Loving to Love

INTRO

INTRODUCE YOURSELF

Good morning and happy sabbath, everyone! Good morning and Happy Sabbath, pathfinders and adventurers! I keep telling myself that I need to buy that sharp green Master Guide Suit like Bro Maurice and Pr Hoilette, but I only have my Adventurer uniform at home.

i want to give a special acknowledgment to the Pathfinder and Adventurer leaders.

My name is Rhidge Garcia, and I am the Associate Pastor of the Fort Myers SDA Church (or the church on Ortiz). I am from Los Angeles, CA, and the Lord decided to move this Californian to SWFL with alligators and hurricanes.

PRAY, PRAY, PRAY.

Turn to 1 John

Context:

Author: While we do not exactly know who the author of 1, 2, and 3 John is, we can safely assume that the author was, in fact, the Apostle John—The disciple that walked with Jesus. We know that John is in his old age, and is overseeing a network of house churches in Ephesus. They are mostly Jewish followers of Jesus. churches. Mostly jewish followers of Jesus.

Audience: John is writing these letters to his house churches undergoing a crisis.

Purpose: There were members of his churches who left because they no longer trusted and believed that Jesus was the Son of God. As a result, these former members began spreading lies about their beliefs, and even causing division among the current members. John wrote these for damage control and assurance of Jesus’ presence of truth.

Structure: Reads more like a poetic sermon than a normal letter. There are no new teachings listed in this letter. Essentially, John is having them stay true to what they already believe. John poetically cycles through 2 main themes, sandwiched by an introduction and closing. Those two main themes are “God is Light” and “God is Love”. When we get to chapter 3 verse 11, he transitions into his second main theme...

BODY

MOVEMENT 1: 1 John 3:11-24. (THE COMMAND TO LOVE)

1 John 3:11-12 - The Command and Contrast

Read Verse 11

This is the beginning of the second message/theme of John. John reminds his community that this command to love one another is nothing new, but repeats it because of its importance.

“Agape” love — the highest of of love in the Bible. This term defines God's immeasurable, incomparable love for humankind. It is the divine love that comes from God. Agape love is perfect, unconditional, sacrificial, and pure.

I “love” French fries. I “love” my family. I “love” ice cream. We use the same word, but the Greeks had different ways of saying “love”

From the get-go, John shares and reminds us of the amazing message of loving one another.

But we see, in verse 12, that John presents an important contrast to this command. He contrasts loving one another with the hatred that Cain had toward his brother, Abel.

Read Verse 12

Genesis 4 - Quick Cain and Abel Summary

Adam and Eve bore 2 sons—Cain and Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain was a worker of the ground. Both Cain and Abel bring offerings to the Lord, but only Abel’s offerings are regarded as worthy. Cain began to get jealous of his brother, and murdered him. Then the Lord cast him out, and put a curse upon him.

Why did Cain kill Abel? John tells us, “because his deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.” In short, love and hate cannot live with one another. When you keep reading the text, John continues to explain the contrast between love and hatred...

1 John 3:13-18 - An Exposition of this Contrast

Read Verses 13-14

I am aware that your theme this year is “Renewed”. In this text, John tells us that the fruit of renewal in your life is LOVING ONE ANOTHER. Or in the words of the Pathfinder’s theme, “Reach Outside”.

At the same time, John shares with us the stark difference between someone who has been renewed, and someone who has not been renewed.

John continues with his explanation...

Read Verses 15-18

In this text, you can tell that John really sat at the feet of Jesus. Because this text is an echo of a teaching of Jesus. In the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22...

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that every who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

Here, both John and Jesus tell us that a love so pure cannot be mixed with even an ounce of hatred or anger for another. Both of them use strong, explicit language to make the point that love MUST be emptied of hate.

Life cannot live with death. Light cannot live with darkness. Love cannot live with hate. According to John, these two things CANNOT mix together.

ILLUSTRATION WITH DAD, KANGAN WATER, AND MIXING WATER AND OIL.

