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00:00:01
We Can Know That We Are Loved (1 John 4:7-21)
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Sunday Message recorded 22 December 2024
by Associate Pastor Josh Shell
First Baptist Church - Columbus, TX, USA
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
Opening Gratitude and Personal Struggles
00:00:17
Speaker
Well, I don't know how to follow that up. um You just wanna pray it out? I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. We still got time, you know how me, I love my time. up I'm just kidding. oh But, man, Steven, thank you so much, man. Thank you for sharing your story. I'm right there with you, bro. I'm just as selfish as anybody in the room. I know that there's days where I don't pursue the Lord the way I need to, and I don't.
00:00:55
Speaker
Always desire to know him the way he desires to know us. So thank you for your honesty and for sharing that, for seeing the song. And I also wanted Peyton and Sammy for you guys sharing your stories as well.
Christ's Coming and Personal Transformation
00:01:08
Speaker
I mean, we could probably spend a whole year sharing the pulpit with you guys, sharing your stories because you guys share what God has done in your life, all because Christ came. Because he came.
00:01:25
Speaker
He broke through this curtain that was keeping us from Him, this veil that was covering our heart so that way we can come to know Him personally and make Him known. That should be our desire as Christians. Amen? And there's no better time for that to be on full display than right now.
00:01:44
Speaker
should' be just as we talk It should be Christmas time that we should desire to put Christ on full display. It should be every single day of our life. It should be a ah lifelong desire in and out of season.
00:02:05
Speaker
but
00:02:08
Speaker
But to that point though, this whole series that we've been looking through speaks to what Stephen just was speaking on and what Peyton spoke on and what Sammy shared in their own stories is that because Christ came, we can truly experience a freshness and newness of life in Christ that results in these three things that we've covered so far. It results in the fact that we can experience the joy of fellowship Something that we can't truly experience without Christ, without Christ coming. We think we can, but we can't truly experience the fullness of it without Christ. The second thing is that because He came, we could know the Father personally.
00:02:50
Speaker
I mean, to Steve's point, like there's so many people who believe that they know the Father personally, but the reality is is that they only see a glimpse of who God is because, one, we are all created in the image and likeness of God. Each of us, whether we are a believer or a non-believer, we all demonstrate the characteristics of Christ or of God because He's in us. We were made in His image. however You can't fully know the Father. You can't fully demonstrate the fullness of who God is until you know Him personally, and that veil that has covered your heart is taken away.
00:03:26
Speaker
The third thing that we looked at is how because He came, our lives can be changed. Again, we truly cannot become who God has created us to be until we acknowledge Him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, allow Him to come and take residence into our heart so that way we can know Him, so that way we can pursue Him, and so that way we can look at one another and we can fully and truly know one another.
Understanding Divine Love vs. Cultural Love
00:03:50
Speaker
And ultimately, what we're going to be looking at today is truly love one another.
00:03:56
Speaker
truly love one another the way that God loves us. So today we're going to be looking at the fourth thing is that because he came, we can know that we are loved.
00:04:11
Speaker
not in just a sense of love by one another, but rather that we can walk in the full assurance, knowing that our Heavenly Father, the Creator of all things, the beginning, the end, the Alpha, the Omega, who was and is and is to come, that God, we can walk in full confidence and assurance that we are loved by Him.
00:04:31
Speaker
not just Not just think we know, not just think that, yeah, I think I'm good enough to be loved by God. No, because you're not really good enough to be loved by God because of the sin in you. But because he first loved you from the moment he created you, we now can have full assurance knowing that that love is sure that it is real because of the fact that he sent his son Jesus. That's how we know what love is, is the sacrifice that he gave through his son that was set from the beginning of time.
00:05:01
Speaker
So I'm super humbled and they' but yet excited to talk about this topic this morning with the remainder of our time. Because our world right now has spit has been infiltrated, well I say it's been infiltrated, it's been infiltrated from the moment sin came into the picture. But we have been so deceived in our culture today about what love is.
00:05:23
Speaker
What love is, right? Our world is telling us, hey, if you love somebody, you have to agree with what they believe with. You have to tolerate them. You have to meet them where they're at and try to understand them. No, that's not what love is.
00:05:41
Speaker
Love is knowing that we have a Creator in heaven who has set forth from the beginning of time a plan for you and I to worship, to glorify, to walk in His ways that are holy, righteous, and just. And along the way, guess what? Within that love, it's not just tolerance. It's not just acceptance. Along the way, there is discipline.
