God’s Heart For Us John 3:16  1. That Everyone Would Be Saved This verse reveals the heart and purpose of God—the great truth that motivated his plan of salvation for humankind.  God’s love is deep and wide enough to embrace all persons. God “gave” his Son as an offering to pay the price for the sin of all humanity. To believe includes three main elements:  a. a faith and confidence that Jesus Christ is God’s Son and the only Savior for spiritually lost humanity. b. an act of surrender that turns over to Christ the leadership of one’s life and an attitude of submission that continues to obey Christ. c. the trust and assurance that Christ is both able and willing to complete a person’s salvation by bringing him or her to live with him forever in heaven. 4. “Perish” is a term in v. 16 that can be easily overlooked in the context of the wonderful gift of grace God offers. It is the tragic consequence of rejecting God. 5. “Eternal life” is God’s gift to those who accept Christ’s sacrifice and forgiveness for sins and become “born again” spiritually. The heart of God is that all would choose him, but God does not require us to. He wants it to be our choice, but it’s not like when your wife gives you choices, and you know she wants you to pick one. God genuinely wants us to choose him out of our free will If we choose to live our lives apart from God, he will not require us to live eternity with him. John 3:17-18  2. Less Judgement, More Relationship Did all this happen for judgment and condemnation? No. That was never God’s purpose. Notice how central Jesus is to the passage.  Every human being has a choice—eternal life or eternal death. As the Bible describes, to perish is not to cease existence but to experience utter failure, futility, and loss—an eternity without God. Even if we could fulfill God’s law, we could never overcome the guilt already incurred by our sinful acts in the past. God is not seeking an excuse to condemn men but is endeavoring to save them. We make church a set of rules, but God is calling us to be closer to him. God wants us to give him full control of our lives; the issue is that we like to be in control. A relationship with God is simply giving him control of ALL of us. What are our transformational moments? Do you believe that God loves you? Would you like to give God complete control over your life? Are you ready to take the next step today?