WEBVTT 00:00:00.340 --> 00:00:00.740 Good morning. 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:04.160 I love it when I get a feisty crowd. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:04.700 It's good. 00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:06.180 Nice. 00:00:06.340 --> 00:00:07.580 I'm glad this side seems more awake. 00:00:07.620 --> 00:00:08.580 You guys go get some more coffee. 00:00:08.680 --> 00:00:08.780 We'll wait. 00:00:08.980 --> 00:00:13.380 A couple minutes ago, we've been studying the book of First John together. 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:16.440 And let me just recap all of John for you. 00:00:17.140 --> 00:00:17.560 Love, Jesus. 00:00:18.580 --> 00:00:19.840 Amen. 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:26.780 John is writing his book to a new generation of Christians, and John is dying off. 00:00:26.780 --> 00:00:33.870 He's the last apostle who followed after Christ, and he saw a church that within the first few decades, 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:40.320 spread so fast out of the city of Jerusalem that it came to spread all over the Roman Empire. 00:00:42.040 --> 00:00:43.130 And it was because they loved Jesus. 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:47.540 They had placed their faith and trust in everything that Christ was. 00:00:49.720 --> 00:00:56.480 And we do a disservice to ourselves this morning as we study first John and we look into the details of what First John is all about. 00:00:56.540 --> 00:01:01.980 But we forget the main theme of what First John is, and which is simply love Jesus. 00:01:03.680 --> 00:01:10.780 John outlined for us the way that we know and recognize that we're loving Jesus in our life in three ways, he said, first of all, who is the Jesus that you 00:01:10.780 --> 00:01:11.300 believe in? 00:01:11.300 --> 00:01:12.110 Is it a biblical Jesus? 00:01:14.100 --> 00:01:14.760 It's important. 00:01:15.960 --> 00:01:20.280 The object of your faith is just as important as the sincerity of your faith. 00:01:22.060 --> 00:01:24.780 And so John posed the question, who do you say that Jesus is? 00:01:24.840 --> 00:01:26.180 Do you love that Jesus? 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:30.870 The second is, can you recognize from your life that you are loving Jesus? 00:01:30.940 --> 00:01:33.920 And the third way he gave us to tell is through the way that we are loving one another. 00:01:36.660 --> 00:01:43.660 When Jesus comes into your life, it tells us in the Bible that when you place your faith and trust in him, he makes you a new creation, and the Spirit of God dwells in you, and it gives you a 00:01:43.660 --> 00:01:50.260 new passion and desire for relationship with God and to love other people, because the love that God has extended towards you. 00:01:52.320 --> 00:01:59.180 Matter of fact, when we were looking at it last week, it got so detailed in the way that he desired to describe for us our love for Christ. 00:02:01.020 --> 00:02:08.600 And it says in first John four four, you are from God, those who have trusted in him little children, and 00:02:08.600 --> 00:02:13.660 have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. 00:02:14.940 --> 00:02:22.180 And what John identified for us last week is it's so significant in your position in Christ that what God wants you to see yourself as is a warrior 00:02:22.180 --> 00:02:23.140 for him. 00:02:23.900 --> 00:02:31.380 Now, we know that we don't do battle against people because what it tells us in the Bible, in Ephesians chapter six is that we wrestle against principalities 00:02:31.400 --> 00:02:32.980 and powers, against spiritual forces. 00:02:33.020 --> 00:02:40.220 And John said in John chapter four and verse one, test the spirits of God to determine whether or not they are from God, because not every spirit is from 00:02:40.220 --> 00:02:40.520 God. 00:02:41.880 --> 00:02:47.040 Saying that you are spiritual isn't necessarily a good thing, because one third of every spirit is a demon. 00:02:48.720 --> 00:02:54.680 In Second Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 14, it told us that even Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light. 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:59.440 In verse 15 it said, and his servants as angels of righteousness, or as servants of righteousness. 00:03:02.140 --> 00:03:07.680 Meaning Satan loves to do nothing more than to pose himself as something positive, something that looks good. 00:03:08.920 --> 00:03:12.420 But the object of your faith is just as important as the sincerity of your faith. 00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:13.670 So who do you say that Jesus is? 00:03:15.820 --> 00:03:22.940 And understanding your position in Christ is important for this world because Jesus said when he built his church, I will build my church, and the gates of hell 00:03:22.940 --> 00:03:30.300 will not prevail against it, meaning that within the church there is such a powerful force that those who are encumbered behind the 00:03:30.320 --> 00:03:37.520 gates of hell, that the church has such a power in the name and authority of Jesus being overcomers, as this verse says, that you go behind the gates of hell, and you snatch out those 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:41.160 who are believing in those false spirits and begin to share with them the love of Jesus. 00:03:42.500 --> 00:03:49.620 This morning, as John taught us last week about the importance of the truth of our faith, he also shares with us the 00:03:49.620 --> 00:03:52.530 importance of how we communicate our faith. 00:03:53.580 --> 00:03:54.630 And today he talks about love. 00:03:56.640 --> 00:04:03.740 And I got to say, in talking about love in the Christian life, it's one of the things that we are most calloused to as people, because it's one of the things that God pours 00:04:03.800 --> 00:04:08.940 heavily upon our lives, and we don't recognize how much we really need something until it's absent from our life. 00:04:10.740 --> 00:04:12.560 This love is significant. 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:14.240 This love is important. 00:04:16.380 --> 00:04:19.959 Now think about what God has called me to in just living in Utah. 00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:24.360 My responsibility just as a believer, not as a pastor of a church, but as someone who loves Jesus. 