Fresh Love

New Living Translation

1 John 4:7–11 ESV

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 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. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.

1 John 4:19-21

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.

Series Recap

Over the Last few weeks we have been in this series entitled, “What the church Needs Today.”

And we have been talking about some Key elements that the body of christ at large, including our own church, needs today if we are going to see Gods will done in the earth.

Faith

We started by talking about faith..

and we talked about how we need real faith, mountain moving faith, firey Dart shielding faith..

Fire

Then we talked about Fire..

and we looked at the zeal the prophet Jeremiah had

when he said that the word of the lord was like fire shut up in his bones..

and we talked about how we today, need the firey zeal of the Holy Spirit to walk in the power and purpose of God in our lives.

Today

Today, if you haven’t already guessed it, were going to talk about yet another key element..

On top of faith, On top of fire, What the church needs to day is a fresh and renewed love for people.

Introduction

We live in a time where the word love means a lot of different things..

Any many of its definitions in 2025 are not, in fact, love..

Culture

in our culture people confuse love with desire..

we confuse love with lust..

we confuse love with attraction..

we confuse love with many things..

we confuse love with hormons and infatuation..

Because we treat love a feeling that dictates our actions..

If I feel like i love you.. Ill act like it..

but If I dont feel like I love you.. I wont..

EX

have you ever heard someone say they left someone else.. because they.. “Fell out of love?”

This the way the the world treats love today..

an outcome of feelings..

Real Love..

But real love is not feeling based..

in fact, many times real love is contrary to our feelings..

In the scripture we see Jesus over and over again exemplify real love.

and he demonstrates love as choice and action rather than feeling..

He shows us that love is a commitment to others..

Its not just a feeling of smitenness..

or a warm and fuzzy feeling inside..

but a genuine commitment to making sure others are cared for…

EX

John tells us in this passage that real love is the fact that even when we didnt love god, He loved us.. and acted in that love sending Jesus to die for our sins..

Jesus demonstrates this in the garden of gathsemini.. when he prayed for the cup of suffering to pass from him.. but them embraced it for our sake instead..

This is real love..

that even when people dont make me feel like loving them..

still I do..

and this love is much different than the worldy love, driven by feeling culture, of today..

Church

you might say well pastor, what does that have to do with the church..

because i am afraid today that feeling based love as invade the church at large

and replace godly, commitment based love..

And even the world has taken notice

and it has destroyed the churches witness amoug them..

Ex

New people

People new come in.. and if we are having a bad day.. or things dont go our way.. we treat them poorly..

were rude, snuddy, and we avoid them at all cost..

AND GOD FORBID.. If they dont look like us..

or like we want them to look..

If they look like the devil.. we wont be caught talking to them.. only about them…

but Jesus embraces people from all walks of life.. who looked like all kinds of poeple.. and won many of them..

He ate with sinners and outcasts..

He called tax collectors and fisherman..

He didnt care what they looked like..

he loved them..

Brother and sister

and then theres the problem in the church of how we treat each other..

If our brother and sister offends us..

instead of going to them as Jesus told us too..

We talk about them..

and we treat them horrible..

Ive known people to go absolutely crazy on staff members for making a mistake…

I think the only staff member in this church that hasnt been yelled at by a church member at one time in my tenoir is dave..

and I think that because they know hell be honest with them about telling them how they are truly acting..

Same

Love in the church isnt always much different than love in the world..

Though it should be

We live in a time where, like Jesus said it matthew 24

Matthew 24:12 ESV

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

as paul said in 2 timothy 3

2 Timothy 3:1–5 ESV

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

thats the day we are living in..

in the church and the world..

BUT THE CHURCH CANNOT LIVE THIS WAY

BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN CALLED TO COME OUT FROM AMOUNG THE WORLD..

AND BE SET APART..

BE HOLY..

BE A PECULAIR PEOPLE AND NATION FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD..

WE HAVE TO BE A PEOPLE OF CHRIST LIKE LOVE!

Jesus said in john 13:35

John 13:35 ESV

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

JESUS SAID WE WILL BE KNOWN BY OUR LOVE..

SO WE MUST BE A PEOPLE OF LOVE!

1 John

John is tell us a similar thing here in 1 john 4.

Recap

He says..

friends

We should be people of Love!

because love comes from god and you know him..

in fact..

If you don’t love.. its evident you don’t know god..

because part of the foundation of who God is is love!

he showed us this..

By sending Jesus to die for us.. even when we didn’t love him..

SO SINCE HE HAS LOVED US THIS WAY..

WE SHOULD LOVE OTHERS THIS WAY..

HE MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR US TO LOVE OTHERS BECAUSE HE FIRST LOVED US..

IN FACT..

ITS A COMAND FROM JESUS..

