I Love Pizza!

“I love pizza.” We’ve all said it.

Did you know that around 3 BILLION pizzas are sold in America each year with kids between the ages of 3 to 11 preferring pizza over all other food groups for lunch and dinner?!

Pepperoni is America's favorite topping (36% of all pizza orders) and we eat approximately 251,770,000 pounds of pizza per year! Maybe we really do love pizza.

We also often say how we love a particular sport, movie, tv show, or video game.

And then there’s ice cream. We especially use the word love when it comes to ice cream.

“I love ice cream.”

I once read in Readers Digest how a particular psychologist could figure out someone’s personality traits based on the ice cream flavor they love. Interesting. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Mine is mint chocolate chip. I wonder what that says about me?!

However, when we use the word “Love” out of context, we train our brains to equate love with "feel good feelings." We condition ourselves that love is connected to these feel good feelings, and when those feel good feelings change or go away, we equate that with the love being gone as well.

But thank God that His kind of love is based on who He is, His eternal unchangeable character, and not on any temporary feeling.

Ephesians 2 says:

”But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, He made us alive together with Christ (for by His grace you have been saved),” - Ephesians 2:4-5

Notice God isn’t denying reality. He knows that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But instead of criticizing and condemning us for being dead in our sins, because of His great Love for us; He did something to make us alive and free us from that sin.

Which is THE Good news.

God’s love isn’t fickle. It isn’t based on an emotion or a flavor of ice cream. It’s 100% based on an unconditional love so great that He gave His only Son for us:

”For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. For, God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” - John 3:16-17

God loves you. He is for you. He even wants you to love pizza! Just don’t put your hope in it. That’s in Christ alone.

Pastor Jeff