The Bryce Crawford Podcast - Does God Really Love You? (EP 39)

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

In this video, Bryce talks about the Fathers love for us. Filmed By; Josh Rodriguez @whitehorse.studios MERCH👉 https://www.jesusinthestreet.com subscribe for more! Sow Into My Ministry One-Time or Monthly! Visit 👉 https://www.equipnet.org/missionaries/bcrawford (all donations are tax deductible) Download Our FREE Bible Plan https://growinfaith.readytoconnect.com/join-the-one-year-bible-challenge follow me on other platforms! Podcast Instagram 👉https://instagram.com/brycecrawfordpodcast Personal Instagram 👉 https://instagram.com/brycecrawford Merch Instagram 👉 https://instagram.com/ilovejesus Tiktok (main) 👉https://www.tiktok.com/@brycecrawford Tiktok (2nd) 👉 https://www.tiktok.com/@adventuresofbryce Snapchat https://snapchat.com/add/brycecraww Twitter 👉 https://twitter.com/ibrycecrawford #christianity #christian #Jesus #BryceCrawford #christiantiktok #christianvideos #holyspirit #Jesusheals #viral #christianvideo #venicebeach #evangelism

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce, and in today's episode by the title, we're going to be addressing a topic that I believe is the number one question that even some believers ask themselves today. Does God really love you? Before we get into the video, I'm going to tell you guys two things, two practicals here. You guys ask us how you can support us. There are two ways that you can support these videos. The only reason that these videos keep getting produced is because of your guys as radicals here. You guys ask us how you can support us. There are two ways that you can support these videos. The only reason that these videos keep getting produced is because of your guys as radicals generosity and we actually have a nonprofit organization that you guys can make a one-time or monthly reoccurring tithe and offering to us that actually produces these videos and allows us to reach millions of people a week through digital ministry and so if you feel led on your heart by the spirit of god to so into what we're doing the link to that nonprofit will be in the description below and it actually funds what we're doing second thing is go support us on the merch go get you some gospel conversation teas at jesus in the street dot com if you're struggling starting conversations about the gospel with people in the street and go to jesus in the street.com.

It will help you start conversations. Now, let's get into the real nitty-gritty of does God really love you. We're going to point to the scriptures and we're going to point to the facts and just use common sense to diagnose whether God really loves you. Does God only love some people or does God love all people? So we're going to dive into the scriptures and read that for ourselves. I'm going to go to the most common scripture that basically all of America has heard in some way shape or form as popular in sports. John 316. John 316 says, for God so love the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might

be saved through him. The number one reason people ask the question, does God really love me, is because they've been given empty promises from people, sinful natured people on this planet that say, oh yes I love you but their actions don't reflect it so the thing that I would argue to you is is that Jesus Christ doesn't just tell you that he loves you he shows you that he loves you here's an example if a guy says to a girl how do I know I really love you you have to sleep with me in order to know that I love you if you don't sleep with me you don't love me but if you sleep with me I know that you love me my friend that's not love that's hypocrisy and the great thing about Jesus Christ is he doesn't say friend if you do this

this thing, I'll love you, and if you don't do this thing, I won't love you. Jesus Christ doesn't say that. Jesus Christ's love is up to him, and he proves this love to you by dying on the cross for you. And after his death and resurrection, he gives what's called unconditional love. An unconditional love is unwavering love, meaning his love doesn't change for you, his love doesn't stop for you, regardless of the actions that you choose to do. He understands, Jesus Christ, understands that we are sinful natured people. So he knows that our promises can be empty when we say, oh God, if you just give me this thing or you do this thing for me, I'm never going to do this sin again. He understands that these empty promises are here.

That's why God still loves you regardless of what you do. Now, that's not a ticket of saying, I'm going to go do whatever I want. I'm going to go do whatever I want. I'm going to sin because God's going to forgive me. No, that's called cheap grace. That's called abusing God's grace. And therefore, when you sin willingly on purpose, it's, that's cheap grace. grace. We don't do that. Whereas God says in verse 17, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world,

but in order that the world might be saved through him. There's a difference between righteous judgment and condemnation. Condonation is from the devil. With condemnation comes shame and guilt, right? But justice comes righteous payment. With justice comes just judgment, right? That's like if a criminal murder someone, they're going to go on trial and they deserve to go to prison. because that's justice. When the day of judgment comes, when Jesus Christ returns, that means times up. That means there's no more opportunities

for you to ask for forgiveness. That means all these chances that you had in your free will life on this earth, you had opportunities to ask God for forgiveness. But when Jesus Christ returns, our lives are going to hold us accountable. Our lives, our actions are going to testify against us. And when we stand before Jesus Christ,

he is going to righteously judge the earth. But Jesus says here in John 3, 6. God loved the world so much that he didn't ask mankind to prove their love for him. He proved his love for mankind by dying on the cross and defeating death three days later and saying, if you choose to put your faith and trust in me, you will be saved. You can spend an infinite amount of time with me in eternity. That's the promise of Jesus Christ. That's how you know Jesus loves you.

