Children of God pt. 2

Intro

Shew! I love this church! I love what we do. I love where we meet. I love singing praises to God with the people of God. I love hearing the Word of God read. I love preaching His Word.

I love the things of God.

But, is that enough? Is it enough to love the things of God? Is it enough to love church services. Is it enough to love good things?

Those things are somewhat easy to love if you think about it. No Christian out there is going to outright say “I don’t love the Word of God,” or “man, I just hate going to church services.”

But, how often do we hear the people of God say “I hate that person.” Or, the most common “well, I don’t hate them.. but I sure don’t like them.” One could argue, maybe you harbor a little bit of hatred.

Is it enough just to love the church services, or must we really love the Church. The people of God.

What does the Bible say about our love toward one another.

Well, you may be surprised to hear that the Scriptures are not mute on this; rather, they’re pretty bold. The Scriptures say “Whoever does not love abides in death.”

If you don’t love, biblically love, as a practice in your life, the Scriptures say that you do not belong to God at all.

How do we know that we are a child of God? We love, not just church services, not just singing, not just hearing or preaching the Word, you know, not even just loving Christians. We are known as children of God and can rest assured in that if we love all people.

Don’t be a Cain

1 John 3:11-15

This is the message we have heard from the beginning. What a common phrase in 1 John! The message is Jesus, it’s His Word, and it is to love each other.

John begins this section of His letter warning us, 1) don’t be like Cain and 2) don’t be shocked when the world IS like Cain!

How do we avoid being like Cain? Well, John says just don’t murder people right? I would argue that most of you are in good shape then! (and if not… I don’t want to know).

But, surely it goes deeper than that. Surely in order to love people it takes more than just resisting the urge to murder them!

Matthew 5:21–26 (KJV 1900)

Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

What is Jesus saying here in Matthew? Jesus isn’t legalist, so He isn’t just telling us, don’t kill or be angry with. He is saying, by all measures possible, live in unity with your brothers, with fellow believers, and as Romans 12:18 proclaims, live at unity with all people.

This isn’t a call to avoid some things and not others, this is a call to learn how to live in total unity with all people. Be the bigger person. Be the first to say sorry. Recognize your wrongdoings and failures, go to who you offended, and apologize. Be mature and be mature in your faith.

Don’t be a Cain means, be about love. Always be loving those around you. I don’t care (and neither does Jesus by the way) if they are gay, straight, addicts, from another country, whether they have disabilities, or just whether you struggle liking them, the Gospel is clear. Love them. Don’t affirm sin, but don’t be a Cain to those who need Christ especially.

As we avoid being Cain, be aware that the world is full of Cains.

The world will despise you at times, why? Because you love them and they don’t understand why. Do you remember when you were in their shoes? You didn’t understand why someone, especially God would love you. People are threatened when you truly have their best interests in mind, so you keep loving them, even while they hate you, and prayerfully one day they’ll obey Holy Spirit conviction and be a follower just like you.

But how will our Cains turn into followers unless we love them like Christ?

Be a Jesus

When the world hates us, and we hate them back, the Scriptures tell us that we abide in damnation and are not followers of Jesus. When you hate, you have become like a murderer, even murdering someone to eternal death because in a world full of Cains, you are called to be a Jesus.

Now, I don’t mean you are the Chosen Messiah, but your life ought to reflect Him.

1 John 3:16-20

So, what type of love are we reflecting?

When you read this passage, it is easy to read “If you have an over abundance of goods, and you see someone in need, feel free to give them the least of what you have.”

That is not what this passage is saying, and that is not the type of love that Christ magnified. What this passage is saying is, with whatever you gain in life, the word for goods indicates that, and you see someone in need, help them!

Use your resources and help the needy. It is that simple, it is that clear.

Our evangelism will be so much stronger if we are willing to let go of earthly possessions in order to help the needy. For, then your love will be shown and people will see that they are cared for. Once they see that they are cared for, they will care more about what you have to share with them, the gospel of Jesus.

As Theodore Roosevelt said, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” And how true those words ring in our culture today.

I can go out on the street and preach whatever I want, but unless I am willing to help those who live on the streets, nobody is going to care.

I know there are some Scriptural passages that show Jesus forgiving sin and then healing physical needs and we can take that to mean “share the gospel, then help their physical needs.” But, those are isolated events that Jesus used to prove a point to the Pharisees. For, listen to James 2:16 “And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?”

What will it profit your evangelism if you do not love people the way you are commanded. The ultimate goal is to meet their spiritual needs, but actively find a physical need as well and do everything in your power to fill it.

The love of Jesus was proven when He laid his life down for our sins, ultimately. But, throughout His life, he taught and modeled a love that we can so easily perform: help people.

Love not in word or talk alone, but in deed and action.

1 John 3:19–20 “And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.” “And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.”

We ought not to be Cains, we ought to be like Jesus, and ultimately it’s all out of a command to do so.

The Commandment

1 John 3:21-24

This is the commandment, that we believe in the name of Jesus Christ and we love one another as He commanded in the Gospels.

By this, we know that we are saved.

And when we do His commandments faithfully, our conscious will testify that truth.

When your heart condemns you, that means your conscious is guilty! When you have a guilty conscious then you know that there is sin in your life that you need to overcome by the power of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit places that conviction in your conscious and you know, without a doubt, that you need to repent. Fully repent, not just confess, but change

If you are unwilling to listen to the conviction on the Holy Spirit in your life, why? Ask yourself truly, what is holding me back? Likely, you will find, it is the desire of the flesh to keep on sinning. The desire to not change.

This can be overcome with Christ.

For as Christians, we must be willing to constantly change our worldly behavior to model that of Christs’s.

When we do this, we will find that part of that commandment is to love, to love truly, to love deeply, to model Agape love as we talked about a few weeks ago. This is how we model love, by helping those in need and pointing them to Christ.

And this is how we develop a heart of love. Prayer

Prayer

You will never truly love until you develop a prayer life, a true prayer life.

You struggle loving someone? Pray about it! Don’t just pray about it, pray for that person you struggle with.

Pray that God will develop in you courage to love biblically. Courage to help the needy. Courage to be bold in Christ and His Word.

Prayer is the key, prayer is the only way you will develop the heart God wants you to have for Him and for people around you.

Get on your knees, lay in your bed, drive your car, sit on your couch, be wherever you are and simply pray!

The commandment is clear, love. But, love takes courage, love takes true passion for people. It takes true passion for God’s Word.

Pray for courage to be an example of Christ’s love in someones life. Pray that the Lord will help you avoid being a Cain. Pray that the commandments of God become more and more important in your life. For, once you begin keeping the commandments of God, your conscious will be clearer and clearer. You’ll never stop feeling conviction until you reach Heaven, but while you are here, listen to that conviction and repent.

SONG

Conclusion

In this world, you have a choice. Be a Cain or be a Jesus in peoples lives. YOU child of God are called to be the hands and feet of Christ, to model the life of the Savior. You are called to avoid being a Cain while remaining prepared to see Cain in so many people in the world today.

Model Christ and be sure of your faith.

Be a child of God and when you live the way in which you are called, you can rest assured with a clear conscious that you are His child.

*salvation plea*