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:25.700 What God has called me to in this verse. 00:04:26.200 --> 00:04:29.480 To be an overcomer and to live as an overcomer for Christ in this world. 00:04:30.760 --> 00:04:32.280 I didn't move here to die. 00:04:33.760 --> 00:04:34.500 I moved here to live. 00:04:37.260 --> 00:04:37.820 Does that make sense? 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:46.720 No matter how difficult the battle may seem to me in my own spiritual life and world, I didn't come to here to die, but to realize in 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:53.900 Christ that God has called me to so much more and that I'm an overcomer in him, and to stand out and stand up for Christ and lovingly share who 00:04:53.910 --> 00:04:56.620 Jesus is and what Jesus can mean to the lives of other people. 00:04:58.460 --> 00:05:00.980 I think when he mentions that word overcomer, he says it to all of us. 00:05:01.080 --> 00:05:08.200 I think when Paul said in Galatians 220, he mentions it beautifully when he says, I am crucified with Christ, meaning he did die, 00:05:08.220 --> 00:05:09.300 he died to self. 00:05:09.320 --> 00:05:13.540 But he says, nevertheless, it's not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:19.140 Meaning that the passion and purpose for which he lived in this world was more than just himself. 00:05:19.380 --> 00:05:26.380 It began to think outside of himself and to look at this world as God sees this world, and to love others the way that God had called him to 00:05:26.380 --> 00:05:28.810 love, to love others the way that God loves them. 00:05:30.400 --> 00:05:37.160 And so with that introduction in first John chapter four and verse seven, John begins to share with us about this love. 00:05:39.380 --> 00:05:46.120 It says in verse seven, beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. 00:05:47.880 --> 00:05:50.620 I'm going to say something profound with this verse. 00:05:50.620 --> 00:05:50.740 Ready? 00:05:52.260 --> 00:05:53.300 We were created to love. 00:05:55.780 --> 00:05:56.140 That's it. 00:05:56.220 --> 00:05:56.440 I'm done. 00:05:56.920 --> 00:06:01.900 We were created to love. 00:06:03.960 --> 00:06:08.100 And you know, the way that biblical love works itself out is through relationships. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:18.150 In loving, we recognize that what love needs is relationships, because the attitude of love is about giving itself away according to biblical love. 00:06:19.200 --> 00:06:26.220 And if biblical love is about relationships, then what happens when we love the way that God desires for us to love is that 00:06:26.220 --> 00:06:27.730 it begins to create community. 00:06:30.080 --> 00:06:31.940 God desires for us to love one another. 00:06:31.960 --> 00:06:33.580 I love how God mentions this. 00:06:33.620 --> 00:06:36.080 He wants us to recognize that from the very get go of the Bible. 00:06:36.100 --> 00:06:37.840 When he begins creating, he creates. 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.400 In the first two chapters he says it's good, it's good. 00:06:41.400 --> 00:06:42.700 He designs the first day and he says, it's good. 00:06:42.820 --> 00:06:43.460 It looks so good. 00:06:43.720 --> 00:06:44.300 Second day it's good. 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:45.260 It looks so good, right? 00:06:45.540 --> 00:06:48.620 He gets to the end and it's day seven and he's got man there. 00:06:48.660 --> 00:06:50.260 And then all of a sudden he just says it's not so good. 00:06:50.420 --> 00:06:57.500 It's actually says it's not good in Genesis chapter two and verse 18 Now, morally, God is not speaking here saying he 00:06:57.620 --> 00:06:58.940 created something and it was bad. 00:06:59.020 --> 00:07:03.560 What he's saying is that the creative work isn't done, and he wants us to as people to recognize that. 00:07:04.140 --> 00:07:05.580 And so what does God create after that? 00:07:07.240 --> 00:07:07.720 There you go. 00:07:07.780 --> 00:07:08.790 I knew that was going to come. 00:07:09.340 --> 00:07:10.400 He saves the best for last. 00:07:10.420 --> 00:07:11.480 That's what you ladies say, right? 00:07:11.760 --> 00:07:12.540 The best for last. 00:07:12.540 --> 00:07:14.600 And you guys say second place is the first loser, right? 00:07:15.820 --> 00:07:21.800 But what he tells us is when he creates us is that he creates us equal, both male and female. 00:07:21.800 --> 00:07:23.560 He designed us, but he created us equal. 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:24.940 And here's what God wanted us to recognize. 00:07:25.480 --> 00:07:32.600 When God created us, he created us in his image, which means there are certain characteristics of God that we as people possess, 00:07:32.900 --> 00:07:35.850 that we can reflect to God in our lives and our own understanding. 00:07:36.520 --> 00:07:42.200 For instance, different than any other creation, God has given you a spirit, and in that spirit you can create communicate with God. 00:07:42.200 --> 00:07:43.040 No other creature can do that. 00:07:44.340 --> 00:07:47.740 You also possess characteristics that are similar to God to help you relate to him. 00:07:48.340 --> 00:07:53.420 God is gracious and we can understand what grace is because we as people can mimic that God is truthful. 00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:56.380 We can understand what that means as God is truthful because we can understand truth ourselves. 00:07:58.120 --> 00:07:59.460 But most importantly, God is love. 00:08:01.300 --> 00:08:04.560 And the attitude of love is about giving itself away. 00:08:04.560 --> 00:08:12.100 And so when God created Adam in his image and he got to the last day of creation and he said, it's not good, what he's saying to us as people is that while 00:08:12.100 --> 00:08:17.040 being created in his image, it does no good to have no other human being to reflect his image. 00:08:17.060 --> 00:08:24.120 To love is important, and in being created in his image, Adam 00:08:24.120 --> 00:08:31.660 needed someone to reflect the beauty of God to show and to share that love for which God had created him, And 00:08:31.660 --> 00:08:39.010 not only did he need the opportunity to reflect that to someone else, he needed to see the beauty of God reflected back to him through the life of another person. 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:42.760 And God said as he created, it's not good. 00:08:44.280 --> 00:08:46.540 And we need to recognize the importance of community. 