What Are We Known For?

1 John 4:7-21

Good Morning, welcome to WCC. I know over the last several weeks we have been journeying through our series about re-aligning with God on mission. Today, we were supposed to look to the final power-shift which is one of anointing, however, after a lot of prayer I decided to divert and change things up this week. Next week, we will be hosting a freedom Sunday, this is something that hundreds of churches spread out across the country and even globe partner with IJM (International Justice Ministries) to combat and bring awareness to the human crisis of modern day slavery. We have spoken a lot about different power-shifts that ultimately will assist us in accomplishing the final commandment of God to His bride the church. This has particularly focused on reaching UPG’s (Unreached People Groups), yet through prayer I really felt like God wanted me to go in a different direction.

So today we are going to be instead of speaking about anointing, speaking about love. If you remember in the first week of the series I spoke about both the Great Commission as well as the Great Commandment and how the two went together in a beautiful way to demonstrate how we as believers, how we as disciples, are to act in a manner that is representative of God. That is that God’s love should overflow from within us and going off of last week come out in abundance as we move through our everyday existence.

Yet, we are really left with a question that I realized I had not answered. If we are to emulate Christ, if we are to emulate God what does that look like? Maybe better worded what is God’s nature that is revealed to us through His Word? Well 1 John shows us this, if you would in 1 John we find an emphasis on God’s loving nature as revealed through Jesus’ death on the cross and in response to this we as believers are to then love one another to further reveal God’s love to the world.

If you have your Bible’s with you I am going to ask that you open them with me to 1 John and we are going to be reading from chapter 4 verses 7-21. If you do not have your Bibles with you this will be on the screens on either side of me.

1 John 4:7–21 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, 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. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also 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 of his 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 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 confidence for the day of judgment, because 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 punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love 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 real quick and then we will jump into this sermon together.

Now let me say I know that over the last couple of weeks I have thrown a lot of information at all of you, to include quite a few statistics, and I understand that they’re not everything. Yet, sometimes they can be very revealing. And so when we look at this particular chapter we find that the word love, or some form of it, occurs no fewer than twenty-seven times in these fifteen verses. No need to ask, then what the subject-matter is here. In fact, we seem to be at the very heart of the letter. This is what John most wants to say. Everything that has gone before leads up this; everything that follows in the final chapter solidifies it and rounds it off.

If you would John 1:18 states, “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.” The meaning of this statement is quite striking: we don’t really know who God is—at least not until we look at Jesus. Now we see the meaning of our present statement in 1 John 4:12 “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” You see, just as people don’t really know who God is—until they see Christ, they also do not know who God is- until they see it revealed in the life of Christians. Until, that is, ‘his love is completed in us.’ and overflowing in abudnace out of us.

Yet, I truly believe that this is where we have the hardest time in current times. Let me ask you this, what are we known by or another word that can be used for? I really want you to think about this. Too often I think we in modern church life have gotten this ideology that we need to be known by all of these different programs, all of these different things that can be seen as attractional. Now don’t get me wrong the church should be attractive to the outsider, we should live a life with demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit within us that becomes attractional to those outside of the walls of the church. But maybe we have focused more on attractionalism then we have on missional living, maybe we have focused more on the programs and different areas of Christian Ministry than we have on true Christian living. Let me give you some examples.

Please, remember, this is not to attack any other ministry or pastor, but to say in modern society sometimes we have missed the mark.

Worship

I think there is a growing movement of those who stake their claim in worship. More and more churches are spending exuberant amounts of money to ensure that all the right equipment, all the right lighting and camera systems, smoke machines are available to advance the time period of worship within the service. Continually I hear from people that the most important thing to them is the worship period in the service, so if the singers aren’t good enough, if the musicians have a bad day, if we aren’t doing things to the current standards of Christian worship we are not living up to this expectation and people have actually left the church because of one reason or another when it comes to worship. Yet, what real worship is, is actually a lifestyle, and it is a lifestyle of love but it isn’t just worship.

