POURQUOI NOUS HÉSITONS À CROIRE QUE DIEU NOUS AIME INDIVIDUELLEMENT

CHRIST THE ROCK CONGREGATION

DIMANCHE 2 NOVEMBRE 2025

SERMON PAR PASTEUR MARC SIMEON

LA DIFFICULTÉ À CROIRE QUE DIEU NOUS AIME INDIVIDUELLEMENT

THE REASON WHY WE STRUGGLE TO ACCEPT GOD’S INDIVIDUAL LOVE TOWARD US

Psaume 41:12 Je connaîtrai que tu m’aimes, Si mon ennemi ne triomphe pas de moi.

 11 By this I know that You are well pleased with me, Because my enemy does not triumph over me.

12 M’a konnen ou kontan avè m’ vre si m’ wè lènmi m’ yo pa banboche sou do m’.

Romains 8 : 38-39

Ro 8:38 Car j’ai l’assurance que ni la mort ni la vie, ni les anges ni les dominations, ni les choses présentes ni les choses à venir,  ni les puissances,

39 ni la hauteur, ni la profondeur, ni aucune autre créature ne pourra nous séparer de l’amour de Dieu manifesté en Jésus-Christ notre Seigneur.

Ro 8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,

 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

INTRODUCTION

• Pastors and spiritual leaders sometimes give the impression that they are bathing in the perfect love of God.
• They seem so deserving; after all they set their lives apart to serve God and to populate heaven with repentant sinners.
• I was surprised to hear how some prominent preachers struggle to accept and embrace the unconditional love of God for their own selves.
• Some feel that they are not good enough to deserve it.
• One of such pastors testified that he had trouble preaching on the love and grace of God, fearing that it might encourage people to perpetuate in sin.
• A lot of preachers sense that their mandate is to hammer their congregants with messages of God’s judgments and accountability of the saints in aim to keep them in the path of righteousness.
• I too struggle at times to think that God loves me like crazy.
• I realize that I am more comfortable to fit in when it’s about God’s general love toward humanity as a whole, rather than the specific love of God toward just me individually.
• The message today is to uproot the reason why we sometime struggle to accept God’s unconditional love at a personal level.

THE DISTORTION OF THE VERB TO LOVE

• The verb love has suffered major and continuous distortions throughout history, that we no longer have a proper definition for it.
• One has the right to wonder whether true love really exists.
• Most of the times when we hear the verb love being pronounced, there’s often a string attached to it.
• Most of the time when people say I love you, what they really mean is “I love what you do for me.”
• Many Christians have a hard time believing that God loves them individually as if they were the only human being living on this planet.
• God’s love is the agape love, the pure love.
• Pure love struggles to explain itself.
• It’s not unusual for people to answer “I don’t know”, when asked to explain the rationale for their love toward someone else.
• You may hear: “it comes naturally”. “I can’t explain it.” “I can’t help it.”
• Love is so pure, so fragile, and so vulnerable that people may suffer irreparable emotional damages when their love gets violated.
• When they find out that there was no reciprocal love from the person they projected their love to, it usually ends in disaster.
• The closest we get to in understanding pure love between two human beings is through parental love for their children in ideal situations.
• Love cannot be earned
• Love cannot be commanded
• Love cannot be deserved
• Love cannot be produced or motivated by guilt.
• We are so bombarded by conditional love everywhere we turn that we don’t know how to respond to the love of God.
• The love of God is pure and selfless.
• The Bible says that “ while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”
• God’s love toward each one of us originated even before the foundation of the world.
• In this world we have to compete for people’s love. All of that complexity put us at odd to receive the eternal and unconditional love of God.