00:08:46.540 --> 00:08:48.020 And within community is love. 00:08:49.540 --> 00:08:54.440 The way that we identify whether or not a community is healthy is really seen in the way that they love each other. 00:08:56.320 --> 00:09:02.400 Is it a biblical love God in creating us with this ability to love? 00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:03.780 He says he created you with a spirit. 00:09:03.820 --> 00:09:05.670 He says that we are to love one another. 00:09:05.760 --> 00:09:12.780 And the greatest commandment that he gives in all three three of the four Gospels, he says that we are to be fruitful in our lives together and to 00:09:12.780 --> 00:09:13.440 multiply. 00:09:14.580 --> 00:09:18.080 Man was not good to be alone, that we were created in Christ Jesus for good works. 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:19.500 And Ephesians 210. 00:09:21.220 --> 00:09:26.960 And so when our interest becomes to love one another, our interest also becomes to be around groups of people, right? 00:09:27.940 --> 00:09:34.960 Especially God's community, because God's community is about understanding what it means to grow in that loving relationship with God, and then 00:09:34.960 --> 00:09:40.400 encouraging one another to pursue the same thing in our lives, to loving God and loving others with everything that we are. 00:09:41.500 --> 00:09:45.400 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:51.910 Culturally, today, what we hear within our society is that if you really want to learn to love, you got to look within yourselves. 00:09:53.280 --> 00:09:55.620 Biblically, the Bible says that's hogwash. 00:09:57.420 --> 00:10:04.460 It says if you really want to learn to love, look to God, because God is the one who produces the love, the love for which you were created to share and 00:10:04.460 --> 00:10:05.200 mimic in this world. 00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:08.550 Look to God for that example in this world to display. 00:10:11.320 --> 00:10:18.540 I believe that the Bible teaches that you can't love without first being loved, or it's difficult to love without first 00:10:18.740 --> 00:10:18.940 being loved. 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:24.120 But I don't think that the source for which we find love is within ourselves. 00:10:24.200 --> 00:10:25.140 I think it's found in God. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:27.260 After all, he's the one that created you. 00:10:27.260 --> 00:10:28.820 He knows you better than you know yourself. 00:10:30.700 --> 00:10:35.280 In fact, in first John chapter four and verse 19, it tells us God is that love. 00:10:37.260 --> 00:10:41.180 And for us as people to understand what love is about, it requires us to look to him. 00:10:43.160 --> 00:10:49.050 You ever notice as people, when we get depressed, one of the worst things that we can do is begin to isolate ourselves. 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:55.380 But when you are depressed, one of the things that you want to do is isolate yourself. 00:10:57.440 --> 00:11:03.620 The Bible tells us that there is a need for us to get outside of ourselves, look outside of ourselves to experience what love is all about. 00:11:03.940 --> 00:11:05.240 To understand that you are loved. 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:08.160 Look outside of yourselves because God is love and God loves you. 00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:14.800 To understand for the purpose for which you were created, it's going to desire for you to be with the community and understand how to live in those loving relationships. 00:11:15.040 --> 00:11:19.120 Let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 00:11:20.260 --> 00:11:22.820 The one who does not love does not know God. 00:11:22.940 --> 00:11:24.800 For God is love. 00:11:26.600 --> 00:11:29.280 I like the way he phrases it in this last half in verse eight. 00:11:30.840 --> 00:11:34.260 He isn't saying that the one who doesn't love isn't born of God. 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:39.500 I think it's possible to trust in God and then walk away from him or not love him. 00:11:41.100 --> 00:11:45.680 But he says the one who does love is interested in an intimate relationship with him. 00:11:46.780 --> 00:11:50.410 Remember it said in first John chapter four, what God has called us to do in all of first John. 00:11:50.500 --> 00:11:54.740 Really it says in especially in one in verse five, God is light, and in him there is no darkness. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:58.100 And he calls us as people to walk from the darkness into the light. 00:11:58.180 --> 00:12:05.420 And when we walk from the darkness into the light, the thing that should mark ourselves as a love for God and a love for other people, when that becomes our desire, 00:12:05.500 --> 00:12:08.520 we're saying to the Lord, Lord, I'm done knowing the darkness. 00:12:08.540 --> 00:12:10.540 And what I want to know is you. 00:12:12.500 --> 00:12:14.760 And so the one who does not love does not know God. 00:12:16.020 --> 00:12:17.600 For God is love. 00:12:19.420 --> 00:12:22.900 You think about the way that you came into existence today, us as human beings. 00:12:25.060 --> 00:12:31.320 We came into existence today simply because the last phrase of chapter eight or excuse me, chapter four and verse eight, God is love. 00:12:33.100 --> 00:12:35.060 Before there was creation, there was love. 00:12:35.140 --> 00:12:35.960 The Beatles had it right. 00:12:36.660 --> 00:12:38.070 We should play that right at the end of the service. 00:12:40.420 --> 00:12:41.940 Before creation, there was love. 00:12:43.320 --> 00:12:43.940 How do we know that? 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:49.600 Because the attitude of love is about giving itself away. 00:12:51.020 --> 00:12:55.540 And before there was anything in creation, God's nature was love. 00:12:56.980 --> 00:13:01.110 And in his nature of love, he desired to give himself away. 00:13:01.920 --> 00:13:09.960 And the way that God desired to give himself away was by making another creature who had the ability to choose free will and 00:13:09.960 --> 00:13:13.660 to mutually respond to God with the same love that he's extended to him. 00:13:15.320 --> 00:13:20.050 God created you in love and in your free will is given you the ability to choose whether or not you should love him back. 00:13:21.780 --> 00:13:25.640 Without free will, you can't have love, because love is about the choice. 