Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] I'm going to have you turn in your Bibles today to the first letter of John. I'm not starting a series, but I just felt directed this week as I was reading my own quiet time. There's a text to Scripture, and then some people wrote on it. And I want us to take a look at 1 John, chapter 4, beginning in verse 7. We're going to go all the way to chapter 5, covering verse 3. And so the sermon this morning is really dealing with how, when we experience God's love, how it brings about change inside of us. I want to talk about all the things that God wants to do on the inside of our lives. Ida Scudder's father and grandfather had been missionaries. They were doctors in India.
[00:00:47] And she had decided, you know, having lived there, that was the last place she wanted to remain. You know, this is quite a few years back, and I remember my first trip to India.
[00:00:58] You know, it's really become a lot more modernized today. But back then, I could even remember back then it was a lot more.
[00:01:05] What would I say? Almost like the first century in a lot of ways. Yeah, there was a lot of technology, but there was also a lot of. I was in a village. And so it was a lot closer to what the first century would look like.
[00:01:17] And so her visit was to. She was in America. She had gone back to the States, and she came back to India because her mother was very sick, and she decided she needed to go and help her. And then something happened to her. Three men, two Hindus and a Muslim men came requesting help for their wives. They were pregnant and about to deliver babies, and there was complications. And so they came, and her dad was a doctor, but they refused the assistance because custom forbade contact with the opposite sex. So Ida Scudder, then, that night, was very traumatized by that experience because she knew that these young women, their lives were in jeopardy. But custom forbid anybody to do things. And what they really needed was a woman doctor so that they could address the problem. And she said, I spent much of the night in anguished prayer and began to realize God was speaking into my spirit. There was something about the situation that was challenging me and thinking about possibly giving myself to this vocation for my life to become a medical doctor, to go back to India, to minister in this capacity, especially for women with needs in this area.
[00:02:39] And so when she awoke the next morning, she learned that all of those women, those three women, had passed away. She was so traumatized by that that she made a decision that she would go back to The States. And she did. She went and studied medicine at Cornell Medical College and went back to India and began a medical complex in Velour, India, which today is one of the best medical centers all of the country. The sight of these three anguished husbands became a vision from God that thrust Ida Skyder into a lifetime career of medical practice and development in India. And so what we see that is love is the most powerful motivating factor in bringing grace to our world. Okay, so you have it on your screen, but I don't have it on my back screen. Chris. John is writing to explain, I think, the true nature of being a child of God. And in this letter, first, John, God's children not only renounce sin as a way of life and become obedient to God's word and reject the values of a society that's in rebellion against God, but begin to embrace the nature of God, begin to embrace God's the great principle, the motivating principle in our lives, which is the love of God. See, when you and I experience God's love, it changes something on the inside of us. In 1 John, chapter 4, and then verse 8, and in verse 16, it says there that God is love. And I want to look at that and maybe explain to us a little bit what does that really mean. God is the one who defines for us what love is, because he is the source of love, and he is the greatest model of what love looks like. I think we have a warped concept in our culture today, unfortunately, when we experience the kind of love that God shows us, which is, first of all unconditional, and it's continuous, it's beautiful.
[00:04:55] So I remember I was reading this past week, and this is what kind of got me into this chapter. Nicky Gumbel said, when you really know God's love for you, your life is transformed.
[00:05:10] The first commandment that God gives believers is that, number one, we are to love him, which in turn empowers us to love other people.
[00:05:19] Jesus summarizes the entire law by stating that when we love God, then we are able to love other people. And this now becomes the purpose for which we're living our lives. We're living as we could say we're living as lovers. We're living as people who love God. We're living as people who are learning to love one another. And how many know, you gotta learn that that's not always necessarily easy because we're gonna be challenged in these areas, and we have to learn how to accept people, how to, you know, sometimes put up with things, how to forgive people. That's all part of loving. And, you know, a lot of times it's easy to say you love somebody when you don't know them that well. But when you get to know them more and more and more now, you have to really begin to practice what I think God wants us to understand and learn and become more and more like Him. So it was interesting, Pastor Alex Buchanan, who once asked Nicky Gumbel, who's the founder of Alpha, and he's got this little devotional. I was reading this, and it really hit me with impact. He said to Nicky Gumbel, he said, do you.