00:06:02
Speaker
There is judgment because that's who God is. And because if He loves us so much, He desires to put us back into our place to where we desire to walk in His ways and not in our own ways and our own deception as humans. That's the reality of mankind. Our love is is ultimately just a a ah failed, faulty reflection of the ultimate love that has been given to us by God and through His Son, Jesus.
00:06:31
Speaker
We try to mitigate by manipulating it to appease us rather than appease God. That's the state of sin. That's how it's always been from the beginning of time when when Adam and Eve first sinned. It looked good and they said, you know what, let's do it. We'll be okay. And as soon as they ate of the tree or of the fruit of the tree, what happened? God comes back into the garden and Adam and Eve are like, oh, we can't be seen like this.
00:07:02
Speaker
But yet, just before, they were like, yeah, this is good. And then God says, hey, where are you? He's like, ah, you can't gaze upon my nakedness. He was like, who? God's like, who told you you were naked? And then there was like, oh, man, we really messed up, didn't we? That's us. But yet, from the beginning of time, God had a perfect plan to restore his creation back to himself, though we think we know what's right. God says, know what? No.
00:07:31
Speaker
I'm gonna be patient with you. I'm gonna show grace to you. i'm gonna I'm gonna poke and prod you along the way. I'm sure it's gonna be painful, but guess what? When it's all said and done, you're gonna be reshaped, you're gonna be reformed, you're gonna be redefined, and you're gonna be created back into my image because of the ultimate love and sacrifice that my son paid for you on the cross that day on Calvary.
00:07:56
Speaker
He's gonna take my full wrath upon His shoulders for your payment, so that way you can truly know me and be restored.
Children's Pure Perception of Love
00:08:07
Speaker
All right, so um let's look at the text though, because that's where it's really defined, right? So we're gonna be spending our time at first John chapter four. First John chapter four, verses seven through 21. Yes, I know that's 17 verses, I believe, and we just got limited time, but we can get through it.
00:08:26
Speaker
But I couldn't help, as I was prepared, I was reading through Danny Aikin's Christ Centered Exposition commentary, and there was some that he he shared in this. It was a a poll that was given or a ah question that was proposed by a group of professionals to a group of four to eight year olds.
00:08:48
Speaker
Okay? On this topic of love, and I thought it was really cute and really innocent, so I thought I'd share it with you guys as we're talking about this topic of love, right? Because what I want us to see is that the answers that we're going to hear from these four to eight-year-olds puts our full display that whether you're a Christian or not Christian and you're like,
00:09:08
Speaker
you exude the characteristics and nature of God, because you like I said, you we're all created in His image. That includes His love. See, as Christians, we are called to demonstrate the fullness of God's love because of the transformation that Christ creates in our hearts and our minds, right? But even non-Christians, if you're a non-Christian in this room, an unbeliever, you can still demonstrate love and into the world.
00:09:34
Speaker
but it's only just a glimpse of what the true love of God has for us. So I want you to hear this, all right? So this is what Danny Aiken shares. He says, a group of professionals pose the following question to a group of four to eight year olds. Question is, what does love mean? The answers they got, as one reacher researcher said, were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. You guys ready for these? These are great.
00:10:03
Speaker
First one, what is what does love mean? Love is when you go out and when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your french fries without making them give any of theirs. That's Chrissy, age six. The second one, love is what makes you smile when you're, or sorry, love is what makes you smile when you're tired. That's Terry, age four.
00:10:29
Speaker
Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him to make sure that it tastes okay. That's sacrifice right there. Hannah, have you done that?
00:10:45
Speaker
Love is what's in the room with you with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.
00:10:56
Speaker
That one got me, yeah. That was Bobby, age five. Next one, love is when you tell a guy that you like his shirt, then he wears it every day.
00:11:11
Speaker
Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you've left him all day long alone. That's good. Couple more. When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down little and little stars come out of you. That's Karen, age seven.
00:11:29
Speaker
The next one says, you really shouldn't say I love you unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.
00:11:44
Speaker
Sorry. This next one's really good. When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love. That's good. Those are pretty good, aren't they?
Biblical Definition and Origin of Love
00:12:09
Speaker
But even in these answers from these four to eight year olds, that's just a glimpse of the love in which God has for you when he sent his son Jesus from his heavenly throne down into a broken earthly place like this.
00:12:27
Speaker
This is smog lips, right?