00:13:27.760 --> 00:13:31.900 And so in order to understand love, we've got to ask ourselves, really, what is love? 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:36.620 Because culture today tells us what love might be. 00:13:36.620 --> 00:13:40.080 But a lot of times it's not technically what the Bible would call love. 00:13:41.520 --> 00:13:48.200 Matter of fact, if someone comes up to you and says, I love such and such, maybe the thing that we should respond to this is what is it that you call love? 00:13:49.560 --> 00:13:51.620 We said last few weeks ago during the Super Bowl. 00:13:51.640 --> 00:13:57.800 There's going to be a lot of guys on Super Bowl Sunday that say, I love wings, right? 00:13:58.180 --> 00:14:02.600 And in the same breath, when their team scores the touchdown, they're going to turn to their wife and say, I love you too. 00:14:03.380 --> 00:14:06.320 And some of them mean that they love wings the same way they love their wives, right. 00:14:07.380 --> 00:14:09.530 Because they have no understanding of what love means. 00:14:10.880 --> 00:14:15.060 And so it's important for us to ask ourselves the question when the Bible talks about love, what is love? 00:14:15.060 --> 00:14:19.690 Because society will tell us in a lot of counseling experiences that you've got to find love within yourselves. 00:14:20.160 --> 00:14:22.580 But the Bible tells us that that's not the source of love at all. 00:14:23.580 --> 00:14:26.840 You've got to be loved, to love and understand what love is, to love and response. 00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:28.580 But it's not found within yourselves. 00:14:28.640 --> 00:14:32.780 And so it says in John chapter four and verse nine. 00:14:33.520 --> 00:14:40.800 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world, so that we might live through him. 00:14:42.660 --> 00:14:43.970 He begins to give us an example. 00:14:44.200 --> 00:14:48.910 Before I explain to you exactly what love is, let me give you an example of how love demonstrates itself. 00:14:49.140 --> 00:14:49.610 It's in Jesus. 00:14:53.060 --> 00:14:56.400 It tells us that God has sent His Son in the world that we might live through him. 00:14:58.620 --> 00:15:00.040 Christianity isn't about dying. 00:15:00.120 --> 00:15:03.940 It's really about living for the first time in your life to find the reason for which you were created. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:11.000 The source is found in God through Jesus, and in that relationship that we experience with Christ for the first 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:11.280 time. 00:15:11.280 --> 00:15:14.680 It tells us in John chapter, chapter four and verse nine that we begin to live. 00:15:16.380 --> 00:15:23.400 It says in verse ten, in this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 00:15:26.060 --> 00:15:28.920 Meaning Jesus didn't love because of what he got in return. 00:15:30.580 --> 00:15:34.600 Jesus chose to love because love is about giving itself away regardless of what you get in response. 00:15:36.580 --> 00:15:41.640 Some of us love for the purpose of hoping that someone else changes, and when someone else doesn't change, then we stop loving them. 00:15:41.660 --> 00:15:42.820 That's not biblical love. 00:15:44.680 --> 00:15:48.480 It says in verse ten, while you were yet sinners, you still are loved by God. 00:15:48.500 --> 00:15:53.700 God loves you that much that even when we're spitting up on his face, he loves and loves and loves. 00:15:55.420 --> 00:15:57.300 God's not waiting to be provoked. 00:15:57.300 --> 00:15:59.100 Love doesn't wait to be provoked. 00:15:59.100 --> 00:16:00.240 Love does the provoking. 00:16:02.900 --> 00:16:08.600 And it shows that demonstration to us in that relationship through Christ. 00:16:09.800 --> 00:16:10.880 And I get to verses like this. 00:16:12.820 --> 00:16:20.020 Sometimes when I read them, they seem discouraging to me because I look at a passage like this, I begin to realize that I've never 00:16:20.180 --> 00:16:21.980 really loved like Jesus is loved. 00:16:25.580 --> 00:16:31.180 You know the only way to begin to love in our lives, the way that Jesus has called us to, is to look at the example of Christ. 00:16:34.140 --> 00:16:37.260 To understand what it means to sacrifice for the sake of another. 00:16:39.960 --> 00:16:42.940 To give of ourselves for another person's well-being. 00:16:42.940 --> 00:16:44.620 And I tried this week as I thought about this. 00:16:45.220 --> 00:16:52.400 This is a place of often repentance, maybe of my own heart, but looking at 00:16:52.400 --> 00:16:55.580 God and saying, man, God, how could I ever begin to love like this? 00:16:57.820 --> 00:17:04.900 To see the way that Jesus is loved transformed this world to thousands of years later, people that don't even believe in 00:17:04.900 --> 00:17:05.819 him still talk about him. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:15.980 How could we ever begin to hope like this and maybe even say, God, I'm sorry when I fail to love like this, but Lord, may I just continue to use 00:17:15.980 --> 00:17:20.020 your example to spur me on to be what you've called me to be in this world. 00:17:22.380 --> 00:17:25.720 Try to think of an example this week of the extent of this love. 00:17:27.300 --> 00:17:34.400 Could you imagine a lot of judicial terms are used in the Bible when it refers to our guilt before God, meaning there's a lot of phrases where you come before a judge 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:35.720 and a judge pronounces you guilty. 00:17:37.040 --> 00:17:44.160 The word justification and righteousness are used often in the Bible, and the desire is that we want to come before God as a great judge and be found justified or right 00:17:44.160 --> 00:17:44.720 before him. 00:17:45.760 --> 00:17:47.700 The Bible tells us the only way that we can do that is Jesus. 00:17:48.080 --> 00:17:55.420 But could you imagine if you yourself was in a court or in a courtroom and someone's on trial and that person on trial has conducted 00:17:55.420 --> 00:17:57.840 a heinous crime against you? 00:17:58.380 --> 00:18:04.380 Maybe they murdered your child, and you're sitting there as the judge gets ready to pronounce the judgment on this murderer. 