[00:06:30] And I'm going to ask the question because I think it's an appropriate question for all of us. Do you and I believe that God approves of us? It's an interesting question. And he asked it directly to the pastor, Nicky Gumbel. Nicky Gumbel's pastoring this church. He was speaking to him, and Nicky Gumbel said, actually, I really struggle with that because I know there's things about myself that I find difficult, that God really would love me, like, really approve of me. Because, you know, there's things that we struggle with. And. And one of the things that I've noticed in all of these years as a pastor is how many people struggle with this idea that God really loves them just the way they are and for just who they are. People are struggling with that.
[00:07:17] And it was interesting. Buchanan's response to Nikki Galmi says, we all struggle with things about ourselves.
[00:07:27] It's gone again. Chris. Okay, I'm going to look back here a little bit, so I just got to make sure I'm staying with you guys. So he says we all struggle with things about ourselves, but God wants us to know that he approves of us as his followers, and he wants us to know he loves us unconditionally, wholeheartedly and continually. And I know that, you know, as I've said, relating to people, how many people struggle with the idea that God really loves us?
[00:08:01] Or maybe I will say it this way, that God really loves you. As a matter of fact, the Bible says God so loved the world, God loves people.
[00:08:09] And a lot of people struggle with that because they don't love themselves.
[00:08:14] There's the big problem. And how do you change that? And that's what I want to talk about this morning. How do we change this thing where we maybe don't accept ourselves, or maybe we don't love ourselves the way we ought to? We've never really maybe have ever experienced this unfailing unconditional love, that even though we mess up, God is still there loving us. And so in one John, chapter four, here John's going to explain the nature of a love that changes us. Because I believe that love is the most powerful force on the planet, and it's what brings about the greatest change in all of our lives. So we need to look at the heart of God's love and how it affects us. And I think there are three elements that will reveal whether we have experienced this transforming love. See, once we have really experienced it, this is what starts happening inside of our lives. Number one, we start loving not only ourselves. Because if you don't love yourself, it's hard to love other people. Jesus talked about the great commands. He was asked, what's the greatest commandment? Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And then Jesus said, and the second command, to love your neighbor as yourself. And in this, all of the commands of God are wrapped up. If you do those two things, you're actually fulfilling the law. Isn't that amazing? But that second part, love your neighbor as you love yourself. Well, if you don't love yourself, it's hard to love your neighbor. And the reason, what's got to change is you and I have to begin to love ourselves, but not in a selfish sort of way. I'm not talking about that kind of love. I'm talking about receiving this unconditional love from God so that you and I become a channel of that love to other people. Now, the reason why this is so critical is that we can only do this once. We ourselves have experienced love. Now, even as the nature of a compass is to point to true north, how many know that's true? There's a magnetic pull, and the compass will tell us true north because of the magnetic field of the earth. And it does this because it's responsive to the nature of the earth's makeup. Even so, as believers, when you and I are connected to God in a very real, precious, and intimate way, what happens then is we begin to reflect the nature of God. And that's what's so beautiful that all of a sudden people can begin to see Christ in us. They begin to see this nature, this loving nature coming out. And you and I know if you've been a Christian a long time, you and I know that's not us that's coming out. It's really Jesus that's maturing and developing within us. And we're sometimes surprised by what's coming out of us. We're going, wow, this is not what I used to be like. This is what I, you know, I used to be like this. But now over time, God has been doing something in our lives and now we're like this. And I love that because what it tells me is we are not what we once were, but we're not what we will ultimately be. Isn't that amazing? Because God's doing this work of transformation in our lives, and it's a beautiful work of grace. You know, all of us like to go on fast forward, you know, to speed the process up. But I've noticed something. If you're cooking food, speeding the process up doesn't make food taste any better. It just warms it up.
[00:11:43] If you really want the flavors to come out, it's got to happen slowly. And so it takes time for God to work with us. I think we can hinder it, and we do sometimes, but I think we can enhance it to some degree by cooperating with God. But God is in that process of changing our lives. So let's take a look at these texts. In 1 John 4, 7, it says here, dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. That's actually. Let us. He's encouraging us. Let's love one another. Why? Because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. In other words, he's basically saying that when we know God, when we've experienced God, God's love comes into our lives because God's spirit comes inside of us. And then that love can begin to flow through our life. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
[00:12:40] Now, does this mean that whoever has ever loved anyone therefore knows God? Well, no, that's not quite true.
[00:12:49] No, what we're to understand here is that the true nature of love is that human love has limitations. How many know that's true? We can come to the end of ourselves. You know, I've been giving and giving and giving, and sometimes people are so needy. All we're doing is that, you know, we're just. We empty out. You know, there's a. How many say I have a limited capacity to love. I'm willing to admit that I think we, if we're really honest, we all have a limited capacity. There's only one person I know that has an unlimited capacity to love, and that's God. He has an unlimited capacity to love. How many think that's amazing?