Water and Oil are considered immiscible liquids—two liquid substances that cannot mix. In the same way, John is teaching us again that love cannot abide where hate dwells.

To be honest, when I hear this, I am challenged. Because there are times I love people, and there are times when I can’t stand people. And it makes me think that I am some sort of hypocrite. Thankfully, John realizes this as well, and continues in the text...

THE SHIFT: 1 John 3:19-24 - The Battle and Struggle to Love

1 John 3:19-22 - Having confidence in God’s love for us

Read verses 19-22

Now, I want us to focus on a specific part of verse 19 and 20: “…and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our hearts condemn us...”

The word for “assure” can also be translated as “persuade”. There is a level of persuading we have to do for our hearts in this journey we call life.

I don’t know about you, but I am one of those weird people that has an ongoing inner dialogue. In other words, I tend to talk to myself. If there is something that I continually have a problem with, its a condemning heart. When you try to do something scary like go on a roller coaster or do things that are adventurous, you have to convince yourself.

A Condemning heart — A condemning heart can be the greatest enemy in your pursuit to love. A heart that constatnly says you aren’t good enough. A heart that is convinced you are not worthy of love.

Young people, our world is literally full of things that try to convince you that you are not enough. — Social Media. Friends. Family. You might even work or go to school with people who unknowingly condemn themselves, and find the need to condemn you.

But we are not called to dwell on the thoughts that condemn us. When we find it difficult to silence the inner condemning voice, John reminds us, “for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”

What keeps us from condemning ourselves? Let’s keep reading...

Read Verse 23

Keeping His commandments. And what does He command? TO TRUST IN JESUS. What does that mean?

MOVEMENT 2: 1 John 4:15-19. (THE SOURCE OF LOVE)

1 John 4:15-16 — The Nature of Love

Read Verses 15-16

We ought to believe and know that we are loved by God. Simply thinking of God’s love as an idea robs God of His saving power. This isn’t just something you hear from your parents, at church, or even read in a book. It is a SAVING power. It is a RENEWING power. It is the power that will empower us to reach outside.

It became real to me when I started to persuade my heart that I was loved. When I started to talk to myself the way God would want to talk to me, His love began to get real. And when I began doing that, I was able to love better.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we talk SO much about being prepared for the Second Coming of Christ. We think have to do this or that. But John even emphasizes that BELIEVING IN GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU WILL PREPARE YOU...

1 John 4:17-18 — The Perfecting of Love

Read Verses 17-18

Confidence — Many of want to be confident when Jesus comes. Many of us have probably been scared by the Second Coming of Christ, thinking we are not ready. But John says that the power that gives us confidence on that day is God’s love.

Fear — We are afraid. We are scared of sharing our faith. We are afraid of being persecuted. We are afraid of lies. We are even afraid of ourselves. Some of us find it so hard to sit with ourselves because we simply cannot sit with our own thoughts. But if you are here today, and you believe that you are loved, FEAR IS NO LONGER YOUR MASTER. Fear no longer tells you what to do. Fear no longer keeps you from living your best life. Because Your Father’s love casts it out!

And in response to this, John pens one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture...

1 John 4:19 — The Source of Love

1 John 4:19 ESV

We love because he first loved us.

Now, why in the world is this important?

We can only love others if we know we are loved.

We can only love others if we allow ourselves to be loved.

We can only love others if we love ourselves as God loves us.

We can only love others if we forgive ourselves as we are forgiven

We can only love others because God first loves us.

BULLET: TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, BE LOVED BY YOUR SAVIOR.

CONCLUSION

If you want to love better, let yourself be loved by Jesus.

If you want to be more patient, let yourself be loved by Jesus.

If you want to be a better listener, let yourself be loved by Jesus.

If you want to be more present with your loved ones, let yourself be loved by Jesus.

Pathfinders, if you want to reach outside, let yourself be loved by Jesus.