00:18:06.040 --> 00:18:13.040 And as he pronounces the judgment, you come forward and you stand up in the courtroom and you walk up and you say, now that you've pronounced a judgment, judge, I want to 00:18:13.100 --> 00:18:13.720 take his punishment. 00:18:16.340 --> 00:18:20.120 And you didn't care whether or not that individual had remorse for what he did or not. 00:18:21.460 --> 00:18:24.450 As a matter of fact, what if the individual didn't care if you ever forgave him? 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:27.320 That's Jesus's love. 00:18:29.740 --> 00:18:35.130 Regardless if you want to seek his forgiveness or not, he still came to this world to offer it. 00:18:37.040 --> 00:18:37.830 Love is not provoked. 00:18:38.340 --> 00:18:39.000 Does the provoking. 00:18:40.560 --> 00:18:42.500 Love doesn't love because of what it might receive. 00:18:42.760 --> 00:18:47.560 Love loves to give itself away because within the nature of love, it's about giving yourself away. 00:18:50.820 --> 00:18:54.200 Try to think this week, to what degree could I love people like that? 00:18:55.040 --> 00:18:59.540 How many people in my world am I ever going to impact with that type of magnitude and love? 00:19:01.060 --> 00:19:07.300 Even in Jesus's life, when you saw the example in him living in this world, he really only had three close friends. 00:19:07.300 --> 00:19:08.640 And outside of that he had the 12 apostles. 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:10.540 Peter, James, and John were his inner circle. 00:19:10.820 --> 00:19:12.960 He sought to love to that degree. 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:16.800 And maybe the question we ask ourselves is, how many people in your life do you love like that? 00:19:17.580 --> 00:19:18.560 And I'm not just talking about your family. 00:19:18.900 --> 00:19:19.840 Think outside of your family. 00:19:19.980 --> 00:19:22.060 How many people have you sacrificed for? 00:19:22.060 --> 00:19:26.760 Have you thought selflessly over and sought to love to the degree that Jesus loved? 00:19:28.420 --> 00:19:33.220 It says in verse seven, beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 00:19:34.320 --> 00:19:37.640 And so the spurring becomes for us is that we don't look within ourselves. 00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:43.200 We look to Jesus for that example, and we begin to love one another because Jesus becomes that example. 00:19:45.600 --> 00:19:47.080 Love because you're loved. 00:19:49.560 --> 00:19:51.360 It's difficult to love without knowing your love. 00:19:51.520 --> 00:19:53.220 But the way to find that love isn't within us. 00:19:53.420 --> 00:19:53.950 It's within Jesus. 00:19:56.380 --> 00:20:00.080 Cultural love teaches us in our society to love the things that are lovely. 00:20:01.660 --> 00:20:04.160 Jesus is love teaches us to love even our enemies. 00:20:07.320 --> 00:20:09.060 We were to ask this morning, what is love? 00:20:10.400 --> 00:20:11.820 The Bible defines for it. 00:20:12.820 --> 00:20:14.740 First Corinthians chapter 13 and verse three. 00:20:16.040 --> 00:20:19.040 Paul outlined just a beautiful description of what love is according to the Bible. 00:20:20.680 --> 00:20:23.700 He says, but if I do not have love, it profits me nothing. 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:25.440 And that's good. 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:30.560 Being created in God's image, that he recognizes the significance of God's desire for us to love one another. 00:20:30.560 --> 00:20:32.120 And he says, love is patient. 00:20:33.200 --> 00:20:33.580 Love is kind. 00:20:34.800 --> 00:20:35.760 It's not jealous. 00:20:35.840 --> 00:20:36.560 Love does not brag. 00:20:36.700 --> 00:20:37.140 It is not arrogant. 00:20:38.820 --> 00:20:39.860 Love does not act unbecomingly. 00:20:41.580 --> 00:20:42.580 It doesn't seek its own. 00:20:43.600 --> 00:20:47.240 Love is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered. 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:51.500 It does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but it rejoices in truth. 00:20:52.800 --> 00:20:53.820 Love bears all things. 00:20:54.560 --> 00:20:55.600 Love believes all things. 00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:57.100 It hopes all things. 00:20:57.400 --> 00:20:58.720 Endures all things. 00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:00.880 Love never fails. 00:21:03.580 --> 00:21:07.040 Meaning love more than an emotion is a passion. 00:21:08.800 --> 00:21:10.380 Because love is the decision of your will. 00:21:12.140 --> 00:21:17.450 Meaning, there are times in your life where you're going to wake up and someone's going to done something to you, where you're not going to feel like loving them emotionally. 00:21:20.020 --> 00:21:21.100 But love is not an emotion. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:23.200 Love spurs emotions. 00:21:23.500 --> 00:21:26.160 But love is a decision of your will in which it never fails. 00:21:26.300 --> 00:21:30.190 When you desire to love something in your life, you never walk away from it. 00:21:32.340 --> 00:21:35.080 Real love tells us in this passage is about sacrifice. 00:21:37.700 --> 00:21:45.120 You think about this message this morning about love, coupled with what we saw last week, that when God calls 00:21:45.120 --> 00:21:52.120 for you to be an overcomer and to share his truth, and to do so in love that you think about in your mind right now, who is 00:21:52.120 --> 00:21:58.720 someone in this world that you just want to see, come to know and trust and walk with Jesus and know that they're loved by Christ. 00:22:00.680 --> 00:22:02.440 Who is that person that you think about often? 00:22:02.500 --> 00:22:07.720 That more than anything, you wish God could just come into this world and rock their world for him. 00:22:11.150 --> 00:22:18.320 And just say this morning that someone needs to fight for them, and that God has brought you into their life 00:22:18.320 --> 00:22:21.720 to possibly be that person, to love them and to share that truth for them. 00:22:23.140 --> 00:22:24.880 Because John begins to share this. 00:22:24.980 --> 00:22:26.180 This is amazing how this works. 00:22:26.460 --> 00:22:29.120 In verse 12 he says, no one has seen God at any time. 00:22:30.040 --> 00:22:31.800 Exodus 3320 tells us why. 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:33.820 He says, if you look on the face of God, you'll die. 00:22:35.780 --> 00:22:38.380 The reason we'll die is that God is holy and we are sinful. 