall be heard in the light; and that
which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall
be proclaimed upon the housetops.
c. She was unique for several reasons:
(1) She is unique because her life illustrates how
badly we can sink if we are not loved.
(a) The Bible does not tell us anything about
this woman’s life but I cannot believe a
woman who is loved by her parents, loved
by her husband, and loved by her children
would ever turn to adultery.
(b) Granted. I am naive in this field, but
that is what I think.
Huffington Post printed an article dates 2/4/2013 and entitled
Why Women Cheat: 5 Reasons For Female Infidelity. All five reasons
seemed to me to say she was unloved.
1. She feels unappreciated, neglected, or ignored.
2. She craves intimacy.
3. She is bored or lonely.
4. She feels unloved.
5. She was abused as a child.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-weiss/women-cheating-5-reasons-
for-female-infidelity_b_1936934.html
(2) She was unique because all Jesus gave her was
love.
(a) There is no miracle in this text.
(b) Certainly, Jesus knew the hearts of the men
who brought her to Him and what they wanted
to do.
(1) Although that is miraculous, that does
not mean it affected the outcome.
(2) Jesus did not heal anyone, raise the
dead, calm a storm, or even change
the crowd’s’ mind.
(3) He did not even argue for the woman.
(4) He made one statement and wrote in the
dirt.
(c) What did Jesus do?
(1) He loved that her.
(2) He did not condemn her or insist she be
condemned.
(3) His lack of condemnation itself was
considered care for her both by the
crowd and the woman.
(3) She was unique because her story points out that
it does not matter that a sinner may have done
to cause their condition, they still need to be
loved.
(a) Was this woman where she was because of her
own decisions and actions?
(b) Certainly, but it doesn’t matter. She still
needed to be loved.
(c) Neither does it matter that a drug addict put
himself where he is. He still needs to be
loved!
(d) It does not matter that a person killed
someone or even someones. Use common sense
in dealing with people, but everyone—even
killers—need to be loved.
(e) Terrorists, homosexuals, God-haters, even our
own personal enemies—they all need to be
loved.
Lu 6:27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your
enemies, do good to them which hate you,
(f) Let me add here to love someone does not mean
that we excuse or accept their wrong.
(1) That is another of our culture’s many
lies.
(2) To love someone is to stand for right
even if it hurts them.
(3) Why? Because we do love them.
(4) Most punishments—especially those given
by the law—still need to be executed.
B. \\#Job 1:13-19\\ The suffering make up everyone. The
suffering need to be loved.
1. Most know Job as the man with great patience, but we need
to remember that it was his great suffering that
demonstrated his patience.
2. This man suffered in ways few on earth will ever know.
a. \\#Job 1:14-17\\ He lost his wealth.
b. \\#Job 1:18-19\\ His children were taken. (Job did
not lose his children for they were taken to heaven.)
c. \\#Job 2:7-8\\ He lost his health.
3. Job stayed in this condition for weeks, maybe months.
a. \\#Job 2:11\\ His friends heard and came at an
"appointed time" to mourn with him.
b. \\#Job 2:12-13\\ They were so shocked at Job’s
condition that they just sat and stared at him for a
week.
4. \\#Job 3:1-9\\ Then Job mourned aloud.
a. I won’t read any more of Job’s words but you can.
b. It is chapter after chapter of Job and his friends
arguing about whose fault all of Job’s suffering was.
c. His three friends figured Job had offended God.
d. Job said he had not.
e. Job even implied that God had failed him; that is,
that God had let him down in allowing such evil to
come upon him.
5. Let’s step aside and answer Job’s rational.
a. Was God responsible for Job’s suffering?
b. Yes. Read the story and you will see that God put the
devil on Job.
c. In fact, everything that ever happens is either caused
directly by God or allowed by God.
d. How can God be so cruel?
e. God does not care about our bodies, but He does care
about us.
(1) Even Christians forget that we are not a body.
We are a soul.
(2) When you get sick, get cancer, get abused, get
attacked, get persecuted—that is not you.
(3) That is your body.
(4) While we are very attached to our bodies, they
are temporal, fragile, and totally unimportant in
the scope of eternity.
f. There is a verse in Luke 21 that used to puzzle me.
(1) Jesus was telling the disciples about how they
were going to be persecuted and killed for Him.
(2) They He said,
Lu 21:18 But there shall not an hair of your
head perish.
(3) That is a little confusing. How can you be
killed like some of them were killed and no hair
be lost?
(4) That lead me to a conclusion and a hope.
(5) The conclusion is that Jesus was talking about
our soul not our body there.
(6) The hope is that I my soul still has all of my
hair!
6. But let’s go back to the reason we came to Job.
a. Job begins to mourn aloud and even wishes he had never
been born. \\#Job 3:11\\
b. What did Job need?
(1) His friends thought he needed correcting.
(2) They thought he needed spiritual counseling.
(3) He did not. He needed to be loved.
(4) Job was suffering and needed to be loved.
(5) Job a great, spiritual man of God—but he was
suffering and he needed someone to love him, to
weep with him, to encourage him.
7. Sinners, the suffering, make up everybody. They need to
be loved.
C. \\#Lam 1:4-5, 8-13, 16\\ The saints make up everyone. The
saints need to be loved.
1. Jeremiah wrote two books in the Old Testament: Jeremiah
and Lamentations.
a. Jeremiah describes Jeremiah’s ministry as a prophet.
b. Lamentations describes Jeremiah’s brokenness once his
prophecies have been fulfilled.
c. Jeremiah’s message as a prophet was that his entire
nation would be destroyed and conquered, with perhaps
as much as 2/3’s of the population being killed.
2. Notice as Jeremiah documents what is left.
3. \\#La 1:13, 16\\ Notice Jeremiah’s reaction.
4. What does Jeremiah need? What does this strong, prophet
of God need? He needs to be loved.
5. Even God’s people—the strongest of God’s people—need to
be loved.
a. There is no hidden message here. Just a statement of
fact.
b. Those who seem to be the strongest for the Lord, those
who stand like a rock for Jesus at work, in your
family, in your church—they need to be loved.
III. Everyone needs to be loved so badly that God made Christians.
A. Someone might ask, "If everyone needs to be loved, why doesn’t
God demonstrate His love to everyone?"
1. He did.
2. He gave the world the two greatest gifts He has.
a. His Son
b. His church
B. Christian are here not only to love the world but to
demonstrate God’s love for this world.
1. We are God’s heart of love.
a. Remember, love does not mean we have to compromise
with wrong or accept it.
b. In fact, love demands we stand against it.
c. You cannot love someone and encourage them to hurt
themselves.
2. But we are also God’s hands and His feet to demonstrate
that love.
3. And while love may not be the cure for every problem, it
can be the comfort for every problem!
The topic of love is large but today just one thought. Everyone
needs to be loved. Who has God placed in your life that you can
stand in God’s place to love them today?
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