YOU ARE CALLED TO BE LOVED!

ACTS 29 #5

Pastor Dennis Clanton

Woodland Church

Sunday, November 2, 2025

(1 Corinthians 13:6, NIV) “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.”

Truth and love are inseparable

(Acts 20:19–24, LB) “I have done the Lord’s work humbly—yes, and with tears—and have faced grave danger …. Yet I never shrank from telling you the truth, either publicly or in your homes. I have had one message for Jews and Gentiles alike—the necessity of turning from sin to God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. … Life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love.”

(1 John 3:16–18, NLT) “We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.”

“The true Christian is one who knows God’s power working in himself and finds it his true joy to have the very life of God flow into him, and through him, and out from him to those around.” –Andrew Murray

1.  God absolutely and steadfastly loves me

(1 John 4:9–10, NLT) “God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”

2.  God calls me to be His child

(1 John 3:1, NLT) “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!”

(Ephesians 3:17–19, NLT) “Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

3.  God calls me to joy

(Acts 2:28, NLT) “You have shown me the way of life, and you will fill me with the joy of your presence.”

(Acts 2:46, NLT) “They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity”

(Acts 13:52, NLT) “And the believers were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.”

GROWTHWORK

(Psalm 55:22, NIV) “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.”

1.  Jesus will dwell in the center of your life, your heart, if invited

(Acts 15:8–9, Message) “And God, who can’t be fooled by any pretense on our part but always knows a person’s thoughts, gave them the Holy Spirit exactly as he gave him to us. He treated the outsiders exactly as he treated us, beginning at the very center of who they were and working from that center outward, cleaning up their lives as they trusted and believed him.”

2.  God will accept you, love you, and remove your shame

(Romans 5:1, CEV) “By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God.”

(Acts 15:11, NLT) “We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus.”

3.  Be bold in prayer

(Romans 8:14–15, NLT) “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”

4.  Worship God instead of worrying

(Matthew 6:33–34, Message) “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”

5.  Share God’s love with someone this week

(2 Corinthians 5:14, NIV) “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.”