00:22:39.320 --> 00:22:42.340 A sinful being can't come before the perfection that is God. 00:22:42.340 --> 00:22:45.540 And when we gaze upon God's face, we lose our life. 00:22:46.640 --> 00:22:49.460 And so he says here in first John, no one has seen God at any time. 00:22:50.800 --> 00:22:56.340 It says, though if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. 00:22:58.640 --> 00:23:03.660 What John is saying to us as a community of people is that God's love is still living in this world today. 00:23:04.340 --> 00:23:05.560 We talk about God's love. 00:23:05.560 --> 00:23:08.440 It's not always past tense as Jesus died on the cross and that's his way of love. 00:23:08.740 --> 00:23:10.920 God is actively still loving today. 00:23:11.660 --> 00:23:13.920 And how is he loving through his community? 00:23:16.540 --> 00:23:21.600 We often say here, the greatest miracle that God really works in this world is in us. 00:23:23.800 --> 00:23:31.060 So when the Bible promised that when you trust in Jesus and the Spirit of God dwells within you, and a miracle begins 00:23:31.060 --> 00:23:37.480 to take place in your life, when that miracle begins to take place in your life, you begin to love other people. 00:23:39.080 --> 00:23:41.420 You demonstrate the nature of God in living. 00:23:43.540 --> 00:23:50.680 And so what John is saying is that we need to recognize that we haven't just been loved by God, by dying on the cross, that we continue to be loved through one another because 00:23:50.820 --> 00:23:52.120 God's Spirit dwells within you. 00:23:53.220 --> 00:23:55.980 And what God calls you to do is to be his minister into this world. 00:23:55.980 --> 00:23:58.620 He wants to work in you and through you to love other people. 00:24:00.740 --> 00:24:03.620 We want to see the magnitude of God's love working in this world. 00:24:03.720 --> 00:24:07.140 It's about looking to his church to be that response. 00:24:09.300 --> 00:24:11.340 This is what makes God's community so important. 00:24:13.520 --> 00:24:18.920 Verse 13 he says, and by this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of His Spirit. 00:24:20.940 --> 00:24:28.000 We can recognize that God is living in us through this love, that we're abiding in Christ, because our desire is to love one 00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:28.660 another. 00:24:29.080 --> 00:24:34.780 You know, my one of my favorite ministries here at church are the ones that we just get down with our community and love people. 00:24:37.060 --> 00:24:39.720 For instance, the sub for Santa ministry that we do in Christmas. 00:24:39.940 --> 00:24:44.520 I love that ministry opportunity because we get to love people who really need love. 00:24:45.900 --> 00:24:48.460 The mill care team that we do when people have babies. 00:24:48.460 --> 00:24:50.920 I think the Goldens right now are being cared for by the church. 00:24:51.940 --> 00:24:59.240 I love that our church family takes the opportunity to go to people's houses that are in need, especially after they have kids or they're sick and we love each other. 00:25:01.120 --> 00:25:08.920 You know that the Bible calls us not to just be humanitarians, but to also share the truth of God in 00:25:08.920 --> 00:25:13.020 the most loving thing that we can do for someone is to share with them the truth of who God is. 00:25:14.580 --> 00:25:18.800 And so John says that we need to act in love, but not only act in love, that we need to share the love. 00:25:20.120 --> 00:25:24.130 We need to share what Jesus has been to us as an example, and who Jesus can be in their lives. 00:25:24.180 --> 00:25:30.200 And so he says in verse 14, we have seen and testify that the father has sent the son to be the Savior of the world. 00:25:31.360 --> 00:25:35.420 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God abides in him, and he in God. 00:25:36.620 --> 00:25:44.560 We have come to know and have believed that the love which God has for us, God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides 00:25:44.560 --> 00:25:44.880 in him. 00:25:46.700 --> 00:25:48.640 God's desire for us to share a message. 00:25:50.440 --> 00:25:51.980 We don't just stand behind loving deeds. 00:25:52.060 --> 00:25:55.240 We also need to open our mouths and say where those things that we do come from. 00:25:56.580 --> 00:26:02.580 I like what he does in verse 13, notice what part of the Godhead he mentions here because he has given us His spirit. 00:26:03.120 --> 00:26:04.080 See that in the very last word. 00:26:05.300 --> 00:26:09.460 And in verse 14, we have seen and testified that the father has sent the son. 00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:18.800 When we're loving in a community the way that God has called us to and we're sharing his truth, the triunity of God is at work and 00:26:18.800 --> 00:26:21.340 we begin to point one another to Jesus. 00:26:23.500 --> 00:26:28.480 God has sent His son, and whoever trusts in that abides in God. 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:38.440 This week I had a wonderful opportunity of meeting with an individual who recently came to know the Lord and came 00:26:38.440 --> 00:26:42.620 from a background of which he was confused on who Jesus was. 00:26:44.740 --> 00:26:49.840 And so I sat down with him at a table after we'd met for a few weeks, and I said, so we've studied the Bible together. 00:26:50.320 --> 00:26:53.620 And he had placed his faith in Christ and was just trusting in Jesus. 00:26:53.640 --> 00:26:54.860 And I said, what? 00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:57.400 What is Christianity to you? 00:26:57.820 --> 00:26:59.200 What does Christianity stand for? 00:27:01.480 --> 00:27:08.120 He stopped for a moment and just said, I really think it's just Jesus. 00:27:09.760 --> 00:27:13.000 It's about placing your faith in Jesus and just trusting in him with your life. 00:27:13.120 --> 00:27:14.060 That's really what it is. 00:27:16.280 --> 00:27:19.620 And we as people tend to complicate it with so much more beyond that. 00:27:22.080 --> 00:27:23.070 I was blown away. 00:27:24.800 --> 00:27:27.350 Because as I asked that question, you never know what's going to happen. 00:27:27.420 --> 00:27:29.820 And so I'm racking my brain thinking, okay, what's he going to say? 00:27:30.220 --> 00:27:31.610 What do we want to talk about? 00:27:31.840 --> 00:27:34.490 From what he's going to respond with this question, what does he understand? 