SO LOVE ONE ANOTHER!

John Says, since god has loved you with real love..

You are obligated to love others with real love..

So what does that look like?

What does it look like to love people the way Jesus has loved us?

What is real love?

I want us to look at 5 aspects really quick about what our love for others should look like..

Love is Unconditional

Gods love for us is unconditional love..

It has no strings attached..

its not driven by what he will get out of it or some kind of trade..

rather its freely given, accepted or rejected..

Even if it cost him greatly..

John

look again at verse 10

1 John 4:10 (NLT)

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.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God didnt love us because he was promised to receive from it..

He loved us in the hopes we would accept it..

But regardless of our anwser.. Still he sent Jesus..

Us

If were going to love people as god has called us too.. we dont get to decide who deserves to be loved or not..

We are to love without condition..

No matter what they look like..

sound like..

smell like..

talk like..

believe..

We are to love people as Jesus loved us..

Sadie

Sadie’s Story

Someone called me a week ago or so..

and they said..

pastor I need advice..

The people I work with are messy people..

Im one of the only christians here..

and I feel like im called to call these people and help them..

but I feel like in doing so I am putting my approval on their sin..

What do I do?

told

and my simple answer was keep loving them..

because loving people doesnt mean accepting their sin..

it simply means loving them..

EVEN WHEN YOU WERE A SINNER..

CHRIST DIED FOR YOU..

Jesus did not accept your sin in loving you..

instead he helped you out of it..

and we are called to do the same..

love people unconditionally..

not matter their mess..

and when the opportunity arises.. help them out of it..

Beat them up

you dont have to beat people up with the bible to love them..

You dont have to tell them the 23 ways they are wrong..

just love them..

Care for them..

and let Jesus do the rest..

and he will..

THEY ALREADY KNOW WHAT WE BELEVE FOR THE MOST PART..

LOVE THEM AND LET THE HOLY SPIRIT DO THE WORK..

Not only is gods love unconditional, but its also sacrificial

Love is sacrificial

Gods love cost him greatly..

John

look at those two verse again..

1 John 4:10 (NLT)

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.

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

In gods love..

he gave of himself..

His son..

To suffer and taste death..

so we could have freedom from sin..

his love is sacrificial..

Giving of himself in nature..

More about us than about him..

Us

We need to understand that if were going to love people as we should.. its going to cost us something..

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 ESV

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Loving people meaning doing whatever is nesccesary for them..

and thats get inconvienience..

It cost us our time..

our effort

our emotions..

our resources..

its sacrificial..

in this we can see love is action..

Love is an action

in verse 11..

1 John 4:11 ESV

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

The word John is using here for love is the greek word agapan ..

a verb form of the word agapo..

Its an action..

it means to love..

its not simply a nice thought ..

but rather its an action taken..

Us

if we are going to love people we have to be willing to act upon it..

we cant just say we love poeple..

we speak with our actions..

and this kind of love we are talking about is required of believers..

love is not optional..

look what john says in verse 21..

1 John 4:21 ESV

And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-40

that the greatest commandment was to what..

love god and love your neighbor..

us

as believers loving people is not optional..

loving one another is not optional..

Its the expectation of god for us..

We love.. BECAUSE He first loved us..

WE ARE REQUIRED TO LOVE..

GOD EXPECTS IT OUT OF US..

but still.. even though its required its a choice we must make..

because loving others is a choice..

love is a choice

Johns whole premise here is to convince us that we are to choose to love..

1 John 4:11..

1 John 4:11 ESV

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

its a choice we make daily..

when we encounter unbelievers who dont look like us..

we have to choose to love..

when our brother or sister offends us..

we must choose to love..

when we encounter the broken the hurting and the lost..

we must choose to love..

when it cost us greatly..

we must choose to love..

when its inconvienct..

we must choose to love..

IN ALL THINGS WE MUST CHOOSE TO LOVE..

PAUL SAID IN 1 CORINTHIANS 13:7

1 Corinthians 13:7 ESV

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

IN ALL THINGs.. EACH SITUATION.. WE MUST CHOOSE TO LOVE PEOPLE..

ITS ONLY WHEN THE CHURCH RETURNS TO LOVING PEOPLE AS JESUS LOVED US THAT GOD WILL BE ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH HIS WILL THROUGH US..

Altar Call

We must choose to love..

But I want to turn the page as we close for a moment and remind you..

that God already chose to love you..

in the way weve talked about this morning and even more..

God Chose you..

Remember what paul said?

Romans 5:8 ESV

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

and John?

1 John 4:9–10 ESV

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.

in his origional book John tells us this as well..

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

I want to tell you this morning that Jesus already chose you..

He loves you..

and he came so you could have a chance to love him as well..

Have you Chosen to love him?

Salvation altar call..