00:12:32
Speaker
But God sent His one Son for us so that we can experience the fullness of love for all time. and to know it personally. So let's read this passage together, and we'll allow John to fully unpack this for us, because again, you got to understand the audience in which John is riding to is not just believers. He's riding to, he's riding to full assured Christians. He's riding to those Christians that are kind of on the fence. They believe that they're saved, but they don't really know at the same time, and then he's riding to those who are are fully assured that they're not saved. So he's wide to a full spectrum of of listeners in his audience, but I want you to listen to how he describes this thing about who God is and how he is love and ultimately how the power and the results of a God's love changes us. So let's read these verses together, picking up in verse seven. This is a long passage. I won i don't want you guys, I won't ask you guys to stand, but it says this. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.
00:13:32
Speaker
And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the perpetuation for our sins.
00:14:00
Speaker
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.
00:14:28
Speaker
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confident assurance or that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.
00:14:55
Speaker
Because as he is also or so as He is so also are we in this world, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with the punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us.
00:15:16
Speaker
If anyone says, I loved God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. Let's pray.
00:15:41
Speaker
Father, we love the fact that you are the foundation by which we can love. We love the fact that we are thankful for the fact that even when we couldn't fully understand the vastness of your love, you sent your son Jesus to put it on full display.
00:16:01
Speaker
You've now given us every piece of assurance and everything we need to know about what love is in order to live it out, in order to demonstrate it to one another. But also, as a result of this, we can walk in full assurance knowing that we are loved by you as a result of that sacrifice you made through your son. So God, we again just praise you and we thank you for the fact that you first loved us.
00:16:29
Speaker
and that you continue to love us and restore us. And then that not just there, but that you now challenge us and you call us to love one another as you've loved us. So that way, as we interact with those in our communities and our and our homes, they could see God within us. They could see you through us, through the love of which we have for them.
00:16:51
Speaker
It's a beautiful picture. So Lord, we just pray for this time as you continue to lead us and guide us to your word. Open our eyes, hearts, and ears to what you have for us today. It's in Jesus' name, amen.
00:17:04
Speaker
All right, so because he came, we can know that we are loved. And again, what we've always hit on is the fact that we we could see glimpses of love in this life. And the reason, and and again, the reason why this is because we are created in the nature and the likeness of God, which means that we are able to faintly put on display the love in which God has for us. But we cannot fully put that on display. And so what we see here from John, when we first acknowledge and accept and understand that it is God who loved us first and that he loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus to die on the cross, that it's only in him and through him and by him that we can be redeemed renewed, restored, and we can come back into him and to fully put on display this love to others. And that's what John talks about here in the first two verses of this section in verses seven and eight. He says, Beloved, let us love what another for love is from God. There is no other place that love is from.
00:18:05
Speaker
I know this is really hard for some of us to hear in a culture today that's telling us that love can be in all different shapes, sizes, and forms. But the reality is that love is from no one else but from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. So in other words, in order for you to truly know what this love is, you have to know God. There's no exception. Let that sink in for a second.
00:18:32
Speaker
because we are convinced in that that we can love others when we are not abiding in God, and that's not true.
00:18:42
Speaker
The only way we can truly love one another is if we abide in God, and as Stephen was talking about, and know Him, know His word, because it is His word that is the foundation foundation that sets love up for us to walk in it, because it is the truth.
00:18:58
Speaker
And you can't have truth and love separate. They are married together, right? So it says, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. So this is the positive thing about it, right?
Sacrificial Love and Christian Challenges
00:19:08
Speaker
So because we know God, we can know his love. And then verse eight, he says this though, anyone who does not love, does not know God. Does not know God. That should be a very sobering verse for all of us in this room.
00:19:26
Speaker
Because if we don't put on the full love of God and display in every characteristic and attribute that is summarized within that love of God, then I'll be truly abiding in Him as we think we are. Now again, this definition of love is not tolerance.
00:19:44
Speaker
This definition of love is not abstinence. this ah This definition of love is not saying, hey, you know what? You're a simple, broken person. You keep doing what you're doing, come back. That's not what that is. Within this definition of love, you got to remember, it is God who defines it, right? And who's God by nature? He is holy. He is righteous. He is just. He upholds the law. He he is the one who is he's the only one who is able to bring about restoration and redemption back into humanity because of how holy and righteous and just he is.
