Loved people love people

Sermon Style Sheet

Write that down in your formation Journal

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Sermon Text

Sermon Text: Scripture

Call to Worship

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opener with humor

2. portion - underlined - say this with me

3. do the same thing with your points - say this with me

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Passage:

Formation Journal Page Number: 5:09 -6:05 8:41- 9:26

Tell them to stand. Here's how it normally goes. "Would you stand with me as we read a portion of the Scripture that we will be studying this morning. When I get to the end of the text, we're all going to say THIS IS THE WORLD OF THE LORD.

1 John 3:16–18 NIV84

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth

Would you place your palms up like this for me as we pray and invite the Holy Spirit to speak to us today Loved People Love People

Opening Illustration:

Star wars - I had always new but they heard it for the first time

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Getting into the Sermon

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1 John 3:16 CSB

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 

This is how we have come to know love - he laid down his life for us. Let’s just pause there a second because this is the basis of everything we are going to understand today.

To understand this passage you need to know two things: First, that you are loved by God and Second why you are loved by God. Those things are both important factors. You need both, you need to know that you are loved by God and why you are loved by God.

So let’s start with the first one - that you are loved by God. Here’s a question - how do you know if someone loves you?

There was a book that came out years ago called the five love languages - its a good book. If you haven’t read it you should because it will help you understand yourself and others better. But it talks about this idea of a love bank. That you have a love bank and different things can deposit into it and take out of it but in a relationship you want to make sure that your love bank is filled. That’s the idea. Making sure your love bank is filled.

But the idea behind it is this, that we all have different ways that make us feel like our love banks are full. You become convinced that the other person loves you and that feals good. Maybe its gift, you love it when someone gives you a gift and you feel love in that. Maybe its a kind word. Someone says something encouraging. Maybe its quality time. Or maybe if they serve you, maybe if your husband does the dishes for you that makes you feel loved.

The idea here is that we each have different measures that we use to gauge a persons’ love for us. Sometimes, we know we are doing it. Sometimes we don’t know.

So here is the question - what measurement do you use to gauge that God loves you? What is going on in your life to make you feel secure in his love for you.

When I talk to people about God’s love usually they’ll say one of two things. First, they might say, I feel like God loves me when I am being holy. When I am being obedient.

Like if I am living like a good christian, then I usually feel like pretty confident in his love for me. The reverse of that, of course, is that when I am sinning, when I mess up, then I feel like God doesn’t love me. I feel like he is angry at me. Like he has cast me aside. I am certain he is going to abandon me, if I sin.

A lot of people live insecure christian lives. I think this comes when you know that he loves you but not why you are loved by God. Like, ok I understand that he loves me, but then you are left guessing as to why he loves you so you fill in the blanks.

He must love me when I am good. That’s logical. Sounds good. Makes sense of our other relationships. God loves me because I am lovable.

But there is a problem. You aren’t always lovable. I hate to break the news to you, but I think you already know. There are times where we don’t think the way we should be thinking, we don’t behave in the way that we should be behaving.

When that happens we get so filled with shame that we try to hide or we lash out at other people. We get all anxious inside, why? Because the gauge I was using to measure God’s love just dropped when I sin and I no longer feel secure.

The first gauge is our own holiness the second gauge is our circumstances.

I feel like God loves me when things are going well! If there is money in the bank, if my marriage is going well, if my kids are behaving, if I have my health. Like if these things are going smoothly, its because he loves me. Because he blesses the people that he loves, right? I mean, you give good things to people you like, and all these things are good. So when things are going well, I feel like God loves me but when things are going bad, he doesn’t.

And then things get weird, because I might look at my life and try to figure out what I’ve done wrong. Where have I messed up? Or you get angry - God I have done everything you asked me to do!

But here’s the deal, the Bible doesn’t tell you that you are loved because you did the right things. It doesn’t tell you to gauge God’s love by what is going right with your life.

It tells you to gauge God’s love by an event. By something that happened. By a demonstration of God’s love.

See gauging your God’s love by your circumstances doesn’t work because your circumstances are a product of sin. It might not be your sin, but it is sin. When man sinned- suffering entered the world. It broke everything.

Bad things happen because a bad thing was done.

Sometimes our suffering is because we do something dumb. Sometimes, it isn’t Sometimes, it’s just the bad things that happen because of the bad thing that was done when Adam ate the fruit and brought sin into the world.

Most of you probably drove here in a car. You don’t throw away the car because the gas light comes on - pumping gas is part of car ownership. Breaks wear out. Tires have to be rotated. This is the frustration of life.

And one day, because of God’s love he is going to end all the bad things that happen, but in the meantime, you face suffering.

we are always going to be growing in self righteousness or shame not in love

And, listen, you don’t gauge God’s love by your behavior. The bible doesn’t ever teach that he loves you more because of how good you are. Here’s the real surprise - his great act of love happened while you were his enemy!!

1 John 3:16–18 NIV84

Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.

That’s how we know love. He laid down his life for us.

There was a pastor in Korea -

But how are christians supposed to respond - they are supposed to respond like Reverend Sohn Yang-won. Here’s his photo. He was a pastor in Korea - he actually served at a leper colony. I could just end the story there, but I won’t. During WW2 he was persecuted by the Japenese who occupied Korea. He withstood that. After WW2, there was some communist uprisings and gangs. in 1948 his two oldest sons were killed by a gang of those rioters. Chai-sun when the government came to put down the riots, they caught the killer. They were going to execute him. But what do you think Reverand Yang-won did? He didn’t just stop them from executing him, he actually adopted the boy as his son. Can you believe that! He adopted him.

