I.
Topic: God’s Love
II.
Introduction
A.
Share Steubie experience
1.
Ask for everybody to participate and close there
eyes
2.
“Imagine sitting on the floor of an auditorium
surrounded by several hundred youth your age, 13-18y/o
3.
Jesus in the Eucharist is being processed around
the hall by the priest, which is called Eucharistic Adoration.
4.
You’re looking around and people are praising
God with hands raised and singing songs, all while you are sitting and crying,
feeling unworthy of being there, unwanted, and most of all unloved.
5.
You feel like you need to leave the room, but
you look up and see the priest walking in your direction with Jesus. He stops
in front of you and you gaze up upon Jesus and begin to smile as you feel His love pour down upon you and all those
around you.”
6.
Have everyone open his or her eyes now.
7.
That experience was my first encounter with
God’s love and something that powerful moved me and captured my heart for the
rest of my life.
B.
“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is
of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love
does not know God; for God is love.”
1.
God is
Love… This quote comes from the New Testament in the Bible from 1 John
4:7-8
2.
And not only is GOD LOVE, but God’s love is
PERSONAL, God’s love is SACRIFICIAL, and God’s love is UNENDING.
C.
Today if you would journey with me, I would like
to share with you about those characteristics God’s Love.
III.
Body Paragraphs
A.
So, as I stated, God’s Love is PERSONAL.
1.
Some of you might be thinking, “Well, Kate. How
do you know that?” but the answer can be found in the first book of the Bible.
2.
First lets talk about God; God always has been
and always will be.
a.
For an example, imagine standing on the top of a
skyscraper looking down at a parade. You can see the beginning and the end. God
is like that. He is above all and all powerful.
3.
But God, in his power, also has love. And out of
his love decided to create a world, our world. He created the land and sea, the
fish, the birds and the animals, the trees and the sky, and God saw these
things and knew that they were good. But lastly he created us. He created Man
and Woman.
a.
God created us different than the rest of the
world though.
b.
In Genesis 1:27-31 we see “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the
earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which
is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you
shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of
the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the
breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. And
God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was VERY GOOD.”
c.
God didn’t need these things, he didn’t need us,
but out of his Love for us he
created us; to be like him, a God who IS
love.
B.
God’s love is SACRIFICIAL.
1.
What is something that you guys wouldn’t want to
give up in this world? (Ex. Videogames, texting, nail polish)
a.
Give example of having to sacrifice for
girlfriend or boyfriend.
2.
All of those things may be a big sacrifice for some of us, but God
sacrificed something So. Much. More.
3.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his
only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have
eternal life.” John 3:16
4.
God so loved us, his creation, that he sent his
only son down to earth to walk among us.
a.
Does anybody know who God’s son is? *Jesus*
Jesus, Yes that’s right!
b.
Jesus is God made flesh. He is the son of Mary
and grew up like a normal kid. He would play games with his friend, help out
his mom and dad, and eat meals except he would do it all while perfectly
obeying the commandment’s of God; He lived a life without sin.
c.
He did this as the perfect example of God’s love
and it lead to his death on the cross. He died for each of us so that we may
one day be fully united with God, and his infinite love, in Heaven.
C.
God’s love is UNENDING
1.
Who has ever been a part of a team? Maybe soccer
or swim?
a.
Well for me, I was a dancer. I grew up on a competitive dance team at a
dance studio and I loved dance.
b.
I loved
dance so much I would dance 4 days a week minimum and thought that one day I
would be a professional dancer dancing on Broadway.
c.
One day my Love of dance changed. I no longer
wanted dance to be my life so I stopped taking lessons.
2.
Maybe some of you have experienced this sort of
love before, but I have good news. God’s love is different. God’s love is
UNENDING!
3.
“But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send
to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father,
he will bear witness to me.” John 15:26
a.
The Counselor is the Holy Spirit
b.
Therefore, after Jesus was resurrected and
returned to God the father in heaven, out of the Fathers Love He sent the Holy
Spirit to guide us and stay with us.
c.
The Holy Spirit is the one who came down upon
the disciples at Pentecost and gave them boldness and the gift of Tongues so
that all may understand their preaching and that same Holy Spirit is whom we receive at our sacraments Baptism and
Confirmation.
d.
He is still with us till this day, and praise
God because of that!
4.
Additionally, not only did God give us the Holy
Spirit to stay with us on Earth, but also he desires us to be fully united with
him in Heaven after our death so that we can experience the complete fullness
of God’s love for all of eternity.
IV.
Conclusion
A.
In conclusion, God personally and individually
created us out of his love, sent his son to us in sacrifice out of love, and
continues to love us through all of eternity.
1.
Out of this love that God has freely given to us
we too are called to love; for the Catechism of the Catholic Church states in
Article 7 #1604 “God who created man out of love also calls him to love…” and
they describe love as “…the fundamental and innate vocation of every human
being.”
B.
Thank you for journeying with me to learn more
about God’s love. As we close, lets finish in prayer keeping the words of St.
Thérèse of Lisieux in our hearts:
1.
“I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice
and to receive from your love the eternal possession of yourself.”
2.
Say prayer.
Here is my outline that I used for my talk on God’s love! If you have any questions please feel free to ask me about it in the comments, Facebook, or email! God bless and Peace.
Kate Mudgett
“Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an
example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12
