I Don't Know

Pastor Rick Blackwood passed away week on August 4th- pray for Christ Fellowship.

Well, I thought we were done this series last week, and then I had a few conversations with people and just a sense that we needed to sit here for one more week. Not to go through the gifts we’ve talked about, and not to even really focus on the title of the series, Encouraged to Encourage, but to just clarify a few things and maybe set a bit of a framework for moving forward.

The first thing I want to do this morning is talk through the questionnaire a little bit. You might be wondering, “Why are we doing a personality profile quiz in church? Don’t we get enough of those on Facebook?”

What animal are you?

What Disney Princess are you?

What color is your soul?

I get it. Some people don’t like being told what they are, especially by a piece of paper. And some other people are literally waiting for someone to tell them who they’re supposed to be because they feel confused. Honestly, there’s a whole spectrum here of how we respond to these types of things. And I think that actually shows us more and more how much this conversation is actually needed. The conversation about us being the body of Christ and how we are all different parts but are meant to be working together for the good of the body and the fulfillment of the purposes God has for the church.

Now, the first thing I want to do this morning is just clarify and talk through this questionnaire a little bit more, and I really should have done this a couple weeks ago before I handed it out, and for that I apologize. We’ve done a bit of this in reverse order maybe. I could have planned that a bit better. But I want to talk through it a bit more because it can be easy to answer this questionnaire in a wrong way. Now, don’t get me wrong here, there are no wrong answers, but if you don’t answer in the right way, or with the right understanding you can get some odd, or confusing results.

/ / The way the question is written is important.

/ / The way we think about the question and our answer is important.

/ / And the way we answer is important.

I won’t go through them all, but some examples.

/ / 1. I have a desire to speak direct messages from God that edify or exhort or comfort others.

Ok, obviously this is about the gift of prophecy, and we’ve been talking a lot about the gift of prophecy in this series. Paul says you should earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you should prophesy. That can be a bit confusing. We are meant to desire this. “I’m trying to get myself to desire this more because Pastor Rob keeps telling me I’m supposed to desire this.... Am I even allowed to put NOT AT ALL....”

You can.

Now, a little groundwork here - this questionnaire, first, is / / assuming that you have given your life to Christ. You are a follower of Jesus. If you haven’t done that, honestly, truly, then I would start there - If you recognize that you want to follow God, you want to follow Jesus toward the life that only He can give, then start there. Start by accepting that you aren’t perfect, but Jesus did come into this world, into humanity, and gave his life so that yours, along with all of our imperfection could be nailed to a cross in him. And when he rose again, he proved he can give life without sin attached to it!

Second thing this questionnaire is assuming, or taking into consideration, / / is that you both believe in the Holy Spirit, and you WANT the Holy Spirit to be active in your life.

If you don’t have any desire to be filled and transformed by the power of God, then maybe this questionnaire isn’t for you.

Let me say this, and say it as clearly as I can.

If you don’t want to change, then becoming a Christian isn’t going to feel very good, because the very essence of Christianity is giving up our own life to follow the life of Jesus Christ so that we no longer live in the desires of our humanity, but live out of the desires of the God we have given our lives to!

Here’s the problem with humanity. We like our desires. We like doing what we want. And let’s be honest, we don’t really like being told what to do if it goes against our own desires.

But the bible is pretty clear:

1 John 2:5-6, / / …those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.

Romans 12:1-3, / / I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

2 Corinthians 3:18, / / And the Lord - who is the Spirit - makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

And of course Jesus says in Matthew 16:24-26, / / “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?”

Gosh, can’t be clearer than that, eh?

The Christian life is about learning to give up something of ourselves so we can gain something of Christ.

It’s about learning God’s strength through our weakness.

It’s about being transformed from the desire of human flesh, to the desires of God.

Listen, this is the problem we have in this world right now. There is less and less recognition of God, and because there is less recognition of God there is more influence and more focus on the desires we have within ourselves.

