Love is Enough
Notes
Transcript
Reading:
9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.
10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
Introduction:
Exodus 20:2-3 is the first commandment of the 10 commandments.
it says: Exodus 20:2-3
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
On the surface this seems like an easy task.
Love God more than everything else.
Nothing should have first place even yourself.
Yet we find that over time and going about our routines our love wanes.
Especially when it comes to our relationship with God.
People are susceptible to this.
Look at what John wrote about the church in Ephesus:
4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.
It’s like that “new car smell”, it is great but after a while you don’t even realize that it’s gone.
You stopped noticing it each time you got into the car and you became desensitized to it.
Your attention to it waned and the smell faded.
R.F. Horton, a well-known British preacher, in his Autobiography records a pathetic fragment of a conversation which took place between himself and his young sister Anne just before her passing in September 1873:
Usable Outlines and Illustrations 38. Love—Human and Divine
“She was in her sixteenth year,” he writes, “and had been my closest and dearest companion through our childhood. It almost broke my heart when she said on her deathbed: ‘Of course, I know you loved Nell best, but I always loved you best.’ ” -R.F. Horton
So many times we allow this point to be true in our lives especially when it comes to our relationship with God.
This is never the case with God though.
He is always the one that makes the first moves towards us because He loves us the most.
He pursues us when we want nothing to do with Him.
We are even told who He will pursue because of Love:
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
Only God could extend the opportunity for an enemy to become a friend.
Think of a person who has rubbed you the wrong way, or maybe even treated you terribly.
Are you pursuing them for a friendship?
Could you even say that you love that person?
Only in the power of Christ would that be a possibility!
How can God pursue His enemies and offer friendship?
Every human being are His handcrafted images.
There is love, care, and compassion from the creator
which makes us His:
Object of Love.
Object of Love.
Every motivation has an focus point that fuels the desire.
We are His desire, He came to save us!
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
God left a place without sin, death, and evil to live alongside sin, death, and evil...Willingly
To die and pay for the sin, death and evil for any who believe in Him.
Illustration:
At Pensacola Christian College students would arrive, get all their stuff into their dorms, and attend their first assembly.
In that first assembly the dean or pastor would address cautions to all students for the next year.
Among the speech was a portion set aside for the dangers at the beach.
One was to be aware that the sun is more intense than it was back home...
Another was danger of undertow's
The year I arrived was the semester after a student’s life was lost from an undertow.
He was a twin, one twin was swimming and got pulled out by the tide away from shore and was struggling.
His brother recognized what was happening and swam out to help him, and in the process was pulled out to sea and lost his life.
His love was shown by his action to risk himself to the same dangers that trapped his brother.
No different than the Lord Himself coming from a place of perfection to a place that wasn’t, to save the souls headed for eternal punishment.
He did that because of His love for us.
Which is part of His nature, seeing how His nature is love.
All that He does is love and it is shown by His acts of grace towards us.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
The passages state that God is Love; but it describes more than just that fact.
It reveals those whom are born of His love gain a relationship with Him.
John the evangelist tells in this letter that this fellowship is with the Father and the Son.
Johns message is a personal testimony of this fellowship.
3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
He describes being set aside and every believers life attesting to God adopting their souls.
1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Our new family comes with an inheritance: Heaven and all that comes with that.
Here on Earth: Joining His family separates us from the sinful world that we live in.
We are no longer spiritually compromised, we are made whole.
God demonstrated His love, He didn’t just talk about it.
9 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.
Jesus coming was a show to all the world how much He loves us.
Connection:
All of this being presented is probably not the first time you’ve heard it.
The idea behind all of this is to build a foundation for you to know His love.
The lengths He will go to reach you because He loves you.
It should bring a life changing truth to our life that can cast out any doubts in our lives.
His Love is enough, we shouldn’t need anything else to fulfill us.
For our own personal mindset:
To know that God is enough, and that there is no need for anything else in our life for us to be valuable, should change us.
He is our shield in every difficult part of our lives.
Illustration:
There is a phrase that I’m sure you’ve heard:
“The man is the head; but the wife is the neck that turns it”.
This is obviously a statement from the she-woman man-hating group to combat Male chauvinism.
I ask you this:
If your wife is fully behind you in your decisions and respects you: is there anything you can’t do?
Would anyone be able to say something that would deter you from your goal?
When you know no matter what that your wife loves you and supports you, regardless of all that is happening nothing can stop you from doing what you set out to do.
When the Lord is enough then nothing can to deter you from fulfilling God’s will for you.