00:20:18
Speaker
That's the standard by which this love is set upon, by which we abide in and we follow, that we should uphold as believers in Jesus. So when you walk in this broken, simple world, and and you walk in the love in which God has commanded us to walk, and guess what? A lot of times it's not received very well.
00:20:39
Speaker
Because in order for you to truly love, you have to abide in the truth of God, which means you have to abide by the standard by which he is given the 66 book love letter, right? We just did a series in our youth group called Truth and Love, and this is the key thing that we talked about. It's like, how do you speak truth and love to your friends, your family, and your peers that that don't want you to receive it?
00:21:04
Speaker
whether it's Christians or non-Christians alike. Well, the reality is is that all the weight and the pressure comes off of us as Christians, knowing that if we just abide in the truth, guess what's ultimately gonna be put on display? Love. And if you love somebody, guess what you're gonna be walking in? Truth. There's no separation between them.
00:21:26
Speaker
Because truth is love and love is truth, because that's who God is, right? So again, when he talks about that verse, say, anyone who does not love does not know God. Anyone who does not love does not know God's word, does not abide in his word. It is transforming into our hearts and our minds if we truly abide in. That's what Paul talks about. Because God is love.
00:21:49
Speaker
Verse 9, in this, the love of God was made manifest among us so that God sent his son into the world so that we might live through him. So it's not even just, John's not saying, hey, this is what love is, but he says, God didn't just tell us what love is, he demonstrated his love to us by sending his son.
00:22:09
Speaker
Love is sacrificial. Love is all consuming. And for God, when He looks down upon His creation that was broken, He says, hey, there's only one way to fix it. That's by not just sending an angel,
00:22:21
Speaker
Not by sending visions and revelations. No, it's by sending my one and only son, whom I love, who has been with me from the beginning, who who was, who is, and will be with me in the end. He's eternal. The beautiful relationship of the Trinity, right? Father, son, and spirit. He sent his son to come in to die, take our place. He uses this really fancy theological word, propitiation, or our substitution. The one who came and took the price for our sins, the price that you and I could not pay, so that way we would be set free from this sin bondage.
00:22:51
Speaker
But it's not even, it doesn't even just stop there. It's not that he sent him just to pay the price for our sins, but he sent him so that what you and I can, our eyes and our hearts can be open to the fullness of what love actually is. It is selfless, it's sacrificial, and it costs a lot.
00:23:10
Speaker
So when we when we when we stop, when we give thanks during this Christmas season, when when we stop, when we look at our neighbor or our family members who are hurting or lost, who are broken, and we think that we have the love of God in us, I mean like, this is this right here that should make us really stop and if you really consider, okay, am I willing to to truly abide in God's love and to demonstrate his love?
00:23:34
Speaker
Because it's more than just looking at your and saying, Merry Christmas.
00:23:41
Speaker
it's It's you reaching out to them and making a sacrifice and living life with them and telling them about who God is.
00:23:53
Speaker
Verse 10, and this is love, not that we have loved, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us to set his son to be the perpetuation of our sin. He goes on verse 11, beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. There is no and ifs or buts about him.
00:24:10
Speaker
If you are in Christ and you think that you abide in him as he abides in you, there should be no other result than to demonstrate the love of God to those around you. Believers, non-believers, a lot.
00:24:26
Speaker
What's crazy is is that we as Christians oftentimes, it's harder for us to demonstrate love to one another as Christians than it is for us to demonstrate love to non-Christians. Isn't that crazy?
00:24:38
Speaker
It's in these walls right here where we are the most judgmental.
00:24:45
Speaker
Where we are the the least forgiving. And it shouldn't be that way. Because the love of God covers a multitude of sins. And if' if we truly believe that the love of God is in us, then we should show forgiveness. We should show compassion and love. As long as it lines up with the holy righteous love of God.
00:25:11
Speaker
Verse 12, no one has ever seen God. Isn't that crazy? There's been glimpses in scripture where this has happened, where Moses saw and Isaiah saw visions or revelations of God, these theophanies is what they're called, where they've just seen partial glimpses of God's glory because if they saw the fullness of God, guess what would happen? Then you struck dead.
00:25:31
Speaker
No one can look upon the full glory of God because of our brokenness and our sin. But it says this, if we love one another, God abides in us and He is perfected in us. In other words, what John is saying, hey, if you truly walk in the love of God, guess what you're doing in the world that is broken, lost, and dark? You're putting full display who God is.