00:27:35.360 --> 00:27:38.800 And I'm expecting, all these theological ideas to come out of his head. 00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:40.250 And all he just says is Jesus. 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:44.500 But that's it. 00:27:46.380 --> 00:27:51.580 When you boil a relationship with God down to its finest point, it's just Jesus. 00:27:53.900 --> 00:27:58.120 Jesus gave his greatest commandments to love others and most importantly, to love him. 00:27:58.180 --> 00:28:03.240 We can't love others until we understand what love for him is about the way that God has called us to. 00:28:05.220 --> 00:28:08.200 God has put you on this world to experience a relationship with him. 00:28:09.640 --> 00:28:16.660 I begin to so much appreciate after we had this conversation and I was studying First John this week, what he said to 00:28:16.760 --> 00:28:23.900 think as we read the book of First John, the problem that's happening in the church is that people are creeping in saying that they know Jesus and beginning to teach about a false Jesus that isn't 00:28:23.900 --> 00:28:24.350 Jesus. 00:28:25.340 --> 00:28:28.630 And on top of that, they're living a life that contradicts who Jesus is. 00:28:29.980 --> 00:28:36.430 And John is looking at all this mess within the church, and he could address all the theological issues that they're facing and talk about every detail. 00:28:36.460 --> 00:28:40.850 But what he gets down to when he boils it down to the finest point is this simply love Jesus. 00:28:42.320 --> 00:28:49.780 We get so caught up in the junk that comes with religion and life, we forget the most important thing is just to simply love 00:28:49.880 --> 00:28:49.980 Jesus. 00:28:53.600 --> 00:28:56.010 And it says whoever loves him abides in him. 00:28:56.840 --> 00:29:01.730 We have come to know and believe in verse 16 and have believed the love which God has for us through Jesus. 00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:04.300 And God is love. 00:29:04.340 --> 00:29:08.500 And the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 00:29:09.860 --> 00:29:16.900 If you come this morning and you're saying more than anything, I want to be close to God and understand why I'm here and why I exist and what God's purpose is in my 00:29:16.900 --> 00:29:20.960 life, and I'm going to say to you, the answer is Jesus, just with everything that you have. 00:29:21.380 --> 00:29:23.490 Seek after Jesus and love Jesus. 00:29:23.600 --> 00:29:24.800 Just trust in Jesus. 00:29:28.140 --> 00:29:29.980 Forget everything that everyone else tells you. 00:29:31.500 --> 00:29:34.900 I mean, lay the religion and the junk behind and just run after Jesus. 00:29:34.900 --> 00:29:36.040 You're not going to go wrong with that. 00:29:36.600 --> 00:29:37.600 Amen. 00:29:40.060 --> 00:29:46.020 And John is telling this church I'm I'm looking at the garbage that everyone's presenting to us and saying, This is God and it's not God. 00:29:48.300 --> 00:29:48.760 Love Jesus. 00:29:51.300 --> 00:29:52.590 I think we've driven that point home. 00:29:55.380 --> 00:30:03.040 You think about history and the effects that Christianity has had on a world because 00:30:03.040 --> 00:30:03.640 it loves Jesus. 00:30:06.560 --> 00:30:14.780 Do you know the hospitals that we go to today to care for our needs started in Christian churches and 00:30:14.780 --> 00:30:19.060 the Roman times, it was believed that when someone got an illness, they were cursed of God. 00:30:19.140 --> 00:30:22.800 And so since they were cursed of God, they were thrown out of their homes and taught to fend for themselves. 00:30:23.620 --> 00:30:24.160 Take care of yourselves. 00:30:24.220 --> 00:30:24.600 You're sick. 00:30:24.640 --> 00:30:25.280 You're cursed of God. 00:30:25.280 --> 00:30:26.660 We don't want your curse to spread on us. 00:30:28.400 --> 00:30:35.500 Was Christians that first recognized that what God desires for them is to even love their enemies, and in their desire to love, they began to build hospitals onto their 00:30:35.500 --> 00:30:36.980 churches to love each other. 00:30:38.900 --> 00:30:44.280 Christianity saw the abolition of slavery in the first centuries because of their love for one another. 00:30:45.940 --> 00:30:53.460 During the time of Jesus, you'll see that when he interacts with children and with women, people look at children and women in a lower degree than, than 00:30:53.460 --> 00:30:53.900 men. 00:30:54.760 --> 00:30:57.240 And Jesus began to teach a love and respect for all people. 00:30:58.680 --> 00:31:03.120 The first groups that started to largely adopt kids across the country were Christian agencies. 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:09.280 Science started because of Christians. 00:31:10.840 --> 00:31:15.780 The idea of science behind science driven was God created this universe and we want to know our creator better. 00:31:15.820 --> 00:31:18.720 The way that we want to know our creator better is to look into the things that he created. 00:31:19.540 --> 00:31:23.440 And as we dive deeper into science, we're going to come to appreciate what God has done more and more. 00:31:23.460 --> 00:31:26.640 It's a far cry from where we are today in science, but that's how science started. 00:31:28.340 --> 00:31:35.500 The first universities in America were Christian universities, for the purpose of teaching the Bible, that we could further educate ourselves to learn the depths of who God 00:31:35.500 --> 00:31:35.760 was. 00:31:37.560 --> 00:31:38.240 The printing press. 00:31:38.340 --> 00:31:45.400 When the printing press was first invented, it was invented by a Christian man whose desire was to be able to print a Bible, that we could hold it in our hands today, in our own 00:31:45.400 --> 00:31:47.760 personal studies, get to know the God who created us. 00:31:50.740 --> 00:31:52.020 All of these inspired because of God. 00:31:53.280 --> 00:31:59.660 The Red cross was founded by a Christian woman who wanted to love her enemies, and she figured out a way to help them in their time of need. 00:32:02.420 --> 00:32:09.460 You think about the way that Jesus has changed this world and what John says for us as believers, when we begin 00:32:09.460 --> 00:32:13.200 to focus on the love that God has for us, it begins to produce wonderful things. 00:32:13.280 --> 00:32:20.520 And so he says in verse 14, by this love is perfected within us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, 00:32:20.620 --> 00:32:23.740 because as he is, so also are we in this world. 