When you remove a moral baseline. When you remove a God who gives instruction on how to live. Then the desire that comes out of our own humanity feels and seems right.

“It’s a part of me. It’s in me. This is how I feel, why would I not follow it?”

And when we do that we come out with all kinds of crazy ideas about what and who we are. I can be what I want to be.

“You can’t tell me what I am. I’ll tell you what I am based on how I feel. Not based on what God has created me to be. Because quite frankly, I don’t believe in God, and if I do, I haven’t done anything about learning what He says about me, so I’m making my own idea up about what God would say. If God is love, and if God is kind then love is love and I’ll express that how I feel.”

Except that’s just wrong.

Because in saying love is love you’re removing God from it, and Love without God isn’t love. But to love like God loves requires something, and that is being transformed by HIS love first!

And we’ll get into that in a bit. But back to the questionnaire. Answering these questions we have to assume both that we follow Jesus, and that we want to be filled with his spirit and transformed by his love and leading. If you haven’t given yourself to that, have a quiet think about that. Ask God to lead you to the answers you’re seeking. The very fact that you’re here says He’s already been leading you - so you might as well jump in!

So, assuming we are following Jesus and giving our lives to the filling and leading of the Spirit, we go back to:

/ / 1. I have a desire to speak direct messages from God that edify or exhort or comfort others.

So now, can you say honestly that you do? Not, do you think you should. Not, has someone told you that you should. And not, earnestly desire the gifts, so, yes!

When you sit and think about this. Do you have a desire to see people in any setting, take the time to hear the voice of God for them, and walk up to them, whether you know them or not, and say something to the effect of, "Hey, this might sound strange, but I was just over there and I believe in God, I believe God loves you and I just felt like He wanted to tell you that He sees you, He knows what you’re going through and He’s there for you to turn to...”

Or whatever it might be. There’s a lot involved there, isn’t there? You don’t have to be able to do that right now. You don’t have to be doing it already. But does this actually get you excited. Oh my goodness, I wish I could do that, yes. I WANT to do that.

Ok, that’s desire.

Some of the questions are more like that, you have to really think, Do I desire this? Do I want this? Does this make my heart and spirit go, “YES!”

And again BE HONEST. It’s ok if you don’t. Gosh, I read it last week and it’s gotta be one of the funnier scriptures in the bible, 1 Corinthians 12:19, / / How strange a body would be if it only had one part!

Just as much as we need to be willing to recognize and see who we are, we really have to be ok with not being things. We NEED that. Because I need you to be what I’m not.

And there’s no grade or score or better than. There’s no higher value.

I think when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:31, / / So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts, he’s pointing to two things.

First, that you desire a gift that will be of the most benefit to the body of Christ.

Second, desire a gift that fits you. Because if it doesn’t fit you, it won’t be very helpful.

You can give me a sewing machine as a gift, but I won’t be making you a shirt any time soon.

And so, these two things work together. We first have to be open to the fact that it is the Spirit who gives the gifts, and we need to wrestle with, “has he, or will he?” Because scripture says, / / There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. and it also says, A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

There is a bit of a question, when we received the Holy Spirit when we were saved, did we also get given a spiritual gift, and is it a one time deal, is that what we get so don’t get upset? Does the Holy Spirit work in and through us in our natural abilities to produce spiritual results? Does the Holy Spirit give gifts for moments or seasons or lifetimes?

And I think the answer to all of that is, Yes.

There is no one way God does this. I think it’s as diverse as the people God works through. Even in how these gifts work, you can have two people with the same gift doing it completely differently because the are different.

I also think desiring the most helpful gift is a personal decision on what I will actually be most helpful at. If I have no desire to do a certain thing, then asking for that gift won’t make me very helpful. BUT, if I already desire to do a certain thing, and the Holy Spirit begins to work in and through me in that way, what I have already desired will be way more helpful with the presence and power of God on it, right?