Jesus doesn't look at you like some college students look at women and say, if you don't sleep with me, you don't love me. But if you do sleep with me, you show me that you love me. Jesus Christ doesn't say, if you do this thing, I'll love you. And if you don't do this thing, I won't love you. That's not what he says. He says, I love you regardless, but your actions will show me that you actually say what you mean. He says your actions will show me that you love me.

But you don't have to do anything to get God to love you. God automatically loves you. Now, when the Bible says in James, faith without works is dead. And Jesus Christ says in the Gospels, if you love me, you'll obey my commandments. Jesus Christ isn't saying that you have to do things to get God to love you. Jesus Christ is saying your actions will reflect that you love me. Here's an example. You can tell a homeless man, oh, I love homeless people.

But when you see homeless people in the street, you ignore them. You tell them, hey, screw off, go get a job. You can tell people that you love homeless people, but your actions don't reflect it. Or you can tell people, oh, I love homeless people. But when people aren't looking, you buy them food. When people aren't looking, you reach down and ask them how they're doing because they're a human being made in the image of God. You can do those things, right? Here's another example.

My friends know that I love them regardless if I tell them or not. How? Because my actions have proven to them that my loyalty leans in their direction. Same thing with my parents. my mother and father don't have to tell me every day that they love me. The reassurance is amazing, and I love to hear that God loves me the same way that Jesus Christ shows you that He loves you and tells you that He loves you through His Word.

But their actions have shown that they love me By providing for me, by putting food on the table, regardless if I knew their financial circumstance at the time, they have loved me even when I've been a knucklehead. Their actions have proven to me. The same way that our actions can prove to God and show God that we actually say that we love Him. We're not just going to say it.

We're going to show him. Our actions aren't going to determine whether God loves us more or less one day. No. God loves you unconditionally regardless of your day. But our actions will show God that we love him. Let's fit to John 15 real quick. John 15. I mean, John 15, verse 13, says, greater love has no one than this.

Someone laid down his life for his friends. Love isn't sex. Love isn't the feeling that you get when the booze hits your system. and alcohol hits your system. Love isn't the feeling you get when you start tripping out on drugs and substances. Love isn't the little butterfly feeling that you get when you see your crush at school or at gym or at work. Love is sacrifice. Love is an action.

If love was a feeling, then love would let us down when times got tough. Love is not a feeling. Love is an action. Love is something that you choose to do regardless of your circumstances. How do we know love is an action? Because God so loved the world. He chose to offer up his life on the cross for us, even though he knew there would be people that wouldn't receive the free gift of salvation for him.

Even though he knew that Peter would deny him three times, Jesus Christ still died on the cross for Peter. Even though he knew Judas would betray him, he still died on the cross for Judas. Even though Jesus Christ knows there will be people that would turn on him, that will hold a grudge against him for something that isn't anything that he caused. that people will hold a grudge against Jesus because of a misrepresentation of Jesus that people have been given of him. They'll hold a grudge against God, even though that wasn't God. God still died for all people. And Jesus Christ says here, love isn't a feeling, love isn't sex, love isn't a substance, it's not something tangible. Love is an action. Love is sacrifice. The Hebrew word for love is a hava, and it means to lay your life down for someone.

Jesus Christ's latest life down for all of humankind. And if you, you choose to receive the free gift of eternal life with him, you can experience an abundance of joy and freedom from the pit of hopelessness that you can feel and experience in this lifetime. Now, I'm going to flip to Romans 8 real quick, because now I feel like that there's this contemplation in people's brain where they think,

oh, well, a lot of people think that they're too dirty for God. They think that if they do certain things, it's going to make God love them less. Romans 838 through 39 says, for I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation

will be able to separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus, our Lord. Did you know that there is no physical action that you can do that can make God love you less? Did you know that there is no physical action that you can do that will make God revoke his love from you? Did you know that there's no physical action that you can do where God says, you know what? My sacrifice is for everyone except my friend right here because they did this thing and I'm revoking my sacrifice for them. Absolutely not. Jesus Christ and John 3 says, for God so loved the world that he gave us one and only son, that whoever, whoever believes in him. That means anyone.

That means every human being is a wretched sinner. all those wretched, disgusting, sinful human beings. Yeah, those guys, those are the ones that can't be separated from my love. And my love has been proven to them on the cross. And you can choose to receive that gift or not. It's so interesting because every religion, like the contradiction here with Islam is if you ask a Muslim if they're going to heaven, they have no idea if they're going to heaven. Muslims have no idea if they're doing enough to the afterlife.

I have insane respect for Muslims because the five pillars of Islam, one of them give alms to the poor. Help the needy. Help the poor. That's something that a lot of Christians struggle to do. I believe there are more Christians that shun the homeless than Muslims.

