The Advent of Love in a World of Lust

Introduction: What we face

1 John 4:7–21 ESV

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. 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. 10 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 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. 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. 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. 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. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 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. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Intro: What we're up against

* Life planning experience-.

." what do you want your — to say at your funeral?"

" what do you want your — to say at your funeral?"

to say atyrau funeral?"

* what is the purpose?

• Designing your legacy

&" well, I believe God is designing my Legacy..."

• sounds spiritual, but its not reality

- Everyone, will leave a legacy-people will remember you for something

for something

Transition: Even if you're unintentional about it, it is happening

what the' Bible Says:

Did you know that from the beginning, humans have had an intended legacy?

have had an intended legacy?

Genesis 1:28–30 ESV

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Gen l--28-30

- This describes a partnership between the Creator-God, and humans

* One of the ways This legacy was instilled was through the Shema

the Shema

Deuteronomy 6:5 ESV

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Duet 6:5

what does it mean to Love a solitary Divine Being with heart, soul, and might?

with heart, soul, and might?

* Jesus helped us understand

Luke 10:27

Luke 10:27 ESV

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.”

. The second has likeness to the first

. They're two sides of the same coin

- when you love others you're expressing love for God

* Our legacy was always intended to be love

* But, why love?

. The short answer is, because God is a community of love

John 17:22–26 ESV

The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

JHN-n: 22-26 I I JAN 4: 7-12

1 John 4:7–12 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.

I I JAN 4: 7-12

Love being-an others-centered, generous and sacrificial act for the benefit of others with no expectation of it returning to you.

act for the benefit of others with no expectation

of it returning to you.

• Later in Dt. Moses, speaking as a prophet would, to the people says...

to the people says...

Deuteronomy 10:15–19 ESV

Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.

Dt 10:15-19

God is saying, this is how I treated you, now go seek out the most vulnerable and treat them that way.

go seek out the most vulnerable and treat

them that way.

* who did Jesus move towards during his ministry [everyone) but when he moved towards the poor, sick, sinful person, Israels own Religious leadership was unhappy

[everyone) but when he moved towards the poor, sick,

sinful person, Israels own Religious leadership was unhappy

& Israel's religious leaders history (as we leaned in Micah, was not a history to be proud of

was not a history to be proud of

* Why? because that deep seed of evil, turns humans into beasts. People who are looking out mainly for themselves.

into animals. People who are looking out mainly

for themselves.

Jesus came and while He was So unique and different from every other human in history, He was showing the world what it was to be truly human.

from every other human in history, He was showing

the world what it was to be truly human.

* and what's crazy is that Jesus whole missionwas to reconcile than with God.

was to reconcile than with God. In other words,

In other words, he welcomed us into that community of love.

he welcomed us into that community of love.

* And for those who receive his invitation, he forgives them for all the ways we had made our lines about self love. The Bible calls that sin.

forgives them for all the ways we had made

our lines about self love. The Bible calls that sin.

And he treats us like family, like people who have always lived as truly human.

have always lived as truly human.

But thats not even the end The story...

* He changes us to act truly human as an illustration I'd like to read for you a passage from

I Cor 13:1-

1 Corinthians 13 ESV

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

* This helps us circle the wagon to my opening illustration

* we will all leave a legacy

. The Corinthians lived in a economic hot bed

. The most successful people, became the powerful, political leaders

- That crept in the church

. Everybody has been given a gift, some were stage gifts and others background gifts

and others background gifts

- They brought the worldly philosophy in and gave leadership to the ones with more outspoken gifts which created an unhealthy hierarchy.

leadership to the ones with more outspoken gifts

which created an unhealthy hierarchy.

. what is Paul's point?

- None of that matters

- Gifts are to build each other up, not create power structures

structures

- Your legacy is not your gifting, OUR legacy is love.

is love.

* These words could not be more relevant.

. We see this 'everywhere we look, everyone wants the power the prestige, the fame, the money

the prestige, the fame, the money

. why? We want to be recognized, and known, and accepted

. and yet, this is the very thing Jesus invited us to enjoy

- Acceptance not based on status

- Being fully know without the fear of manipulation/exploitation

exploitation

- Genuine, unconditional, never breaking, never changing love!

- One we cannot earn, but a lone freely offered

§ -It never fluctuates

Thats what we're all invited into

it and thats what our legacy is