Do You Love Me? Living by God's Grace
May 15, 2022 · 2:10:56 · Watch on YouTube ↗
These notes - summary, key points, and highlighted thoughts - were generated by AI from the recording and are not the preacher’s exact words.
Summary
The service carried two heartfelt messages. The first, drawn from John 21, returned to the lakeside where the risen Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love me more than these?" The preacher pressed that this is still the most important question God asks each of us: do we love Him today as we did the day we first knelt before Him? Love for God and for our neighbor (Luke 10:27) is the cornerstone of faith, and anything done without love, however busy or religious, finally burns away. He shared tender stories - a wife who cared for her mother-in-law for twenty-six years, the pain of being pushed out of ministry while choosing not to nurse the offense, and a missionary who wondered on her deathbed whether work done out of duty rather than love had mattered.
The second message, from a visiting brother, lifted up the grace and goodness of God. Using the rich young ruler in Mark 10, John 1:17, James 1:17 and Romans 7-8, he insisted that no one is good but God alone. The law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus, and every good gift descends from an unchanging Father of lights. Even the apostle Paul confessed he was a wretched man who could not do the good he longed for, until grace set him free and made him what he was.
Grace, he stressed, is not only for ministers but for ordinary life - at home, at work, at school. We cannot remake ourselves by willpower or money, so we must simply desire and ask for God's grace, which alone changes lives. Today is the acceptable time to receive it. The congregation closed by singing "Amazing Grace" and praying for one another and for the sick.
Key Points
- "Do you love me?" is the most important question God asks, and He keeps asking it of us today.
- Love for God and for our neighbor (Luke 10:27) is the cornerstone of genuine faith.
- Whatever we do without love, even religious service, has no lasting value and burns away.
- Religion breeds fear, but the love of God brings relationship, freedom, and joy.
- Loving Jesus means spending unhurried time with Him and learning to listen, not just rushing through prayer.
- No one is good but God alone, and grace and truth came to us through Jesus Christ, not through the law.
- We are changed not by our own strength or money but by God's grace, which is meant for everyday life - just ask for it.
Devotional
Pause today and let the Lord ask you what He once asked Peter: do you love me more than these? Before you measure your service or your schedule, He wants your heart and a little unhurried time in His presence. Remember that everything done without love eventually fades, while the smallest act of real love is treasured in heaven. And when you fall short of the good you long to do, do not despair, for the same grace that saved you is enough to change you. Simply ask for it, and let His goodness do what your own strength never could.
Do you love me more than these? It is still the most important question of your life.
Everything we do without love eventually burns away.
No one is good but God alone, and His grace, not our strength, is what changes us.