So, earnestly desire the most helpful gifts. Not only what you think you should do because it looks more helpful, but what you are meant to do, desire to do which will cause you to be most helpful.

If you love being hospitable, then I want the gift of hospitality to be shining in and through you rather than you thinking, “Oh, I should be an apostle, because Paul says that one comes first, so that must be the most helpful, right?” or “I should be a pastor, because that will help more people, right?”

No.

Some of the questions are more straight forward.

/ / 5. Others have told me that I have helped them distinguish key and important facts of scripture.

That has either happened or it hasn’t, and it has either happened once, or a few times, or often. So answer accordingly.

/ / 23. I spend at least an hour a day in prayer.

This is not, “The bible says to pray without ceasing, and I so do that...”

And this is not, “I should spend at least an hour a day in prayer.”

or, “I feel like I am supposed to, but feel guilty that I don’t, but I’m going to put that I do because I really want to, or at least I feel like I am supposed to.”

It’s not that.

This is, “I dedicate time to prayer in big chunks of time. Not because I feel like I have to. Not because I’m trying to be a good christian, but because I WANT to. I desire this. I am drawn into this.”

/ / 33. My giving records show that I give considerably more than 10 percent of my income to the Lord’s work.

Ok, obviously the gift of giving. And when we talked about this one I said this is not the faithful, consistent giving that all of the church is meant to follow, but this is above and beyond. Again, not because I feel like I have to, or because you’re rich so you have more. This is again, desire. I want to give more than just what is faithful to what God is doing here, and I don’t need to be asked. I just do it because I want to.

/ / 56. People come to me in their afflictions or suffering, and have told me that they have been helped, relieved and healed.

This is an important one because the statement is really two parts.... people come to me in their affliction or suffering. We have to recognize that the world on large loves to complain, that’s not what this is talking about. People come to you with their problems because you actually want to help them, and this is not a burden or a pain for you, it’s something that makes you feel alive when you see how you can help.

This gift is actually exhortation, and it’s more in how you encourage someone in the midst of their suffering rather than the fact that people like to complain to you. Sometimes people like to complain to other people because they know they’ll feed into it. Bad attitudes often seek out other bad attitudes to feel better about themselves.

Not saying that’s you, but we have to continually read the spiritual aspect here.

Hopefully this is helpful. If you’ve done it already and maybe were confused by the results, or didn’t do it because you weren’t sure, or maybe you just answered MUCH and SOME to everything because you thought that you SHOULD desire it, go back, redo it, and read the questions slowly and answer them out of these ideas. You shouldn’t have a whole bunch of really high ones. 3, maybe 4. Or 1 or 2 really dominant ones.

But these are things we look at.

You truly desire this.

or

You’ve seen this operate in your life and you had an idea God was behind it.

or

You had opportunity, wanted to jump in, felt like it could be God leading you, but you didn’t know how or what to do.

Don’t answer out of obligation, or even how you may have been taught before that you should or have to desire certain things, or led by leaders that wanted you to be like them, not like you.

Think of it this way...

Read between the lines and see where the Spirit of God might have been working in and through you, or at least offering you the opportunity.

This is another really big point. / / You may have these desires, but not the ability to meet them, yet.

Just because God has given you a gift, doesn’t mean you know how to use it. That’s why these things start in the church. We learn with each other so that when we are helping other people, our help is effective. Ever have someone “help” you, but they weren’t really much help at all? Their intentions were super good, but their follow through was lacking?

They really really wanted to help you, but what they did almost made more work for you.

Think of kids. We embrace their desire to help, even though they aren’t good at it, so that we can teach them how to do it. Think of the first time you had your child help you make pancakes. It took longer, the kitchen was a wreck, you were fishing egg shells out of the batter. But it was part of the learning process because of their DESIRE to help.

We need to make space for learning and have patience for it too!

