Transformed Relationships (2)

We will become fully formed followers of Jesus who live intentionally seeking to share Jesus and invite others to join us in becoming fully formed followers of Jesus.

Reorienting our lives to receive His love

Numerous times in this section John will remind his audience that we are to ‘love one another.’

If you grew up with brothers and sisters you likely heard your parents remind you time and again - love your brother/sister.

What all of us know, however, is that love is not our natural state.

Living in transformed relationships starts not with how others behave or react towards us.

Experiencing transformation in our relationships begins as we receive His love.

Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so....”

That phrase has become almost meaningless to us.

We ‘know’ intellectually that God loves us.

So, why are so many Christians still seeking to prove they are worthy of being loved by God?

Why are we reluctant to simply receive love from God - and from others - when it is offered?

“Oh, you shouldn’t have…I can’t possibly accept this…I’m sorry I have nothing to offer in return.”

John challenges us: GOD IS LOVE

The natural condition of God’s posture toward us is one of love.

In vs 9-10 John reminds us of how we can prove this posture:

1 John 4:9–10 HCSB

God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

He loves us. The very presence of His Son is a clear and perfect manifestation that God loves us.

Reorient our lives toward remaining in His love

Foremost: Nothing you can do will remove you from the sphere of God’s love.

Those who are in Christ cannot lose what God has done and is doing in their lives.

What John is pointing to in this section has to do with us:

Will we choose to experience His love…or will we refuse to receive what He has for us?

What evidences are there that God’s love is always ours?

a). if we love one another

How do we express love for one another?

Paul explains:

Ephesians 4:1–6 HCSB

Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us. There is one body and one Spirit —just as you were called to one hope at your calling— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

b). the gift of God’s Holy Spirit;

Again listen to Paul:

Galatians 5:13–16 HCSB

For you were called to be free, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another. I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Galatians 5:22–25 HCSB

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit.

c). the conviction that God sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

Don’t miss this important evidence. Remaining, abiding in God’s love is demonstrated by a continuous commitment to insuring that the entire world has the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ!

Remaining in His love has an important dimension we often miss:

1 John 4:17–18 HCSB

In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world. There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.

Receiving God’s love as we respond by confessing with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in our heart that God raised Him from the dead reminds us that we now have confidence in the future.

Whatever God is up to, however the events unfold, we can face them fearlessly!

Why?

Because we can choose to remain rooted in His love - in the confidence and assurance that He always desires what is best for us, that He always is working for His good through us.

Reorient our lives to representing Him

1 John 5:2–3 HCSB

This is how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commands. For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden,

As Jesus shared His last meal with His closest followers, He said

John 13:34–35 HCSB

“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Perhaps one reason we don’t see many people respond to our invitations to follow Jesus is because we have yet to display what it really means.

TRANSFORMED RELATIONSHIPS

Receiving God’s love completely changes our nature - a transformed heart, mind, will, and affections.

Remaining in God’s love shows itself in how we love - respond to, relate to, react to one another;

in how the Holy Spirit makes Himself known;

and in the assurance and confidence we exhibit in our world.

God’s love’s final result:

a burning passion and desire to share the good news of Jesus.

Transformed Relationships

Receiving God’s love; remaining in His love; and representing Him in His love are not for the fainthearted.

Receiving God’s love requires us to set aside our personal definition of love - i.e. a feeling that comes and goes, and accepting God’s definition of love:

John 15:13 HCSB

No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends.

Remaining in God’s love requires us to choose God’s promise of assurance over any earthly promise of safety.

John 15:16–18 HCSB

You did not choose Me, but I chose you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. This is what I command you: Love one another. “If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you.

Representing God’s love to the world requires an obedience that prizes God’s presence above all else, and a love for one another that

1 Corinthians 13:7 HCSB

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Will you join me:

RECEIVE HIS LOVE

by acknowledging that Jesus died for your sin, and confess that He is Lord...

REMAIN IN HIS LOVE

Choose to love what God loves! People - hard to love people, hard to bear with people, people who want to harm us, people who want to silence us...

REPRESENT THE LOVE OF GOD

Knowing that God’s heart is that all the world might hear ask yourselves:

am I striving to love those in the fellowship of my church - fully and unreserved?

am I willing to risk being misunderstood, and even rejected and/or persecuted that the name of Jesus might be widely proclaimed?

Join us as those

Who will become fully formed followers of Jesus living intentionally seeking to share Jesus and inviting others to join us in becoming fully formed followers of Jesus.