The Love Story

This is part 3 of last week's sermon.

God Loves This World

In his book, Love Beyond Reason, John Ortberg tells us a story about his sister Barbie and her doll, Pandy. Pandy is a rag doll. Now when Pandy was new, she was a very cute, brand new little doll. She had a plastic face that was pretty, and she had a body made of nice clean cloth that was nice to play with, cuddle up to, and hold.

Now Pandy was Barbie's favorite doll, so Barbie took Pandy everywhere with her. When Barbie went outside, Pandy was drug through the dirt. When Barbie went to eat, Pandy ate beside her. When Barbie got angry at her parents or brothers and sisters, or when her heart was broken by her friends teasing her or rejecting her, Pandy heard it first. When Barbie was sad or scared or sick, she held Pandy extra tight. When Barbie went to bed, her doll Pandy sat at her pillow. Infact, sometimes Pandy became the pillow.

The story goes that once the family when on vacation, and had driven for most of the day when the family realized that Pandy had been left behind in a Canadian hotel. Barbie�s father turned around and went and got the doll. They barely got there in time. After searching the whole hotel, they found the rag doll right before it was to be washed to death in with all the hotel linens.

Now this rag doll through the years was not as neat as clean as when Barbie had first gotten her doll. The doll that once had a pretty face, now had a face that was scuffed and scratched and stained. Where there were once two shiny eyes, the rag doll now only had one. Likewise the body of the rag doll had collected years worth of dirt and stains. The rags that once evenly filled her now made Pandy lumpy and less substantial. But she was still dragged around by Barbie well into junior high.

At sometime as Barbie got older, she as Ortberg put it "traded in Pandy for her first boyfriend named Andy". Pandy was put into a box, where Barbie's mother kept her for a while.

Eventually Barbie had a child. That child wanted a doll. And for Barbie, there was no other option for her daughter. She went up into the attic and found the box. She took Pandy to a doll reconstruction hospital in California and made her new again so that Pandy could once again be a member of the family.

As Barbie�s brother said, "She did not love Pandy because she was beautiful, she loved her with the kind of love that made her beautiful."

Most of you have individual troll dolls near you. They have different costumes. They have different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds. To be honest they are homely little dolls. In many ways they could be in much the same position that Pandy was. I gave them to you as a reminder. That you can take them with you and have them as reminder of the way that God loves you. Like Barbie loves Pandy.

As point one tells us, We are all just like the woman caught in adultery and the rag doll. Infact, the love that Barbie loved Pandy with is only a shadow of the love that God loves you with. But God�s love works in a very similar fashion. God does not love you because of anything you did. He does not love you because you somehow deserve it. He loves you because he made you. He loves you because you are his. Love is never something you earn or deserve..from anyone. It is always a miracle. It is always a grace thing.

The Bible is full of evidence that God loves you as an individual. God�s word tells us that he died for us while we were hating him. Can you believe that? Did you know Psalm 139 says that when you rise God is there. When you sleep God is there. Watching you. Reaching out for you. Acts 17 says he is never far from us. Matthew says that he has the hairs on our head numbered. The Bible is clear that he always is there to listen when we want to talk to him. He blesses us like crazy when we walk near to him, and he abandons everything to chase after us when we run away from us. Like the father whose son took the family riches and ran away from home, he looks of in the distance eagerly awaiting our return home. Our home of being in relationship with Him.

Some of you are here because a loved one drug you here. Some of you are here because religion is generally a good thing. God loves you so much he wants more for you. But your being here is not an accident.

He wants you to choose Him and to accept his love for you. He wants you to surrender your life to him. To love him forever and live with him forever.

We are coming to a time in our service now where we renew our relationship with Christ. If you are just now deciding to trust Christ, you can make the Lord�s Supper the first step in your commitment.

Now let us sing a song celebrating the love God has for us.