Ok, so assuming we are following Jesus, open to the Holy Spirit working in our lives, and recognize that we are all a part of a body, different parts doing different things. It’s good that we are different. It’s good that we aren’t all the same. And I don’t need to go there too much, I think we’ve done some good work in this series on that. I think, or at least I hope you’re getting it. That we are all different and that is good. That we are not meant to be doing the same thing the same way because that would be ridiculous.

Let’s just say it again.... / / How strange a body would be if it only had one part! Paul hit that one on the head!

The fact that you are different is important.

The fact that you focus on different things is important.

The fact that you see differently, want to do things differently, want to try different things, or maybe don’t want to try different things. The way you handle yourself, the way you talk, the way you relate to people, the desires you have and the passions inside of you. All different, all important.

But as we’ve just looked at:

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are of no use to you if you are not following Jesus with your life.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are simply not important if you are broken, hurting and unable to move.

/ / What we DO for God never comes in front of what He’s DONE for us.

In Matthew 7:22-23 Jesus is talking about what it will look like at the end of time, and he says, / / “On judgement day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’”

So, first and most important, just doing things is NOT the point.

And second, what is the point? If he says, You who break God’s laws, what’s he talking about?

One of the verses that has come up over and over again lately is John 13:34-35, do you have it memorized yet? Jesus, talking to the disciples, / / “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

Yes, there is a clear directive there. We are meant to love, and love the body of Christ first. He’s talking to his disciples! How you love each OTHER will prove that you’re my disciples.

How we love each other will prove we are Christians or not. And if we figure out loving each other we aren’t far from loving other people well. I think that’s the point here. I think Jesus is saying what I’ve been saying the last few weeks, this is a great spiritual experiment.

Can you get it right inside the classroom so that you can get it right outside the classroom?

Can you pass the test inside, so that when the tests on the outside come you know what to do?

Can you focus, learn, apply, fail and get back up again so that when you are faced with real world situations you shine brightly for the world to see?

Because multiple times in scripture there is a call to do good things in the face of the world around us so that they see the goodness of God through your good works and desire to follow him.

But, that can be a trap. Because if you’re not ready, you can get trampled.

So, we have to notice something in John 13:34 that we can not go past. And this is the key to it all...

/ / Just as I have loved you...

See, at this point Jesus is saying to his disciples, “You’ve spent enough time with me, getting to know me, letting me love you and teach you and guide you that I think you’re ready to step into this next phase of your training.... love each other.”

So the most important question that we can ask, for you and for me this morning is simply this, “Have you leaned into the love of Jesus Christ enough, so that you actually know how to love others?”

Are you ready for phase 2 because you’ve spent enough time in phase 1?

1 John 4 is a great chapter on the love of God. John gets it. He’s writing about this great love of God. He says in 1 John 4:9, / / God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love - not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

Ok, so let’s get this straight here.

/ / If your goal is not to become better, you’re missing a major point of why Jesus came.

Yes, Jesus came to save humanity because we can’t be perfect. And he, as the perfect spotless lamb took on all of humanities imperfections, sin, nastiness and it got nailed to the cross so that we can be free from it.

But that’s the point....so we can be free from it.

If we aren’t living to be free of our sin then we aren’t living in what Jesus died for.

Sure, it’s a struggle. It’s a fight. Paul says very clearly in Romans 7:21-25, / / I have discovered this principle of life - that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

You ever have that moment, you’re sitting with a friend and accidently let slip, “uh, I’m just doing so bad right now. I feel like a mess. I just can’t seem to get it together...”

And they look at you like, “You ok buddy?”

And you suddenly realize what you’ve done… “Ya, ya, I’m good. I’m just saying. Been a rough could days is all...”

Paul gets it. He’s talking here about this wrestle with being a slave to sin, or our humanity, our natural desires, but really truly deeply desiring to and becoming a slave to Christ. Wanting to and working towards being fully His!

So we go back to the book of 1 John, where we read that God showed how much he loved us by sending Jesus and that real love is not that we loved God but that he loved us enough to send Jesus so we didn’t need to be a slave to sin.... So what’s the solution? Paul is saying as much as he wants to be free, he still struggles. This is PAUL, the apostle, the guy who wrote so much of the New Testament.... what hope do we have?