[00:13:24] Now just think about it. If God directs that towards you and me, that's an unlimited Capacity towards us, even though we're doing all kinds of crazy stuff. But God doesn't give up on us. He just keeps loving us. That's so powerful. And eventually he breaks through our pain and our shame and our guilt and our sorrow and our brokenness. And he just keeps moving into our lives and brings about that change within us. So God's love is unlimited and unfailing. Now, I want to just say this about God's love. John Stott. I was reading this and it was so. This was profound. And I'm going to explain a little bit so that we understand. Because sometimes we talk about love and we put God as love. And when we start thinking about it, sometimes we become very sentimental about it. We have a false understanding of it. So let me quote what he says here and then I'll unpack it. Not only is God the source of all true love, he is love in his innermost being. That's the essence of God. That's what he's telling us. And he Sundays there are three other statements in the New Testament concerning what God is and substance in nature. Number one, God is spirit.
[00:14:37] Another verse, God is light. And the last one is God is a consuming fire.
[00:14:42] So now the Gnostics, these guys were.
[00:14:47] They were heretics and they believed that God was an immaterial spirit and light. But they never taught that God is love.
[00:14:57] It is the most comprehensive and sublime of all biblical affirmations about God's being and is repeated twice in this text, verse 8 and verse 16. Nevertheless, it's important to hold together the biblical assertions about God together. In other words, sometimes we divorce God. We have all these little attributes of God. God's this, God's that, God's this. And we just throw them around like, no, but God's an integrated person.
[00:15:25] It is true that the words God is love meant not that loving is only one of God's many activities. That's sometimes how we look at it.
[00:15:35] No. But rather that all of his activity is loving activity.
[00:15:41] Now that's a very profound thought. Everything God does is loving. Are you following this train of thought? Everything he does is loving. Now, what is he going to say next? Therefore, if he judges, he judges in love. Wow. Because sometimes we look at judgment as that's not loving. I'm saying it is loving. That's because that's the nature of God. And what's God going to judge? He always judges that which is evil, that which is unhealthy, that which is sinful. He's going to deal with that stuff because he knows that sin is what's destroying us as people. So he's going to address that in our lives.
[00:16:16] He goes on to say here, yet if his judging is in love, his loving is also in justice. He who is love is light and fire as well.
[00:16:30] And then he goes on, far from condoning sin, his love has found a way to expose it because he's light and to consume it because he's fire, without destroying the sinner, but rather saving him. That's a very interesting thought. So what is he saying? He's saying God takes everything who he is in a loving way and does an amazing work for our benefit. Warren Worsby has rightly stated, this does not mean that love is God. A lot of people confuse things. No, God is love. Love is not God. And the fact that two people love each other does not mean that their love is necessarily holy. Love does not define God. God is the one who defines what real love is. Okay, Stephen Smalley says it is true that loving people are to be found outside the Christian church as well as inside it. But important as love is, John is aware that by itself, love is not a mark of being child of God and knowing him, it is Amarch, but not the only one.
[00:17:36] In chapter three, verse 23, the command to love is directly linked to the demand for faith. And indeed in that context, love is mentioned after the obligation laid upon every would be Christian to believe in Jesus Christ as the effect of new birth from God and the knowledge of God rather than as their cause. In other words, love then is an outcome of a genuine faith.
[00:18:06] And I'm trying to follow my notes, see where you guys are at. I don't have it on the back wall.
[00:18:14] Yeah, go ahead, just keep clicking because I have no idea.
[00:18:20] We can say then that to simply confess Christ, but. But not to love, I would say would be an empty profession of faith. If you think about it, you can't say, well, you know, I really love God, but you know, you don't do anything about it. You know, there's no action to it. How many know that love is a verb? It's something that we're actively doing. You know, I can tell people till the cows come home, I love you. But the moment you move from verbal, you know, it's nice that people hear the words, but there's got to be actions that follow the words. How many say that's true? You know, it's more than just words. It's a verb, it's an activity, it's an action.
[00:18:57] So in First John, chapter 4, verse 9, it says, this is how God showed His love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. So God didn't just say, I love you guys. This is what I did for you guys. This is the action that I did. I sent my Son into the world. That's what Christmas is all about. And John Stott explains, while the origin of love is in the being of God, the manifestation of love is in the coming of Christ. In other words, this is how God's revealing His love. That's the essence of the Christmas story. That's what we're about to live out here. In the next few weeks, God sends His Son to earth.