THE COMPATIBILITY AND GUILT ISSUES IN ACCEPTING GOD’S

• One of the prime reasons we have trouble digesting the love of God is because we feel undeserving of it.
• After being hurt, abused and sometimes rejected by people who formerly professed love to you, you tend to develop a blemished and obscured view of love.
• We are often haunted by the fail relationships with our fellow men and we project that sentiment of rejection to God’s offer of love.
• One of the first barriers we put to block God’s love from accessing us has to do with compatibility issues.
• Not holy enough. Not spiritual enough
• Not grounded in the faith enough
• Not productive to God’s kingdom enough
• Not smart enough, Not attractive enough
• Not well versed enough in the scriptures
• Not talented enough
• Not spiritually mature enough.
• We so fear to disappoint God that we block any effort that could lead to a close relationship with Him.
• We often to see that it is God’s will to redeem us from the dominion of sin and to make us reborn in the family of God

Jean 1:12 Mais à tous ceux qui l’ont reçue, à ceux qui croient en son nom, elle a donné le pouvoir de devenir enfants de Dieu, lesquels sont nés,

13 non du sang, ni de la volonté de la chair, ni de la volonté de l’homme, mais de Dieu.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Joh 3:16 Car Dieu a tant aimé le monde qu’il a donné son Fils unique, afin que quiconque croit en lui ne périsse point, mais qu’il ait la vie éternelle.

Joh 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

THE VULNERABILITY TO SIN ISSUE

• Our frequent past and present failures tend to make us feel that we can never make it right to please God.
• If we cannot continue to please God, we fear that his love toward us will have a short lifespan.
• The best example of the love of God is found in the parable of the prodigal son.
• The prodigal son had forfeited all his rights to be called son.
• He had no merit to still be loved by his father.
• He was just smart enough to head back home and face the consequences of his actions.
• Mercy was the only thing he had in mind to imply for.
• To his surprise, he found out that the love of the father never altered toward him in spite of all his misbehaviors.
• While God does not condone our sins, his love toward each one of us suffers no variations whether or not we are in the center of His will for our lives.

Ro 5:8 Mais Dieu prouve son amour envers nous, en ce que, lorsque nous étions encore des pécheurs, Christ est mort pour nous.

Ro 5:8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Ro 8:35 Qui nous séparera de l’amour de Christ? Sera-ce la tribulation, ou l’angoisse, ou la persécution, ou la faim, ou la nudité, ou le péril, ou l’épée?

Ro 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

THE DAMAGE ISSUE

• Another stumbling block in accepting God’s love is the damage issue.
• The damage issue is very real. People can feel so bad about themselves to feel undeserving of love.
• Remember how the psalmist registers the proof for the love of God.
• Psaume 41:12 Je connaîtrai que tu m’aimes, Si mon ennemi ne triomphe pas de moi.
• 11 By this I know that You are well pleased with me, Because my enemy does not triumph over me.
• 12 M’a konnen ou kontan avè m’ vre si m’ wè lènmi m’ yo pa banboche sou do m’.
• When these things in the following list are evident in your personal live, they may tend to cause you to block access to the love of God.
• Personal injuries
• Loveless childhood
• Non caring parents
• Parental absences in the years of adolescence
• Poverty
• Sickness, handicaps
• Body shape, skin color, ethnicity, nationality, genre, etc.
• Being from a lower social-economic class
• Abused as a child
• Intelligence deficiencies
• Failures in life
• Toxic relationship
• Stagnation in your personal developments
• Unfulfilled dreams
• Mistakes, sins, addictions, missed opportunities
• Absence of Romantic love
• Remember that none of us has a perfect and unblemished life.
• The Bible says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
• Satan the adversary is the one playing in your mind in keeping you to resist the love of God in aim to maintain his dominion over you.
• Satan the adversary is the one playing in your mind. You need to rebuke him with the Word of God.

CONCLUSION

• The refusal to accept God’s love at a personal level may lead to all sorts fatalistic views of live.
• People who feel that God doesn’t love them are prompt to be vague in their actions and their conducts.
• True love is selfless and pure.
• Remember that God’s love doesn’t depend on our performance.
• God loves us because He is our creator.
• God’s love is selfless; all God does is toward our wellbeing and not His.
• Next time you notice that God is signaling His love toward you, just accept it; no if, no but.
• Say yes Lord, I receive your love with all my being: body, soul, and spirit!

Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

 11 Car je connais les projets que j’ai formés sur vous, dit l’Éternel, projets de paix et non de malheur, afin de vous donner un avenir et de l’espérance.

• Ah laissez-moi chanter mon Roi; Oui, qu’à genoux, je chante!
  Jésus n’est-il pas tout pour moi? Gloire à sa croix sanglante! Sans se lasser, jour après jour, Il m’aime, il m’aime encore… Comment répondre à tant d’amour? Je crois, j’aime et j’adore!   
• AMEN !