2. Programs

Again, these are not bad things to excel in nor to bring our best to the table in these realms but we can misplace where the focus should be. In addition to those churches who want to be known for worship there are those who want to be known for their programs. Youth, Children, Women’s, Men’s, Small Groups or life groups again none of these are bad but if that is what we are trying to stake are claim on and believe that, that is the most identifying mark of a believer we have went astray. The reality is that programs don’t actually work, we just want to believe that they work. Let me explain; programs are what we use to cater and pander to a way of engaging people on their cultural desire for marketing and entertainment. Often Programming is nothing more than quick fixes. Now, again this is not to say that we shouldn’t have these programs but we need to ask ourselves the question do these programs actually play a role in the development of love for God, do these programs actually play a role in the spiritual formation of the individual? Does it advance our love and relationship with one another and the world around us, or is it a quick fix to check a box and say that we have people engaged while they stay stagnant in their faith?

Let me tell you something I do believe in certain programs within the church, but I do not believe in it for the programs sake, I do not believe in selling you on a program but rather leading you to the gospel, leading you to the truths of scripture, and walking alongside you as you grow in your faith and dive deeper into the Word of God and a lifestyle of intimacy in relationship with Christ. Programs can assist but they are not the only solution. The reality is if the only time that you talk to God in prayer, if the only time you engage with the Word of God, if the only time you feel fed is in the programs and services of the church you’re not actually growing spiritually healthy. You’re just believing in the solutions and relying on the programs of the church in a way that is unhealthy and takes away from our reliance and love relationship with God!

3. Preaching/Pastor

More importantly there are ton’s of churches that get caught up in focusing on the pastor. Let me tell you something, even if I were the best preacher and I do not believe myself to be that, even if I had an amazing charismatic presence on the stage and could drive in the crowds, giving amazing topical sermons that made people feel good, leaving the church feeling like they have just tasted some of the spiritual and divine manna that we spoke about last week and left ready to take on the world, if that is all our church was known for, if everything rested on myself or Jeremiah or any other leader we will have missed the mark, we would have missed the essential purpose of the church.

So what should we be known for. Simply put we should be known for our love.

You see when the author of this book is saying that God is love, he is not making some ontological statement describing what God is in his essence; rather, he is, as 1 John 4:9-10 (“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. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”) reveals, speaking about the loving nature of God revealed in the saving action on behalf of humanity. Verse 9 is speaking of God showing his love by sending His son so that people might have life through him, and verse 10 explains that this involved sending his son as an atoning sacrifice for people’s sins.

You see the connection between love for God and love for Christian brothers and sisters which was explained in 4:20-21 in terms of the nature of the experience of the unseen God is now shown to be the subject of the command of God as well: And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Here the author picks up a major theme from the Last Supper discourse in the Fourth, Gospel, where Jesus stresses that his disciples’ love for him must express itself in obedience to his command, and that his command is that they should love one another.... The author’s purpose in picking up this theme here is to reassure his reader who did love their fellow believers that they really knew God, and to show them that the claims of the secessionists that is those who chose to leave the body of Christ because of disagreements and lack of love for their brother and sister in Christ to know him were false.

If you would God is revealing in this scripture that if we are truly to call ourselves followers of Christ it should be based off of the merit of our love for one another. Yet, I think that sometimes we stop too soon in this reality. I think we get stuck with more times than not equating this to only applying to those that we like. Only applying to those who are within the church wall. So not only are we not to focus primarily on those things that make us attractional, not only are we not suppose to focus on a claim as the premier worship team in the area, or as the church with the best youth, children, or any other program, nor as the church with the best pastor who preaches the best sermons, we are not to focus solely on being known as a loving church as long as you’re a member, as long as you’re a believer, as long as you are what we deem to be normative in our realm of individuals that we accept in friendship and relationship.

Here is the truth this command of love should absolutely apply to those who come to this church, but it should also extend to those who are brothers and sisters from across the globe. But let’s go even further, it is for all individuals regardless of where they come from, where they’re at on their walk with the Lord, and regardless of what their specific life situation looks like.

I spoke last week a bit about my trip to NJ. Let me tell you something, it pains me to know that what was stated by those individuals I spoke to was true. This imagery that they see when they think of the church as these individuals who come in, in their Sunday Best, who have smiles on their face and everything put together is far from wrong. Let’s be honest for a minute, when was the last time that you were open with individuals about your struggles. I don’t know about anyone else but there have been Sundays where the kids are fighting Emily and I in the morning. We are irritated with the kids and trying to get ready ourselves and get things situated to get to the church for worship practice or the seemingly hundred of other things we need to accomplish and so what happens is we start snipping at each other. We finally drag the kids out of the house, get them in the car, drive towards the church and we get here. Do you think you see that? No of course not, why because when we walk through the door a smile hits our face and we act as if nothing wrong happened.

