Unconditional Love Part 1

INTRO: Our subject this morning is that of unconditional love. When we put this series of messages on the internet they will go on by sermon title, not series title. But I have titled this series, "The Subtle Undoing Of The Fear Of The Lord." I began with two messages on the fear of the Lord. In the first message I sought to define and describe the fear of the Lord. I have told you that the word fear means fear. In some cases it may include the ideas of awe or reverence, but it still means fear. We have shied away from calling it what it is and that has not done us any good. Then I gave one message showing you verse after verse in Scripture, dealing with this subject.

Now I have asked in numerous teaching situations I have been in, "Do you think in America, Christianity is getting stronger and stronger or weaker and weaker." And I always get the answer, "It is getting weaker." And maybe to most Christians over the course of Christianity's existence, that has often been the feeling. Maybe we are brutes for punishment. Yet it seems we recognize that it is getting weaker and we point back to other ages when it was stronger. In America right now, you can point back 50 years and see a lot of strengths that we have lost now. To think we would come to the point of accepting the seeker friendly method of doing church, or much worse now, the emergent church movement would not long ago have seemed an impossibility. But we are now fully into the emergent church movement. There is no doubt we are losing ground fast.