Thundering Love
INTRODUCTION – This sermon from 1999 is another message inspired by my astonishingly attractive wife, who likes to read Christian romance novels, especially fluffy ones. I thus created my own plot. A new and (obviously) cute school teacher arrives on the lone prairie, where she is rescued from a thundering herd of buffalo – and certain death. An obligatory love interest with the handsome gunslinger who saved her springs up (after all, it is the springtime). However, she marries a hard-working Christian cattleman instead. Together, they have children (she nearly dies in childbirth, almost loses her entire family in an influenza epidemic, and once becomes lost in a blizzard with her youngest baby after helping an ailing elderly neighbor) and start a small country church (he is the lay preacher; she teaches Sunday school and plays the piano). It is then that the rejected gunman returns. Tensions build, and a showdown is imminent as the gun-toting renegade plans to shoot up the church and kill his successful rival. A violent prairie thunderstorm (with apple-sized hail) intervenes, and an equally violent cattle stampede ensues. The cattleman/preacher delivers the lawless triggerman from the thundering herd of cattle – and certain death. Softened by the pastor’s selfless stalwartness (and perhaps by the hail), the misadventuring miscreant is converted to saving faith in Jesus Christ. He then becomes a traveling evangelist throughout the Wild West, performing gun tricks to get people’s attention and thundering from the pulpit the message of the power of God – the power of God’s love. The name of the novel is Thundering Love. If you would like to read this masterpiece, sorry. Because the concept is Biblical, you get a three-point sermon in its place.
- GOD THUNDERS A WARNING LOVE
Exodus 20:18-20 – The setting is Mt. Sinai, and the event is the giving of God’s Law to the nation of Israel. The thundering is obvious, but where is the love? We find it in the setting of standards that are good for us. Which of the Ten Commandments would we like to delete? Would it be good to take out a “not”? We know better. Why then do some object to the thundering love of God’s Law? First, it points to God’s power, to His authority, to His ability to thunder; perhaps we are uncomfortable with our relative powerlessness. Second, it points out our problem with sin; as Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Sin is both foolish and destructive. God thunders so that we are warned, so that we can hear Him, so that we can hear His love.
- GOD THUNDERS A CORRECTING LOVE
I Samuel 12:16-22 – God warns, but He does not stop when we sin. He remains concerned, active, and involved. This passage provides a powerful object lesson: rarely did it rain during the time of the wheat harvest; a raging thunderstorm then was a frightening novelty. God had been rejected by the people whom He had especially blessed, but He still thunders His love to them. The Israelites are chastened but not forsaken. Today, we might call God’s thundering corrective love “tough love.” Why does love sometimes have to be tough? Sadly, it is sin that necessitates a chastening love. Sin mars our relationship with God, Who is holy. We break His standards, yet He still remains completely involved in our lives, thundering His correcting love when needed.
- GOD THUNDERS A SAVING LOVE
John 12:27-34 – God has revealed our central problem – sin – and continues to work in our sinful lives. Ultimately, He solves this problem by perfectly joining His power and His love. If Jesus had not said a word on the Cross, He still would have thundered His love (verse 32). Of course, Jesus did speak; He shouted; in John 19:30, He shouted, even thundered, “It is finished!” Jesus completed His work on the Cross to provide the final and complete solution to our deadly problem of sin. Then and now, Jesus thunders a saving love.
CONCLUSION – I remember our neighbor’s dog (we miss you, Dirk) hiding in our cellar – in the farthest corner from the overhead door – whenever it thundered. He did not know why he was afraid of thunder, but he did know to seek shelter. We have an advantage over dear Kirk: we know why God thunders His love. We have sinned, and we need to be rescued. We need a Savior. Will you hear God’s thundering love today? Will you seek shelter in His saving love right now? May each one of us hear and heed, and may each one of us hide in the shelter of love of Jesus Christ.