In addition to seeing us as having everything put together, they see us as judgmental. Why? Because and I want to challenge you on this, what would happen if someone came in here and smelt awful because of the living conditions that they are in. What if someone who was homeless walked through the doors of this church. Maybe, that is too easy. What would happen if the person who was smelling of a bar, or had tattoos from head to toe and maybe even some with offensive imagery came through the doors of this church. What about the individual who was still high from the night before and had obvious track marks running up and down their arms and leg’s? What would their receptiveness be from us as the Body of Christ? Would they get the same Hello, how are you doing, we’re glad you’re here? Or would they rather get a ton of stares and judgmental glances from individuals.

Let’s get real personal now and something that could absolutely happen even in a small town area like ours. What happens if someone who is not of the same color of skin or same cultural background as us walks through the doors of the church, are we going to see them different based off of wrong thinking from our upbringing that has been wrongfully perpetuated throughout the generations or are we going to see them as God’s see’s them as beloved Children and co-heirs through Christ? What about the person who is struggling with their identity, especially sexual identity, and have been convinced by those within society that what they are experiencing is normal and no different then the love of a heterosexual couple? How would those individuals be treated if they walked through the doors of this church? Would they currently be welcomed as everyone else or would their fear of judgment be confirmed?

Now do not take this as an attack because I do not mean it in that way, but I say this because it’s something that we all need to face. You know recently I heard a Pastor say that it takes more faith for the homosexual to walk through the doors of the church then those who are not from that background. Now although, I would not go as far as this pastor did in much regard this point does leave us with something to ponder and to an extent it is true. Why? Because their sin is obvious, it is in your face. The things I listed make it very hard to cover up and often times those individuals are stepping out in faith in a way that many do not have to. The reality is that you may have an alcohol problem just maybe not as bad and have learned to conceal it, maybe you have a drug program but it isn’t the type that leaves marks, maybe you feel like an outcast because you have a different skin color and have been told that you’re different and not as good as the other’s just based off of that, or maybe you’re struggling in sexual sin in the form of pornography, or adultery, or having sex outside of marriage but because it’s not with someone of the same sex it does not become as clear from the start. So yes, those individuals in which it is obvious demonstrate more faith in just entering the door than those who can conceal, lie, and sneak in without much notice.

The truth of the matter is we are all sinners, none of us our perfect, and it is only because of the love of God that was lavished upon us through the atoning work on Calvary that any of us can enter into the presence of God. Every individual regardless of their background, regardless of their lifestyle, regardless of where they’re at in their journey of faith should be welcome here! This is the my hearts desire. When we say that we are committed to loving our community like Jesus do we mean it? Because if we did when we ask people what is Windsor Christian Church known for they will say for their love. For their love of God and for their love of people!

I don’t know how many have ever been to a carnival before, but if you have you probably encountered one of those rooms with wacky mirrors. Depending on the angle and curvature of the mirror, it will drastically distort your reflection. Now these are fun to look at but they would be horrible for getting ready each day and in most cases would not be what we want to use to take a picture to be utilized as people’s impression of who we are and what we look like. 1 John 4 teaches us that our love reflects God’s love. And if we are bent and distorted by selfishness, bias, and self-righteousness we will reflect a bent and distorted view of God to those around us. Please remember that we may be the first version of Christ that people see. As believers we have a purpose of representing Christ to the world and the question really is are we doing that well?

So as the worship team comes forward please join me up front this morning if you have not accepted Christ. Maybe you have but you haven’t been living life according to His standards and His ways, maybe you have things that have been ingrained in you from a young age that you need to surrender to Christ so that His love can truly overflow from within you and out towards the rest of the world. But regardless of the reason the altar is open to you at this time . Finally, if you do remain at your seats I ask that you would take time and reflect on these questions, that you would ask God to do a working in your life in a way that would make your own life and ultimately the life of this church known for its characterization of love!

Let’s pray and after the completion of the son we will all head out to the fellowship hall together.