00:25:53
Speaker
no we would have Though we have not seen God in this flesh on this earth because of the brokenness, the closest thing that we can see from God is when we choose to truly love one another is God loved us.
00:26:07
Speaker
So if you have a heart if you have a heart to show, the love or to to to demonstrate God's goodness, faithfulness in your life, then you need to love one another. We need to love one another.
00:26:22
Speaker
So the verse 13 is where this transition happens. I know we're we're over time. I'm going to try my best to get through this because there's so much here that I don't want to miss. but I know that we're on crunch time, but it says this. So he he there's this transition here from God is love, right? So he defines what love is and who you can ultimately set the standard of this love to where now we're seeing the result or in the power of this love within us and how it should drive us to want to demonstrate it to others. Verse 13, by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit.
00:26:59
Speaker
You wanna know how we can truly love one another? The only way that you and I could love one another, when we talk about how we abide in him and he in us, is through the promised seal of the Holy Spirit. that's the true ah That's the true mark of a believer that sets apart us from anybody else.
00:27:25
Speaker
Because it's through the Holy Spirit that we have been truly transformed, that we are capable of loving one another to the fullness of how God designed it and desired us to walk in it through the Holy Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him and He in God. So now John is giving a testimony to the fact he says, hey, this isn't just a myth. This isn't just some so some silly story that happened.
00:27:58
Speaker
or that we think happened. No, this is true. This is fact. John's saying, I'm an eyewitness to this. We give testimony to this because you got to remember John and James' brother, and you got Peter and Andrew, all those other disciples who are fishermen. They were once just living a normal life, just like you and I. But guess what? Jesus came.
00:28:19
Speaker
Jesus came, met them where they were at, told them to drop their nests and to sell their possessions and leave their possessions behind and to follow Him. And guess what they did? They followed Him.
00:28:30
Speaker
And they were transformed from that moment on, moving forward. So now John is writing to these people saying, hey, this is not just some myth, this isn't just some some made up story that we're writing to you. I witnessed you, this miraculous son of God, Jesus, and how he came and transformed my life and created me from a broken, sinful man who is selfish to a to a man who loves the word of God and who desires to make it known.
00:28:57
Speaker
So he he is now testifying to it. And in verse 15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. Verse 16, so we have come to know and to believe that the love of God has for us. Because of the fact that Jesus came, we can now know and believe the love of God that he has for us. God is love and whoever abides in him, itides or abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.
00:29:28
Speaker
By this, love is perfected with us. So there's only one way, again, I feel like I'm a broken record this morning, but I'm gonna let it sink in a little bit harder here. There's only one way that we can truly love, and it's by what? Abiding in God, allowing God to abide in us. That's the only way.
00:29:49
Speaker
so that we may be, oh, then it goes on, so it says, by this, love is perfected in us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, also are we in the world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, whoever fears does not have has not been perfected in love. So now John is reminding this audience, remember, this is an audience who, there was those who were fully assured, all the way over here to those who did not believe, but right in the middle were those who were like,
00:30:19
Speaker
Yeah, I believe that Jesus is real, but I don't even know if I'm saying. I don't know if I'm saying. This is John reassuring all his readers. He's like, hey, you can walk in confident insurance knowing that if you truly abide in God and he abides in you, you don't have to live in fear anymore because of the love of God cast out fear.
00:30:46
Speaker
So if you're in this room and you feel like, you know I don't even know, I mean, I love, I know God's real, but I don't know if he's with me. There's hope for you. There is assurance. Because if you truly have experienced the love of God and you're allowed to come into your heart and to transform you so that you can then demonstrate the love of others, there should be no fear of judgment in your life.
Abiding in Love and Casting Out Fear
00:31:07
Speaker
And this judgment that he's talking about it is not judgment from others.
00:31:11
Speaker
He's not talking about judgment from our culture, our community, but he's talking about the judgment from the holy righteous one that you will stand before him and give or before and give testimony or give testimony to at the end. That's something about the judgment of God. The only judgment that really matters.
00:31:30
Speaker
So if the love of God abides in you, it will cast out the fear of this world. We can walk confidently. There is no fear in love, but prefer but perfect or but perfect love casts out fear. Verse 19, we love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I loved God and hate his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has not seen, or sorry, who yeah for he who loves his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. So in other words,
00:32:11
Speaker
If you're in this room today and you believe that you love God but yet you can't love those whom you're walking with daily, how can you say you love God?