Reverand Yang-won was eventually martyred by communists 2 years later but his love for the boy was so profound that the boy went on to become a Christian and a pastor.

Summary: You had committed treason against God. Every crime has an appropriate punishment. Some people were banished to australia back in the day because they had stole small amounts of money. Every crime was treated severely. Remember in Alladin, when princess Jasmin was accused of stealing an apple and the guy grabs here hand is about to chop it off. That’s what he is about to do here.

it’s not what you’ve don - its who you did it to

I think most of us would think that’s a little bit much. Every crime has a punishment.

Think about throwing a rock - the president. God

So now think about all your sins. Talk about a repeat offender - it separates you from God. You are doomed.

But all of that. That exact amount of wrath units were poured onto Christ so that you wouldn’t have to pay it. - That’s how much he loves you.

You don’t judge him by what you do, because he knows you better than you do and he paid the price. He paid it all!

He is coming back

You don’t judge him by your circumstances, because you haven’t gotten your final reward yet! Christmas is December 25 - imagine you wake up on the December 23, and you look around and you say - nobody loves me because I don’t have any presents - it isn’t time yet!!!

All of that is contained in the one line - 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. 

was there anything too much to ask for Chai?

That you were adopted into his family

So then, how do we live? How do we go on from this?

1 John 3:16–18 NIV84

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth

Here’s what the the over flow of love that received from God show flow out of ourselves in such a way that we give to help people in need. The spiritual love received flows out in financial support for people who are in need.

I love you I love you I love

The immediate context is that you give to your brother’s and sisters, he is talking about other christians. So that’s your first step. But it doesn’t end there. It’s a movement of generosity out to the world.

Because here’s the deal, when was God generous to you? Were you his son or daughter at the time? NO, we just said that you were his enemy.

the world gauges your love through generosity and the enemy knows it

God’s heart is generosity, love, sacrifice. That’s what he wants us to be?

So if that’s what we are supposed to be, and we have the holy spirit in us shaping us, why aren’t we like that? Why don’t we live that way?

Oftentimes, we look at someone who is going through a hard time and we are initially moved with compassion and then the enemy comes in and says, “well… they deserve it. They made bad decisions.”

Or we say, “God is teaching them something.”

We say, “That’s not my responsibility”

Or “I give in other ways - I’ll pray for them”

“I don’t know if I really can help much.”

We come up with every excuse that we can not to help. Why? Well the enemy doesn’t want you to be generous. He doesn’t want that - so he talks you out of it.

Sense and Sensibility -

3,000 pounds - $350,000

1,500 pounds - $180,000- his wifes says - most borther aren’t that generous with their real sisters.

$100 pounds a year

$20 pounds every now and then

he probably didn’t mean money at all - they should probably give you some money

but in then ends his wife’s like they should probably be giving us money - and he ends up giving them no money

This is what we do - we see the need, we feel the pity, and then we listen to the voice of the enemy. They deserve it, I’ll just pray - loving someone probably doesn’t mean financially at all.

It makes sense that the world hordes its money- it makes sense because this is all that they have.

That’s the ancient eat drink and be merry because tomorrow you die - the idea once your dead you can’t enjoy it.

And then the love of God is shown. See, one of the things we talked about is how do you gauge love. And the world looks at the Christians and the church and they look and they say, how much are you giving. How much are you sacrificing.

It’s a big deal because Jesus promises to come back

IF the people of south florida see God’s people opening their wallets in generosity then they will know there is a God in heaven who loves them and is coming back.

They judge love by actions, not by pity. It’s what you do, that matters.

We still have the second coming - Jesus is coming back

we live as if our lives and our possession aren’t really ours at all. We devalue them because there is something better.

Will Savell

Nobody comes to the least of these and we are the least of these

But God comes for the least of these.

Here’s the deal, we just assume people know. We take it for granted. But people don’t know. People are hurting, alone and they don’t know that God loves them. They don’t know he is coming back. They can’t imagine his generosity because they haven’t seen him.

The world can’t imagine a love like Will who would risk his life for the sake of the lowly. It can’t imagine a love like reverend Sohn who adopts his sons killers, those aren’t categories for people.

The only way that they will know that love, they only way they will see that love, is if they see it from you. And that’s my prayer for you.

I pray for you everyday. Crossway is part of my everyday prayer list.

my prayer this week for you, it is that you would know God’s love in such a way that it would propel you out in love - loved people love people.

My prayer is that the hurting of south florida, the needy, the down and out, the people struggling, special needs families broken homes, whatever, will start to understand God’s love becasue they see your love.

That they would really encounter God’s love when the encounter you.

I want your eyes to be open to the hurting around you and the idea that you wouldn’t be generous would be outrageous because you are comparing your geneoristy to the generosity that God had for you!

I want people in South Florida to say - I know Crossway knows God because I’ve seen it in the way that they love.

I want some people to say, “I know there’s a God who loves me because someone from Crossway loved me.

I want your kids to grow up and face someone who says there is no God and I want them to be confused and shocked and say, Of course there’s a god and of course he loves, I’ve seen it in the way that my parents love other people.

Loved people love people, you have been loved by God so let’s move out in love together.

Lord’s Supper:

On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 

Benediction:

The LORD bless you and keep you;

the LORD makes his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.