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:28.200 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because. 00:32:28.560 --> 00:32:29.740 Because fear involves punishment. 00:32:30.860 --> 00:32:34.200 And the one who fears is not perfected in love. 00:32:36.360 --> 00:32:43.580 John's response to us as people is simply this if you're worried about the way that God is going to respond to you, it's perhaps because you don't know God. 00:32:45.260 --> 00:32:46.260 Because God is love. 00:32:46.260 --> 00:32:49.420 And when your desire is to abide in him, what you begin to experience is God's love. 00:32:49.640 --> 00:32:53.080 And you're not worried about any judgment that might come your way because you're living in his love. 00:32:54.640 --> 00:32:58.740 You're living life for him, experiencing his love, enjoying that relationship with him. 00:32:58.740 --> 00:33:03.420 And when it comes to punishment, you have no concern because all you're after is just Jesus in this world. 00:33:05.770 --> 00:33:10.310 And so he says in verse 19, last three verses we'll look at together. 00:33:13.160 --> 00:33:16.200 It says, we love because he first loved us. 00:33:18.400 --> 00:33:21.780 We don't love in this world because we've found love in ourselves. 00:33:23.940 --> 00:33:27.320 We love in this world because we've found a greater love in Jesus. 00:33:30.120 --> 00:33:37.400 Do you ever think if you sought to love yourself by looking within yourself, that the greatest you'll be able to love yourself is simply by and 00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:38.100 through your accomplishments? 00:33:38.800 --> 00:33:39.430 Like, what am I worth? 00:33:39.540 --> 00:33:44.140 I'm only as worth as much as I can do, and if it's not much, you're not going to feel like you should love yourself very much. 00:33:47.740 --> 00:33:51.100 Jesus has extended his full arm of love and just lavished it upon you. 00:33:51.160 --> 00:33:54.640 And he says, the response of us has been to love because we've looked at his example. 00:33:56.780 --> 00:34:00.160 Verse 20, if someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. 00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:05.070 For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 00:34:06.540 --> 00:34:08.920 And this is the commandment we have from him. 00:34:09.659 --> 00:34:12.880 Let the one who loves God should love his brother also. 00:34:16.080 --> 00:34:21.020 I hope this morning that you understand the importance of God's calling you to love. 00:34:22.920 --> 00:34:30.080 I hope you see the importance of God's community that gathers together to love the way that Jesus is loved, and the encouragement we should feel to provoke one 00:34:30.080 --> 00:34:37.340 another to love the way that Jesus has called us to love, and the passion that we should feel as we go out into this world and love 00:34:37.340 --> 00:34:40.000 the others of this world the way that God has called us to love. 00:34:41.580 --> 00:34:44.880 It's Jesus provoking in love that caused us to change in this world. 00:34:44.900 --> 00:34:47.620 And it's our love to this world that will see this world change for Christ. 00:34:51.659 --> 00:34:57.760 We pause in a moment like this because love is a verb, meaning it's about action. 00:35:00.640 --> 00:35:07.760 And the fault that we could fall in this morning is we could raise a giant who are all about love and walk out of this door and have 00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:09.700 no plan to live it in our lives. 00:35:14.020 --> 00:35:15.440 Think beyond your family for just a minute. 00:35:15.440 --> 00:35:16.140 Love your family. 00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:17.410 God wants you to love your family. 00:35:17.480 --> 00:35:22.540 But God also called you to be fruitful and multiply, to use your family to minister in this world. 00:35:25.020 --> 00:35:32.120 Who can you think of in your mind right now that you would desire just to love for Jesus, and someone that you want to know Jesus 00:35:32.120 --> 00:35:33.710 and to grow in that relationship? 00:35:36.240 --> 00:35:38.370 Because what God has called you to do is to be an overcomer. 00:35:39.020 --> 00:35:46.300 For him to go out in truth and love and share that you 00:35:46.380 --> 00:35:53.380 think for a moment if you fail to think of anyone that you can choose to love the way that Jesus has called you to love, then we will fail to live the passage 00:35:53.380 --> 00:35:55.000 of Scripture that God has called us to live. 00:35:56.880 --> 00:36:02.320 If you were to start this morning and just open up the Bible and read what God has called us to do, you know what we're going to get a picture of? 00:36:03.420 --> 00:36:05.180 God has called us on a mission in this world. 00:36:06.520 --> 00:36:10.700 God has called us to respond for him in this world, to go out into this world and make disciples for him. 00:36:10.720 --> 00:36:14.440 The goal of this world is to make disciples the affections of us as a church, as other people. 00:36:14.440 --> 00:36:19.660 We always have other people on our mind and loving them for Christ as God presents them to us in this world. 00:36:21.500 --> 00:36:23.790 Who is it that you can love in this way? 00:36:25.700 --> 00:36:26.680 Never. 00:36:26.680 --> 00:36:28.580 Everybody bow your head and close your eyes for just a moment. 00:36:31.460 --> 00:36:38.480 What I would like for us to do as a church family is first ask the question have 00:36:38.480 --> 00:36:40.270 you been crucified with Christ? 00:36:42.300 --> 00:36:48.560 Meaning, have you laid yourself down to Jesus to love Jesus, to trust in him? 00:36:51.060 --> 00:36:58.060 Now as an opportunity to do that, because you'll never love this world the way that Jesus desires without first loving Jesus in your 00:36:58.060 --> 00:36:58.810 life. 00:37:02.320 --> 00:37:04.780 Second is have you lost yourself in Christ for others? 00:37:06.320 --> 00:37:11.760 Meaning, for the first time in this world, now that you've died to self, to live to Jesus, are you living in this world for others? 00:37:12.120 --> 00:37:14.220 Are you loving them the way that God has called you to love? 00:37:17.040 --> 00:37:24.190 You think about someone that's close to your heart, and maybe pray for them this morning, that you could begin to love them the way that Christ has called you to.