[00:19:35] Though God always had demonstrated his love to mankind in so many different ways. Psalm 145 says, the Lord is good to all. He has compassion. All. He has made you open your hand, verse 16, and satisfy the desires of every living thing. So every good and perfect gift comes down from heaven. That's what people need to understand. All the good things in the life. God's giving them to you. Isn't that beautiful? It doesn't matter if you know him or not. He's still doing it. He's taking care of humanity because you're his creation. Then it goes on. In verse 145, there's a special grace to those people who are his people that know Him. It says, the Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. So now he's specifying we can have a unique relationship with God. I love this. God says, I want to know. I know you, but you don't know me. But I want you to know me. I want you to know me in a personal way. God is saying to us, I like that. He says he fulfills the desires of those who fear him and he hears their cry and, and he saves them. Well, not only does he save us from our sins, he saves us from a lot of other things in life. And I'm so happy that I can come to God. You know, it's not like it's a one shot thing, you know, where I come to Jesus, give my life to him. But then it's like, oh yeah, now I've got my life insurance policy. I'm now on my way to heaven. I don't have to worry about anything else. I mean, a lot of people think that way, but I'm going, no, no, no. This is like a daily thing that as I'M living through life. What I've discovered over the years is that life is difficult. Anybody figured that out yet? And a lot of people act like, you know, it's not supposed to be hard. I want you to know it is hard. And there's a lot of difficulties and challenges and pressures and stresses, and we can all relate to that. But you and I can call out to God and he can save us from all our fears and all our anxieties and all our difficulties. He can bring us through all those things. I'm going. God is so good.
[00:21:34] And then we see eternal life is one of God's greatest expressions of love to us. Verse 9. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. I just want to focus on that little phrase, live through him. How many know we struggle with living well? Anybody here struggle with living well, living abundant life that Jesus promised? You know what is even more challenging is how to live a life pleasing to God, a loving life, because sin short circuits love. How many know that's what happens, you know, every time we have a disagreement with someone, sin's gotten in there somewhere. It short circuits the relationship. We have a lot of short circuit moments in life.
[00:22:20] Come on, let's be honest. Anybody else besides the pastor have a short circuit moment? You know, am I talking to the right group here?
[00:22:27] Then you gotta practice things like, you know, forgiveness and asking for forgiveness, and you gotta learn how to forgive. And, you know, you get wounded by people. Come on, let's be honest. Everybody in this room. Anybody never been wounded in your life? Could you talk to me afterward? I want to find out your secret because I just know that that's happening. And how do I know that? Because Jesus taught us how to pray. He says, you know, when you pray, pray this way. And then he says, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. So I know you're being sinned against too, and we have to practice forgiveness. Wow. And this is what restores relationships. How can we live a selfless life, a forgiving life, a self controlled life? Well, listen to Paul as he's writing to the Galatians. And he says, it takes God's spirit to help you do this. You can't do this on your own. Jesus said, without me, you can't do anything. Paul says, listen, my brothers and sisters, you were called to be free, but don't use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather serve one another humbly. In love.
[00:23:34] For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. I've already said that earlier. He says so I say walk by the spirit and you'll not gratify the desires of the flesh or the sinful nature. But the fruit of the Spirit is what love, joy, peace, forbearance. Forbearance means putting up with kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.
[00:23:59] Anybody need a little help with self control?
[00:24:02] I don't know. Against such there is no law. Let me move on to the second evidence revealing whether we're experiencing God's transforming love and that's the impact it has upon us.
[00:24:12] How is God's love shaping you? Do I fully grasp that apart from God, I really have very little to offer?
[00:24:22] It's true, I struggle, we all do. But when God is in control in our lives, it's just a lot easier because he's enabling and he's helping and he's empowering and he's envisioning and he's equipping us and he's showing us, he's giving us wisdom, he's giving us understanding. See, See, I think sometimes we make Christianity so mystical and it's a problem because really simply you're reading the word of God and it tells you to do something and you go, I really don't feel like it.
[00:24:51] See, we're really driven. A lot of our decision making is based on emotion. We're really, I don't feel like doing that. I go, I don't care how I feel. This is what God's telling me to do, I'm going to do it. How many have ever had a little battle inside of you and going, this is what God is telling me to do and this is how I feel. And they're not the same thing.
[00:25:08] Anybody ever had that little discussion inside of your soul and say, hey buddy, shape up.
[00:25:13] You're going this way. Yeah, but I want to go that way. You have a little argument.