Know and believe that you are the object of God’s love, the one He did it all for!
Trust that He is revealing this to you for the courage to fulfill His calling on your life.
Transition:
Knowing that you are the object He loved enough to leave perfection and give His life as a ransom as payment should provide a new purpose for us.
Look at all the people who’s lives were changed by Christ.
Look at Paul and understand all the things that were “important” to the religious world that he left behind after receiving faith in Jesus.
Those “important” things meant nothing before the Lord.
4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Paul received the Love of Jesus and it transformed him.
He became an:
Vessel of Love
Vessel of Love
13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
We are changed and His Spirit is in us, as a light from a lantern.
Our light cannot be hidden.
When a light fills a place, there isn’t any part of it untouched.
Jesus’ love impacts all parts of our lives.
Even when we don’t want Him to.
After salvation people fight against the Holy Spirit’s conviction or whispering towards a part of their lives.
When there is someone who drinks heavily; than accepts the Lord, drinking isn’t as fun as it used to be.
You are bothered by it, though it hadn’t bothered them before.
God’s love is in you, and you realize that He died for you to be more than even you realize is possible.
Believing His love for you will make those moments a lot more difficult to do.
Your worth more than that cheap and short thrill.
As a testimony you recognize that your life is for all to see, and Lord willing you believe in God’s love to change and people see:
16 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.
You abide in Him, and He is in you!
If you are a cup and God’s love is enough for you then His love will fill you up.
Only He doesn’t stop pouring His love out into the cup, it overflows and affects everything in your life.
17 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.
We don’t need to fear death or what happens after death!
We know what will happen when we die, because we believe His words are true!
2 in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began
25 And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.
We have been promised eternal life and an escape from eternal punishment because of Jesus’ sacrifice.
Which we accept by faith!
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
He teaches us that His love changes us to a pilgrim passing through this world on our way to eternity.
We shouldn’t have any roots that keep us worried or in fear of what happens.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
His love overflowing in us should remove the fears we have in our lives.
18 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.
Just like the Hebrews saw their fear conquered by the Lord closing the sea on top of the Egyptian Army.
We should not fear anything that Satan begins to bring against us.
Illustration:
Think of Satan like this:
When someone is stung by a honey bee there is pain once from that bee; but the bee keeps flying around the person.
The person typically is swatting at the bee to get it away or kill it.
After that first time it stings you, the rest of the effort is spent scaring you!
It can’t sting more than once.
Satan’s stinger was removed at Salvation.
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
God’s love full inside of you can remind you of this truth:
Satan can only attempt to scare you.
If you allow him to!
He tells us that when we fear, God’s love isn’t perfected in us, He has more work to do.
18 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.
God’s love makes more things possible.
We can love people that are difficult.
His love extended to us should remind us that we were once unworthy of His love too.
Knowing His love, is a challenge to share that Love with others.
Hopefully you want more for them than they realize they want for themselves.
His love helps us forgive those who don’t deserve to be forgiven.
31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Love others as He has loved you, they don’t deserve it; but neither did any of us.
As a vessel of God’s love, we are only pouring out the kind of compassion and care that we would hope others could give us.
God stretched out His hand with a cross and nails and poured out from His wealth, His love to cover our sins.
That love He gave, and continues to give, through forgiveness, should flow out from us as His vessels to those around us.
Conclusion:
We don’t deserve to be recipients of God’s love; but we are.
Not out of duty or obligation, because He knows you!
What you are capable of and how has He made you to fulfill that role to the world.
We seek approval from everything in this world.
The approval we seek is that we are valuable, and that we have purpose.
When God’s love is enough for us we don’t need to find value in what abilities we have, or from family members.
We can know our value because God gave His life for us.
Each time satan comes and tests our belief in God’s love for us we have so much to remember in these passages alone.
When His love fills us, there is no room for fear.
We can be courageous and can ignore the buzzing of a bee with no stinger.
We have the ability to love and to choose compassion towards everyone.
We can begin to see them as God sees them, a soul He died for.
When His love is overflowing from our lives we can forgive the worst of offenses against us.
When His love is enough we are able to endure hardships because we are just passing through this world onto our eternal destination.
Hopefully at the end of our lives we won’t hear the same words from the Lord as R.F. Horton heard from his sister or that Ephesus heard from God.
“Of course, I know you loved Nell best, but I always loved you best.’
Don’t leave your first love, strive to love Him as much as He loves you.
27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
It begins with knowing you are loved by Jesus and that is all you need.
-Pray