Because in the five pillars, Muslims to give alms to the poor. Now, it doesn't matter how much things that they do. Muslims have to follow the five pillars of Islam for a law to weigh they're good and they're bad. And if they do enough good, they get into the afterlife.

If they do enough bad, you're out of here. Now, with Muslims, they don't know what is enough. Muslims never know if they're doing enough. So if you ask a Muslim if they're going to heaven, they will say they don't know. And when I look at my life and I say, man, if I had a hole in my heart and I couldn't

fill that hole in my heart with porn, I couldn't fill that hole in my heart with, whether you're someone that tries to fill the hole in your heart with porn, alcohol, drugs, you try to fill it with how many people you can sleep with, how many people you can please, and you've come to the understanding that none of those things that you have done can fill that hole in your heart, then what makes you think that you can do enough to get to heaven? if you can't even do enough to fill the hole in your heart. That's a serious question of concern here. And that's what draws me to Jesus Christ.

It's every religion, it is up to the sinful, wretched human being to gain enlightenment, to get to the afterlife. But in Christianity, it is what Jesus Christ did on the cross. It's not what we can do to get into heaven. It's what Jesus Christ did for us. And in my eyes, my friend, that is what draws me to Jesus Christ. Because it's not what I can do. I have let myself down so much.

I've let people down so much. I've let my best friends down so much. I've let my parents down so much. I've let my girlfriend down so much. How do I think I can do enough to get into heaven? I can't. And that's the beauty of it. And you know what?

That actually takes a lot of stress on my shoulders. I would hate to be running around every day, not knowing if I'm doing enough for Jesus Christ. I would hate to be running around, not knowing if I'm doing enough for a law. It's crazy. It's crazy. And that's what I love about Jesus Christ.

nothing can separate us from his love. And it's actually there's nothing that we can do to get us into heaven, nothing that we can do to get God love us more. God loves us unconditionally. But our actions show Jesus that our monies where our mouth is, that we say what we mean, that we mean what we say.

Jesus Christ loves humankind in this way. And the last thing I would challenge you is, and in 1 John, he says, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love God doesn't just tell you what to do with your life

God doesn't just tell you that he loves you Jesus Christ is the embodiment of love Jesus Christ is the definition of love and he is the example of love when John 1 says that the word became flesh and dwelt among us Jesus Christ not only told us to serve

he humbled himself as a servant showed us how to serve and in the same way Jesus Christ doesn't just tells us that he loves us. He actually humbled himself, showed us that he loved us despite our wretched sinfulness that separates us from him. He humbled himself, loved us enough, and it's his joy to love his children, it's his joy to love us in our suffering, it's his joy to love us in our highs, it's his joy to love us in our lows, and he loves us regardless. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of wisdom and love. And I actually want to point you to a proverb I read

yesterday in Proverbs 1. That actually made me feel amazing when I read it. It's awesome how scripture makes us feel. But whoever listens to me will dwell secure and will be at ease without dread of disaster. I love that verse because I think oftentimes to close this podcast out, when times get tough, we assume that God doesn't love us. We assume that God is causing the tough things to happen to us and we believe that God doesn't love us. But I love this verse because he says, whoever listens to me, will dwell secure and be at ease. And in Psalm 23, it says, even though I walk through the valley of

the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Do you know what that scripture means? The rod and staff of a shepherd guides a sheep when they are being led astray. And in the midst of your darkest storm and your darkest trial and your hardest issue, Jesus Christ is going to use his staff to guide you through the storm. Jesus doesn't promise to make our problems disappear, but he promises to be with us through the storm, through the trial, and deliver us through that. And that's a beautiful thing. God is a loving God enough to go with you through the hard times. God is a loving God to want to know everything about your life despite him being unknowing. That is the beauty of Jesus Christ. God being eternal and holy,

knowing every grain of sand on the planet, knowing the numbers of hairs on your head, says, I want to intimately know you and love you specifically, and I make time to be with you, and I'm inviting you as a son and daughter of the king to make time for him, because he really loves you and wants to spend time with you. Let me pray for you really quick so that you can actually truly understand the weight of God's love for you and that you can receive it. Jesus, I thank you for everyone watching and listening to this episode. God, I just pray that you will give them the peace and comfort, God. Will you just give them the clarity to understand that you do really love them,

that you care for them and that you see them in their circumstance? Jesus. I thank you for everyone watching and listening to this. Bless them in Jesus' name. Amen. Guys, thank you so much for watching and listening to this podcast. If you enjoyed it, subscribe to us on YouTube, follow us on Spotify, Instagram, Bryce Crawford podcast across all platforms. We're trying to fix the Apple podcast audio. So if you guys are listening to this on Apple Podcast, it's been fixed.

But I love you guys. Go get the merch at Jesus in the street.com. We'll see you guys next time.