00:32:23
Speaker
Because again, all of us are made in the image of God and His nature and His characteristics and His likeness. We put on display who God is in a broken world.
00:32:36
Speaker
We're all uniquely made. And if we can't love one another, how can we say we love the holy righteous God?
00:32:44
Speaker
This goes back to what he was talking about in chapter three, verses four through 10. He says, everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.
00:32:56
Speaker
You know that He appeared in in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is whoever practices righteous, is righteous as He is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
00:33:22
Speaker
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. And I loved how Victor, when we were talking about this, this whole idea of destroying the works of the devil isn't just to annihilate Satan, but rather to redeem you and to rescue you out from his works. So again, if you say you love God, but you don't love your brother and and your or your neighbor, maybe you don't really love God the way you thought you did. Maybe the love of God isn't in you like you thought it was.
00:33:52
Speaker
which should ultimately bring us and draw us back into a place of repentance, of confession, bringing you before God, allowing God to come in and to restore that, to get rid of that, to destroy that inner man in you so that way the Spirit of God can truly dwell in you. So that way you can abide in him as he abides in you and you can have fellowship with one another.
00:34:15
Speaker
And he closes with this, and this commandment we have from him. Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Now, I know that was a whirlwind of a text in the amount of time we had. There was so much more I could have talked about that we could have looked at, but we're not going to. You take a breather, okay? But this is what I want you to know. This is what I'm gonna just kind of end it on. If you're in this room today and you truly believe that you are a follower
00:34:51
Speaker
A follower of Christ, but yet you are struggling to love one another. Or you are struggling, get this, because it's always about how you love somebody else. But if you're struggling with the fact that someone, another brother or sister in your life is holding you accountable to the love of God and it's hurting, and it's hard and you don't want to hear it, maybe you need to get a self-assessment.
00:35:20
Speaker
Because the love of God goes both ways, right? You love as they love you. Does that make sense?
00:35:33
Speaker
So I pray that we will, as we, again, walk through this Christmas season, that we will truly do some self-analyzing here and figure out where we're at. Are you truly abiding in God? Because if you're abiding in God, then you would be demonstrating the love of God to those around you. And you should be living in fear of what that love does.
00:35:54
Speaker
And vice versa, right? So if you truly love God and and someone is and you you have a family member or a friend or a trusted brother or sister, especially those who are in Christ and they're coming at you saying, hey, I've seen this in you.
00:36:12
Speaker
You need to fix this. How are you responding? Because if the love of God is in you and and someone's coming to you out of love, then you should be able to receive that love with great humility and reassessment. But may we truly allow God's love to dwell in us to abide in us, to restore, to renew, to to to transform us so that what we can fully put on display what Christ did when he came down into this earth. That was great sacrifice, great love for you and us so that we can walk in the newness of life with him for eternity. To Stephen's point, as he said earlier, so that way we can know him intimately and make him known.
00:37:02
Speaker
to fulfill the Great Commission. But if you need anybody to talk to you as we go into this time of invitation, I pray that you'll stop, that you'll pray, that you'll do some reflection. You can come talk to me down here in the front, whatever. But I pray that we'll truly allow the Spirit of God to work in our lives. And if you've never surrendered your life to Christ, that you'll do that today.
00:37:27
Speaker
that you'll allow the Spirit to come in so that way you can fully and finally experience what the love of God is and what it's all about.
Conclusion: Love's True Essence
00:37:35
Speaker
And guess what it's all about? Not you. It's about God and making Him known. So let's pray.
00:37:46
Speaker
Father, we just come before you, and Lord, we, again, as I mentioned before, we just thank you for the fact that you sent your son Jesus to put on full display what love is in a broken and selfish and deceived world. God, we can be in this place and have full assurance of love because of the your son Jesus, and we just thank you for that. And as a result of that, we cannot love one another fully.
00:38:18
Speaker
and selflessly. So God, I pray that if there's anyone in this room who's struggling with what it means to love one another, I pray that you will just penetrate their heart, that you will reveal it to them. Reveal it to me, Lord. I've been perfect. I know I don't always love my brothers and my sisters and my family very well. So Lord, I pray that you'll meet us all today.
00:38:40
Speaker
as we reflect and as we anticipate celebrating the birth of the of our son of our son, of your son Jesus, which ultimately was the greatest picture of love that this world has ever seen. So Lord, be with us, work in us, allow us to draw closer to you in everything we do. In Jesus' name, amen.
00:39:09
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.