To constantly soak in the love of God, a believer has to first experience the width, length, height and depth of God’s love. Last weekend, Pastor Kong Hee expanded on his teaching about the divine love of the Triune God.
“The first time God revealed Himself as a Trinity was at Jesus’ water baptism,” preached Kong Hee, the senior pastor of City Harvest Church as he began his sermon on 14 and 15 Jan. Preaching out of Matthew 3:16-17, he explained, “What we witness here is a love story shared between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Pastor Kong noted that God could have stopped at sharing the love among the Trinity, yet He wanted to share His love with His people, a love that is self-giving, unselfish and unconditional.
Romans 5:5 describes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. “It is from this outpouring of love that blessings come and healing flows—this is what Christianity is about, coming into the love of God,” said Pastor Kong, adding that Christians are to mimic this love as well. If love is missing in the things a Christian does, he has missed the whole purpose of life and ministry.
The evidence of Christians having Jesus and the Holy Spirit in them is love because Jesus Himself is the embodiment of love. Pastor Kong reminded the church that the character profile of Jesus is detailed in the fruit of the Spirit: “The fruit of the Spirit are nine expressions of love.”
He reiterated the three things he wanted the church to work towards in 2023: zero anger, constant forgiveness and unlimited patience. This is only possible if one has the Holy Spirit living in them.
THE TRIUNE GOD OF LOVE
Explaining 1 John 4:17-21, Pastor Kong said that the Trinity chose to expand the circle of love to include the whole world. “God didn’t need to; He wasn’t lonely or needy or unfulfilled,” he said. “The Trinity was so full of eternal love, They didn’t need anyone or anything else to make them happier.”
God chose to extend this circle of love to mankind even though He knew that creating them and giving them free will would bring about sin and grief in the whole world. He also knew that He would be hurt by the people’s sins and would eventually sacrifice His only Son Jesus Christ to rescue them. He counted the cost and still decided that it was worthwhile to create mankind.
“He knew that at the end, not only could He save us, but that all the pain and all the sufferings of life will produce a love relationship that is so pure and so glorious, it will transform us into the likeness of His Son,” said Pastor Kong. “He went ahead with creation because life is worth creating.”
He exhorted the church: “In this new year of 2023, I want you to zero in on this love of God, to let this love of God satisfy you, move you and ultimately, change you and ultimately transform you. Let His perfect love cast out all the worry and fear in your heart and make you a very bold and courageous person.
“By the Holy Spirit, grow stronger and more powerful this year, but yet more tender, kinder, gentler, humbler.”
It is natural for people to focus on talents, ability and ideas to become successful but if a person fails to focus on the divine love of God, they collapse easily when challenges arise.
“Love is the greatest thing about God. If you lose love in your heart, you lose everything,” Pastor Kong taught, reading from Ephesians 3:17-18, highlighting the width, lenght, height and depth of God’s love is for His people.
God’s love is so wide. This means that God is merciful and forgiving. “God is so accepting, His love is wider than the ocean,” Pastor Kong said. “No matter what mistakes you have made, how far you have gone astray, what sin you have committed, as long as you humble yourself before God and you repent and you’re willing to believe, He will scrub your heart so clean, it’s as if you have never seen before. His love is so wide and so accepting.”
God’s love is so long. Psalms 36: 5 reads, “Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.” Describing the vastness of the universe, Pastor Kong noted that the ever-expanding universe is only a speck in God’s hand—He is far bigger than the universe. “This means His love is unending, there is no limit.” God’s love is everlasting (Jer 31:3) and He will never let His people down.
God’s love is so high. “You simply cannot imagine how much He thinks about you,” the pastor said. The fastest supercomputer in the world can perform 1.1 quadrillion operations per second and God thinks faster than any supercomputer.
“You know what that means? He can think a loving thought towards you 137 million times every second,” the pastor said. “That’s as good as saying God thinks of you continuously, non-stop.”
When people go through a crisis, they would often think that God has forgotten about them. However, Isaiah 49:15 reads, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”
God’s love is so deep. “Jesus weeps when you weep. Jesus rejoices when you’re happy. He aches when you’re sad and heartbroken,” the pastor asserted, referring to Heb 4:15
When Lazarus died, Jesus wept with his sisters, Mary and Martha despite knowing that Lazarus would be resurrected in a few moments. “There was only one reason: Jesus wanted to be a part of their sorrow and heartache. My friends, this is how much Jesus loves you,” he declared. “No matter how deeply wounded you are, God’s love reaches even deeper still.”
Apostle Paul’s prayer for God’s people is that they experience the width, the length, the height and the depth of God’s love. “The more you’re persuaded and convinced and transformed by this divine love, the more you’ll be filled to the measure of all the full of God,” Pastor Kong said.
He added that while impartations from spiritual leaders are good, they only last for a while. The only One who never runs dry is the Holy Spirit. The only way to be constantly soaked in the love of God is to have the revelation of the love of the Spirit.
In closing, Pastor Kong encouraged the church to focus on the love of God in 2023 and to do everything—work, ministry, life—out of the overflow of His love.