Well, thankfully John continues… 1 John 4:11-21, / / Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgement, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.

If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.

So, John is giving us the order of things here. And I’m going to be completely honest. Until we get this, the gifts don’t mean anything, but WHEN we get this, the gifts become an incredibly important and integrated part of this. They become a tool to do what Christ has called us to do.

/ / 1. Declaration

All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.

This is the starting point. We don’t need to go any further on that, we’ve already talked about it this morning and we talk through it often. Life is only truly life when we recognize the one who gave it to us. God is the creator of life and when I see that, living for the creator is the most rational and appropriate response there is.

/ / 2. Internal Transformation

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.

Do we accept and work at receiving God’s love. By work at receiving I don’t mean there’s necessarily work involved, we don’t work FOR God’s love, but we position ourselves, we do what we can, we spent time in prayer, spend time reading the bible, spend time asking God to move in us and through us, spend time asking Holy Spirit to fill us, asking Jesus through the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us as the spirit of truth.

Romans 5:5, / / …we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

That filling is a flowing, pouring out, splashing all over action. But when we’re constantly moving and dodging the presence of God it’s hard to fill a cup that’s moving.

All I’m saying is that getting “saved” doesn’t mean we are engaged.... and we need to engage with God if we want to be overflowing with his love and kindness and goodness.

Don’t you think it’s a bit arrogant of us to assume we can simply accept Jesus as our savior and then continue to live any way we want? That’s certainly not the point, right?

Remember what Jesus said in Matthew, even those who are healing and prophesying in his name, he would say to them, “I don’t know you...”

What’s the cry of God’s heart?

John 17:3 / / And THIS is eternal life, that they KNOW YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

God wants to know you. That’s what John is really saying here in 1 John 4, it’s all about God’s love impacting us so that we can love others.

/ / 3. External Transformation

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

When we receive God’s love we are then equipped to love others well.

And John is just repeating what he wrote down in John 13:34-35 here, right? If John who wrote the book of John is the same John who wrote 1 John, then the guy who heard Jesus say, “A new commandment I’m giving you, love each other. Just as I have loved you, so should you love each other.” is the same guy who is writing, “since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.”

But, we have to get the order right. Love isn’t just love, don’t get caught up in the hype we’re seeing in the world today…

/ / We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in HIS love.

/ / God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.

I see a lot of people in this world saying they are just loving, but have no concept, clue or acceptance of God or the love of God. You can’t remove one from the other. You can’t stop at God is love so love must be of God and so I just need to love the way I see it. No, living in God and God in us, living in HIS love, is how we know how we are meant to love.

This is the commandment, AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, so should you love each other.

John writes in vs 17, / / As we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgement, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

Remember what Jesus said? doing without knowing isn’t the point!

Here’s where we get into seeing this love impact the body of Christ.

vs 19, / / We love each other because he loved us first.

So, we have to learn to be loved so that we can love, and that being loved needs to be God’s love.

But he also says this, and I absolutely love this. It’s an incredible connection in this scripture.

vs 12, / / …if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

The ESV says, / / God’s love is perfected in us.

Then a few verses later he writes, 17, And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.

The ESV says, 16-17, / / 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...

Same word, perfected.

John is saying there are actually two things that bring God’s love to fullness, or completion, or perfection in us.

First, by living in God and receiving his love, that love is perfected in us. But also, when we learn to love each other, his love is brought to perfect, or full expression in us. I think it’s absolutely amazing that John is showing us that if we want God’s love to be perfect in us, or complete in us, there is no mistaking it, we have to love each other.

/ / Our relationship with the body of Christ determines how fully God’s love fills our lives.