[00:25:18] You guys never have these issues. I know, but I'm just telling you, if you want to live this amazing life, you're going to have to go with what God says, not how you feel.
[00:25:33] This is love, verse 10. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for us. So the ultimate expression of love is this self giving love, which God demonstrated on our behalf by dying for our sin.
[00:25:49] And like Andrea pointed out, and I wrote it in my notes, I thought it was good. You know, everybody's been preaching My sermon this morning, I talked to the guys I was praying with. They're all quoting all the verses. And then Andrea comes along and says, don't just focus on Christmas. You got to bring it all the way to Easter. It's right in my notes. Let me read it, though. The Christmas story is the opening scene of God's redemption.
[00:26:07] It concludes with Good Friday and Easter. Thank you very much, Andrea. You're right on the dot. The Holy Spirit is really talking today, folks, through a lot of people.
[00:26:17] You know, Warren Worsby says the fact that God sent his Son into the world is one evidence of the deity of Jesus Christ. In other words, he's God. Babies are not sent into the world from some other place. They're born in this world.
[00:26:31] But as the eternal Son, he was sent into this world. Isn't that beautiful? The greatest gift in life. Listen, the greatest gift you can ever receive is the Christmas gift. It's Jesus when we receive him.
[00:26:47] That's better than winning the lotto by a long shot. That can come and go.
[00:26:53] This is something you don't take away. This is amazing. God is our redeemer from our own broken condition, our fallen condition. It was love that motivated God's sacrifice on our behalf. And it's rare that someone would give up their lives for another. But as Paul points out in the book of Romans, you see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless.
[00:27:13] You know, I look at our world today, and all I hear about is addictions and addictions and brokenness and this and this. Listen, that's a state of powerlessness. That's a state of, I can't overcome this stuff. And I'm going, you're right. You can't. And then I talked to people and I said, listen, Paul tells us, before you were a Christian, you were dead in your sins. Your sins kept you from God. That was the problem. But you know what happens when we receive Christ? He breaks us out of that bondage so that we can be free.
[00:27:46] He says, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. That just means ungodly. Sounds like a terrible word. Well, it just means you're unlike God. That's what it means. To be ungodly means you're unlike God. To be godly means you're like God.
[00:28:02] Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrated his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners. Christ died for us.
[00:28:17] Christ demonstrated love for you and I. When we were still rascals, we were doing our thing. We were in rebellion against God. We were living independently against God. Or, you know, just wasn't. Maybe some of us just didn't know any better, but we were just ignorant. It doesn't really matter. But God said, I love you and I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you with all those issues in your life. I signed up for it.
[00:28:45] Greatest decision. I said, yes, Lord, I need you. I'm a mess. I'm broken. I need to be fixed. And God started working on me. You know, Jesus is an atoning sacrifice on our behalf. What's that mean, to be atonement? Atonement means to become one with God in a relationship with God. FF Bruce, he's a scholar, says this. We need not stay to inquire whether expiation or remedy for defilement. These are theological ideas. I'll get to explaining it in a minute. Here would be a preferable rendering of hellesmos, which is another is a Greek word that you can translate, propituation or atonement.
[00:29:23] And he said we could use either word in its biblical sense. Not as something which men must do to placate God. That's why I quoted this. That's what people try to do. They try to placate God. They try to somehow do something good enough. If I can only be good enough, then maybe God will accept me. You know, that's what people think.
[00:29:42] But something which God provided in his grace, which is a gift to bring men or women into his presence with an assurance that they are accepted by Him. So you and I can be accepted by God not because of something we do, but because of something he did. Do you know why we have a hard time receiving God's love? I'll tell you why. Because we see, we look at ourselves, we're the object. And we look at our lives and we go, I don't deserve it. And you know what God? I'm looking.
[00:30:09] God's love starts with God. He just says, I love you.
[00:30:14] It's because it's his character and his nature. He can't help himself. He just loves people. Isn't that beautiful? God's a lover by nature and he loves us, it says. And he removed the barrier that kept him at a distance.
[00:30:29] This distance we call guilt with its attendant retribution, the punishment which is banished by perfect love. What Bruce is saying is that God took the penalty for our sin rather than leaving us trying to make ourselves right with God because we never could be good enough. You know, some people say, well, you know, Pastor, you know, I can't believe anybody could love me because I don't love myself. I'm going, yeah, but there's one that does. That's God. He loves you.
[00:30:56] He loves you. You know my prayer? I had all these men praying this morning. You know what we were praying? God, would your spirit somehow communicate to the people that are listening that God loves you? Just who you are right now, he loves you.
