This morning, we continue our “Identity Crisis” message series where we are faced with that question, “When everything else fails, at your core, who are you?”  We’ve been reminded how we were created on purpose and for a purpose.

We learned of our need to be born again and how, at that  moment, we become children of God.  We were also reminded of the worship war raging and how jealous the enemy must be of us.  After all, God chose not only to create us in His image, but also for us to be His temples; filled with His Presence through the Holy Spirit.

This week, we’re learning about another identity crisis that exists both in the world and church; love.

You are loved by God!  Even if you are in complete and total rebellion, even if you deny His very existence, nothing can separate you from God’s love!  These words are so puny and don’t even begin to truly scratch the surface, but you are loved by God!

Sadly, love has been so cheapened by us.  We love summer.  We love tacos.  We love our car.  We love country music.  We absolutely love that dress and those shoes.  We love football.  We love just about anything and everything.  We say that sex is love.  Oh yeah, and we love that, too!

Love is not an emotion, not a feeling, not an opinion, and not a fleeting whim.  Love is not lust or happiness or comfort or pleasure or romance.  Love is so much more!  Love endures all emotions, all circumstances, and all seasons of life.  Love covers a multitude of sins.

True love, God’s love toward us, is so very much more than love as we understand it!  The enemy very intentionally has created an identity crisis regarding love.  If we truly understood the love of God, we would joyfully and fully surrender our lives into His trustworthy hands.  Our lives would be ones of true and pure worship and we would be unstoppable!

It’s like that line from the movie, “Princess Bride”; “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”  What is love?  Well, God not only displayed what love is from cover to cover of His word, He chose to clearly explain to us exactly what love is.

This is love.

1 John 4:10

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

This is love.  Not our love, not even our love for God, but God’s love for us.  Our love, even our most committed, sincere, passionate love is nothing in comparison to the enduring, eternal, unconditional love of God.  You are loved by God!

We have learned about some amazing realities about how we were created and who we are.  These are all expressions of God’s great love for us; created in His image and filled with His Spirit.  The greatest expression of His love for us happened when He sacrificed His own Son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

We choose to sin, to reject God’s ways and to go our own way away from Him.  We break His law, His heart, His design, His ways, and His will for us.  He responds to this rebellion by lowering Himself to become one of us, living sinlessly, dying to pay the price that we owe due to our sin, and raising again to life.  He sacrificed Himself, taking on our curse, to right our wrongs and give us His blessings. 

This is love!  Love is sacrifice.  Love is commitment.  Love is unconditional.

We’ve heard it so many times, but this is what God’s love for us is like:

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

This is love.

1 John 4:7-21

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because