That’s incredible. YOU are a necessary part of ME experiencing the fullness of God’s love. Is God’s love complete within itself, of course, I think it would be wrong to say otherwise. Except there is something we experience in the love of godly community that we simply can not experience on our own. And it is in the love of God and the love of His people that we find the fullness of what God desires for us to experience in love.

That’s step 2 and 3 here, right, acceptance of God’s love, and then learning to love each other so that God’s love is perfected because it’s in receiving and giving love that love is fulfilled.

Now listen to this. Then comes vs 18 and the power of that love in community.

/ / 4. Fear is Broken

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.

Look at the power of perfected love. It has the power to push fear out of our lives.

So, what have we been talking about? Within community, we want to see these gifts of the Spirit expressed, right? But what is the biggest hinderance to seeing that happen? Fear.

Maybe there’s some apprehension about it all. What if I’m not accepted for it, or what if I don’t feel like my gift is that great, or what if I do it wrong, or fail, or am not as good as someone else...

All of that fear can be removed as we learn to love each other.

This is why Paul says that above all else our goal is to pursue love and that our greatest desire should be that we prophesy, because prophecy is to strengthen, encourage and build each other up. That is the outworking of love, to speak kindly to each for each other’s healing and the removal of fear in our lives.

Negative talk just breeds more fear, but God’s love expressed through each other and to each other produces a power that can literally rip that fear off of our lives.

Listen to how he finishes that thought: / / If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his love.

The problem: we fear punishment - in a lot of different forms.

What is that?

I think in the grand scheme of things John is probably talking about the coming judgment at the end of time. If I’m standing before God and need to give an account for my life, if I don’t understand his love and think he’s going to punish me I will be very afraid.

And when I know his love, what fear can I have? Even in the face of imperfection.

But I think there is a more immediate and actionable point here.

Fear of man is, I think, the most limiting human experience we have.

Fear of rejection.

Fear of being pushed aside.

Fear of being misunderstood.

Fear of being pointed out.

Fear of being mocked or made fun of.

Fear of not fitting in.

Fear of doing it wrong. Whatever it may be.

Fear of being hurt again.

Fear of the same experience.

Fear of not being allowed to be me, because the expectation is to be someone else.

And what that fear does is it stops us from being fully us. Because we limit ourselves and what we are willing to do or commit to based on our past experiences.

And I think what John is pointing to, and see how he finishes this, he says that if we are afraid it is for fear of punishment, all of those things I just listed are punishment, or feel like we are being punished, even if for no reason, but then he says, / / ...and this shows that we have not fully experienced his love.

Now, if we left it there, it would look like, “ok, lean into God’s love more. All you need is alone time with God.” But he adds in vs 19, but still the same thought, / / We love each other because he loved us first.

There is a direct correlation between being loved by God and not just loving Him in return, but loving the body of Christ.

Not just loving your family and friends. Not just loving those who are easy to love. But learning to love like Jesus loves in all situations. Remember who he’s talking to - his disciples. Judas, the one who would betray him to be killed is sitting right there.

So John wraps it all up with this.

/ / If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.

The world wants to so deeply make it just about love. Love is Love is Love is Love. It’s all good.

Christians who have been hurt want to make it about loving God only. I don’t need the church, it’s all about God. He loves me and I love him.

But the call, the invitation, is to experience the greatest, or most complete expression of God’s love through receiving His love, and then in and through our lives being loved by the body of Christ and learning to love the body of Christ, with all of her wrinkles, spots and imperfections, SO THAT we can become more free from the fear that is holding us back from all that God would have us become, both individually, and corporately.

So, I think, in wrapping up this series, for the second time, this has to be the key takeaway.

The gifts are good.

But the gifts are only good if they are leading us to love one another more fully.

If they aren’t operating out of love they are a clanging cymbal, they are useless, and we run the risk of Jesus saying to us, “Ya, but I never knew you...”

But in the love of God, they become an incredibly powerful gift to express that love, and allow the Spirit of God to move in and through us so we experience an even greater measure of God’s healing, transforming and comforting love!