[00:31:14] Isn't that amazing? And if that will penetrate into your spirit, your inner being, if that will just penetrate, it will change your whole life. That's the whole point of the sermon, how God's love creates maturity within us. Listen to verse 11. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also also ought to love one another.
[00:31:34] No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. God's love is made complete in us. What does that mean? Marion Thompson says, in fact, when John writes that this is how God's love is made complete, he means that it reaches its intended goal. Because that word complete is actually a Greek word, teleos, which is really speaking of the goal. The goal of God's love. Listen, the goal of God's love is, is that you and I will start loving other people. God wants to get his love inside of us so that we become a channel, we become a conduit.
[00:32:10] How many like this idea? God's pouring his love inside of me, and it's coming right on through me to other people. How many of you just want to be a channel of God's love? Wouldn't that be beautiful? The perfect love of God flowing into us and flowing through us. Bring it on. Bring it on. Come on now. Isn't that amazing? People are going, how come you're so loving? It's not me. I opened up my soul, and now God's love is pouring into me, and it's pouring through me. You know, I used to have a Bible college teacher, and he was. He was really funny. And then he would go, I love it when the Spirit of God comes on me because the love of God is flowing through me and it's going through me. But he says it always sticks on the side a little bit. Sticks on the side.
[00:32:53] Some of it is retained. I'm experiencing God's love. It's so great.
[00:33:01] This is how people see God at work.
[00:33:06] It's through the loving actions of believers. When you and I start loving each other, we start Revealing the nature of God's love to our society.
[00:33:16] That's why it's so important. Listen, this is so critical that we learn to love each other. It's so critical. You know, you know why the enemy wants to create division in relationships? Because then he can defeat God's purpose. And God's purpose is to reveal his love to humanity.
[00:33:34] So when you and I are bickering with each other, or if we're bickering in our relationships as marriage partners or co workers or whatever realm that we're in with other believers, guess who's winning?
[00:33:47] The dark side.
[00:33:49] How many are following this? The dark side that's winning. We don't want that to happen.
[00:33:53] You know, one reason why Warren Worsby says one reason why God permits the world to hate Christians is so that Christians may return love for the world's hatred. Isn't that an interesting thought? Yeah. I mean, that's what Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount. He said, blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you falsely, say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad. That's what they, you know, he says, great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. So what should our response be? Going down. Chapter 5, verse 44. But I tell you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. Oh, you may be the children, so that you may be the children of your Father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good. And since the righteous and the unrighteous. Isn't that amazing?
[00:34:42] What's he saying? He's saying this. How many know you want to fight fire with fire? Everybody gets burnt.
[00:34:48] So how do you win when evil is being coming at you? Now you just be real nice back. How many go, that's not a human response, Pastor. That's not how I feel when people are being nasty toward me. You know, I feel like punching their lights out. That's how I feel. But remember I told you, you can't go by your emotions. You got to say, check that emotion right now. God told me I got to love this person. How do you love them? I got to do good to them. I got to bless them, I got to pray for them. I got to be nice to them.
[00:35:19] How many have ever tried this? Anybody ever practiced this? I've tried to practice. It's really funny what happens when you practice this. I've had people come in, they're really upset, and I'm Trying to be really nice back. All of a sudden I notice the tone is changing all the time.
[00:35:35] Because when you're being nice back, people then start feeling bad, you know, they start backing off.
[00:35:42] How many have ever done this? Anybody here ever tried this? People back off. I'm serious. A lot of them start feeling bad. They start realizing, yeah, well, listen, I know I'm coming on strong. They start moderating and they're clawing back away because you're being nice back, listening, you're being empathetic, you're trying to be understanding. People don't know how to handle that. Because what people are expecting is you're going to elevate it. You're going to go toe to toe, round three kind of thing. You know what I mean? But that's not what we're doing. But let me move on to the final evidence.
[00:36:17] And that's simply an assurance of our right relationship with God. We can stand with confidence on the day of judgment because God's love has been extended to us through the Spirit.
[00:36:28] Now, what do you mean judgment? I thought we were Christians. We're not going to be judged for our sins. No, but we're going to be judged for the life we live. So what we believe, number one is critical, verse 15. If anyone acknowledged that Jesus is the son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know that relying on the love of God that he has for us because God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in them.
[00:36:52] So we're resting on this amazing assurance of this right relationship because we know who Jesus is. We have the right understanding of who he is.
[00:37:02] But Herschel Hobb points out this involves more than just a repetition of creed.
