I remember when the song, “How He Loves” first became popular. We would sing it all the time in churches and we still do today. And to be honest, there was just something about the song that always frustrated me. I don’t know what it was specifically (content, melody etc), but it always felt like we would sing it for hours. I mean, just when you thought it was wrapping up, we would go back into it… “Yeaahhhh He loves us!”
Well, I don’t know the date, but there was a time that God convicted me of this frustration. He made it really clear one day while singing, “How He Loves”, that we need sing a song like that over and over and over, in order to really grasp: ‘The God of the universe loves us.’
Just consider for a moment, the power of God’s love, displayed through Jesus:
Jesus leaves his home in heaven, not for a better life, but for a lesser life
He pursues us relentlessly even though we rebel and resist
He doesn’t just risk his life, he gives it
His love is limitless, he gets intimately involved with the broken, even when it’s unpopular
His love is life-altering, changing your identity and your eternity
God’s love moved Him to come to earth, to go to the cross, and to defeat sin, death, and the grave in the resurrection. This is a love that no one in history has been able to duplicate or replicate. This is a love that moves. And if you think about it, love always moves.
Just think about the first time you realized you loved your spouse. Did you just continue what you were doing? Did you take a nap? NO! You moved. You moved to charm her, you moved to bring her flowers, you moved to buy a ring and write a poem or film a video, or whatever you did to propose for marriage. Here’s the thing: Love never stands still. It always moves.
And when we receive and reciprocate God’s love, it should move us. For Phoenix Bible Church, we see that work out, primarily in 3 ways:
Devotion: When we gather on Sundays it’s not cold religion, tradition… NO we sing to, pray to, and serve a risen King… which is why each Sunday is so important as God shapes us as a church. So we gather every Sunday morning before the service at 9:30am, to pray and ask God to reveal Himself and change lives. We encourage everyone to attend church, not to check a box, but to express a deep devotion to God.
Declaration: We declare Jesus to each other in community groups in homes every week. This is Phoenix Bible Church. The church is not a building, it’s a people so our community group map represents our church family. God has strategically called and placed each of us in pockets of this city to make much of him. We also use what we call a “Fall Five” card every fall as a tool to remind us to pray for and talk to 5 people around us who are far from God.
Demonstration: We also want to see God’s love move us to serve. We have 2 key partners in the community that we partner with: Hope Women’s Center and Verde Park After School Program. Both of these opportunities help us show the love of God to our neighbors and our city.
God’s love doesn’t just work itself in, it works itself out. In our devotion, declaration, and demonstration. What if a group of people, an entire church in downtown Phoenix lived this way? I’m praying we get to find out.
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