I think most people would like to think of God as a big teddy bear.

You just hug him when you feel like it, then you put him down and you move on with your life,

and then you kind of, if you feel like it, you go back and you give him another hug

and makes you feel good and then you move on and so forth.

I think any believer in Jesus Christ would have to affirm the following.

That God does not make us jump through hoops in order to receive his love. That he does not make us

earn his love. He loves us before we ever get our act together.

This is all true. But the love of God is far, far, far, far more than all of that.

By now I know some of you are saying, what in the world is Michael going with

this? What is he saying here? Well, first, let me tell you what is absolutely true. What is

absolutely true is this, that God's love does not depend on what we do. That much is true. God's love is not conditional on our doing

anything, but God's love is conditional nonetheless. You say conditional on what? Conditional on what Christ did on the cross.

It is conditional on the colossal cost of the Son of God being separated from his father

for the first time since before eternity on that cross.

It is conditional on the priceless sacrifice

of His son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is conditional on the incomprehensible cost to God the

Father when he gave his only son. And that is why I feel that glibly running around saying,

God's love is unconditional, unconditional,

has created this casual attitude that has pervaded our culture today.

That casual attitude that says,

God doesn't care what I believe, God doesn't care how I live.

But on the country, my friends, this careless attitude that is pervading our culture of thinking that God is a big sugar daddy in the sky,

...