[00:37:07] In other words, I believe the right things. There's so many people say, I'm a Christian, I believe the right things. I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let's stop.
[00:37:14] It also means a total commitment to the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:37:19] To make this confession in John's day, in his hour in the first century, meant persecution. You have to think about this, you know, am I going to follow Jesus? Might not go well for me here. There's a price to be paid to follow Jesus, you know. As one has said, it had involved complete separation many times from former community, whether Jew or Gentile. Such a confession would be made only if one saw in Jesus the total answer to their needs and found in his entire dwelling power, the presence sufficient for such a need. In other words, you're willing to take a risk and you know, forsake something in order to embrace something. And I think we've lost this idea of forsaking something. As a matter of fact, when Paul talks about coming to faith in Christ, he talks about turning away from idols to serve the true and the living God. It means turning your back on something in order to change direction and move in a new direction. That's what the nature of repentance is, a change of mind. You know, you turn your back on what life was like to a new life. I'm following a new leader, and that new leader is Jesus, and I'm going to go where he's taking me.
[00:38:25] Secondly, what we do is critical. And I think there are three things that happen when we begin to love like God loves.
[00:38:32] Not that we're saved by what we do, but this is what starts happening. First of all, it brings an assurance in the time of judgment verse. And this is how love is made complete among us so that we can have confidence on the day of judgment. In this world, we are like Jesus.
[00:38:47] Wow, that's a powerful statement. Let me just quickly mention this. Number one, we can stand with confidence when we stand before Christ. One day, we're not going to be judged for our sins, but we will be judged for how we spent our lives. What are we giving our time and energy to? Okay, There will be rewards if we serve Christ. Believe me, they will be. But in this world, we are like Jesus. We're going to be like him. I like that thought.
[00:39:13] Number two, God's love actually causes us to love other believers. Verse 19. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. Wow.
[00:39:25] Stop. Let's unpack that a little bit. You. And I can't say I love God, start hating people.
[00:39:31] That's incongruent. That doesn't line up. How many are following? You know, and you know, sometimes we get carried away. We're human beings and we get involved or in relationships and then people do something nasty. And pretty soon we have conflict with people that are believers, or at least they say they're believers. Wow, that's pretty powerful stuff. Maybe we got to reevaluate it. Maybe we got to restore some of these relationships. Maybe we have to make amends. Maybe we have to ask for forgiveness.
[00:39:56] Just throwing all that stuff out there.
[00:39:59] I mean, this is meddling good preaching. Medals, by the way.
[00:40:05] And then it says, he goes on to say, for whoever does not love their brother and sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they don't see. It's easy to say, I love God. I don't see Him. It's the people that are the problem, right?
[00:40:17] And he has given us this command. Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and their sister. And as Hobbes says, so if we love God, we're going to love his kids. How many of you ever noticed that if you really love a family, you don't just love the parents, you end up loving their children. Anybody notice that? Hey, listen, if you tell me you love God, you're going to love his kids. So every time people go, I don't relate to the church pastor. I have a hard time with Christians. I'm going, whoa, these are God's kids. What are you talking about?
[00:40:45] If you're going to love God, you've got to love them. A package deal isn't that interesting. But Scripture teaches that.
[00:40:54] And I know what. There's a beautiful thing that begins to happen. We start loving each other. People start caring. It's amazing, and I see it in this church. A lot of people are loving each other. It's very encouraging.
[00:41:07] He goes on to say, but in a sense, he goes on to say, so if we love God, we love his children. You may not agree with another Christian. You may not even like them, or you don't even appreciate what they're doing, but in some sense of agape, selfless giving of yourself to them. Remember I said in one sermon, God commands us to love like God loves. We have to love each other like God loves us. Well, that's pretty hard to do without God loving us first and we're allowing his love to flow through us. We may be certain that in our sins of commission, the things we do wrong and the sins of omission, the things we should be doing that we're not doing, that God's not pleased with it, but he still loves us. How many are happy that even when you and I mess up, God still loves us? How many say that I like that. I'm buying into that? Well, then God says, hey, if God can do that for you, then you need to do that for someone else.
[00:41:56] That's the application.
[00:42:00] So somebody that does something that I don't like, I still have to love them.
[00:42:05] Wow.
[00:42:07] Finally, God's love rules in our heart, causes us to live an obedient life. And I think this is important. He goes on to say, everyone who believes that Jesus is Christ is born of God. Everyone who loves his father loves his child as well. Of course, he's now Restating that this is how we know that we love the children of God. How do I know that I love you? By loving God and carrying out God's commands.
[00:42:30] So it's very practical. God tells me I'm going to do something. So what are some of the things God tells me to do for people? Pray for one another, forgive one another, comfort one another. Right. Put up with one another.
[00:42:46] How many? Have you ever noticed there's 27 one anothers in the New Testament? Check them out, show hospitality to one another, give to one another.
[00:42:57] There's a lot of one anothers. You got to start doing the one another's. How's that? That's what I'm telling you. In fact, this is love for God to keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome. We're happy to do it. But let me close. I think the greatest struggle in loving others is that it's easy to love the people who we feel attracted to for a variety of reasons. How many say that's true? There's some people. I just love it, you know, it's so easy to love them. They're just lovable. I just love them.
[00:43:25] You know, there's some of you people in this room, I just love you guys. Amazing. It's easy to love you, you know, but it's another thing to love those who are difficult, frustrating, or just different than we are. Come on now, isn't that true?
[00:43:40] You know, our problem is our focus. I said it earlier. We look at the object of love rather than the source of love.
[00:43:48] What do I mean by that? Well, let me say it this way.
[00:43:51] What drove the Apostle Paul and his missionary team to suffer so much in bringing the good news of Jesus to those who often rejected him and the message, or worse, even opposed them and sometimes to the point of violence against them?
[00:44:06] What was compelling Paul to keep doing it?
[00:44:09] And it says in Second Corinthians 5:14, it was the love of Christ that was constraining him.
[00:44:16] For that to happen in our lives, for God's love to come into our lives means we have to open our hearts and to be a channel of that love. Despite the response back to us, I'm going to have a stand.
[00:44:32] And how many here saying, boy, I'll tell you, a little challenging this morning. You know, we can talk about Christmas, but Christmas leads to Easter and it's all about love.
[00:44:44] The Christian message, if you want to summarize it, one word is love. It's all about love.
[00:44:51] But you know what? You and I Need God's spirit to love.
[00:44:57] Obviously, that's true. I need the spirit of the living God living in me in order to love the way God loves.
[00:45:05] So I'm going to pray for us this morning because I'm going to say it right now. Some of you are great lovers, and I say that in the biblical sense, you're loving people.
[00:45:15] But I could say right now there's probably every one of us in this room that could say, I could love better.
[00:45:21] I could love better.
[00:45:22] Anybody agree with that? I could love better? Sure.
[00:45:26] So let's just ask God's spirit to come today and first of all that he would start loving us. We need to have a revelation that God loves me.
[00:45:36] Some of you, you're broken on the inside. You know what you feel? Shame or guilt or just, you know, you just feel shattered on the inside. I'm going to pray right now. God will heal you. Would you just lift your hands and say, God, would you come right now and heal the broken places in my soul? Man, when I came to church, when I was a new believer, I was crying every Sunday because, I mean, there was so much brokenness inside that needed to be healed.
[00:45:59] Don't be ashamed of that. Just say, God, I. I need healing. I need you to touch me. I need you to love me, because that's what's going to change me. Your love is going to change me, and you're going to fill me with your love. It's going to help me to love other people. So, Lord, I just pray today that your spirit would now come. There's brokenness in this place. There's woundedness in this place, Lord. There's offense in this place. There's people that are struggling with forgiving. There's people that are struggling with receiving forgiveness. There's people that feel betrayed. There's so many different emotions. And Lord, I know that you're touching our hearts today. And we were praying for that. We prayed, Lord, right now, that your spirit would come. It's your holy Spirit, your presence, your life in us that touches us and brings about the great change that's needed so that our relationships get healthy, so that we get healthy, so that our families get healthy, so that our communities get healthy. Where we're laboring, where we're working, all of that comes as a result of the work of your spirit bringing your love into our hearts. And I just pray today that some of these things that were spoken, Father, will go deep inside of our innermost being. I pray right now that your scripture says perfect love casts out fear.
[00:47:22] Perfect love casts out fear. There's nothing to be afraid of. When we know your love, we don't ever have to be afraid. Because you know what? You're never going to leave us. And you're always going to be there for us. And you're going to walk with us through this whole journey called life. And you're going to help us every step of the way. And we're so grateful for that. And I can testify to that. Father, you've been so faithful for almost five days. Decades. Well, probably longer. The beginning of my life, but especially in the last 50 years, I'm so aware of it. You are so faithful, so good, so kind, so loving, so forgiving. And I just pray today that we might experience that love today. In Jesus name, amen. God bless you. As you leave.
