Live in Love, Live in God

Jon salegumba

Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

0 ratings

· 14 views

Notes

Transcript

Sermon Tone Analysis

Emotion

Language

Social

View more →

Introduction

Good morning everybody!!

I’d like to thank the Lord for this opportunity of once again being able to share His word to all of you.

Wala nang maimbitahan si Pastor Chris na iba! Haha!

Thank you Pastor Chris for allowing me to minister to everybody this morning.

God is love. Maybe more than any other statement this has been used to identify God’s basic essence. But if we consider God’s love apart from the totality of God’s nature, our understanding of

Biblical love is the overflow of joy that God has in Himself, spilling out on unworthy people to draw them into the greatest experience in the world, namely knowing, tasting, enjoying, praising, being swept up into the glory of God.

Every Sunday morning:

1. We see each other, have you ever wondered how was your brother, your sister was since the last Sunday you saw each other?

2. We listen to the preaching

3. We join in the praise and worship!

So, why do we come to church?

There was a survey, conducted online Dec. 4 to 18, 2017, among a nationally representative sample of 4,729 adults on Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel, asked respondents who attend religious services a few times a year or less often (including those who never attend) whether each of ten reasons is “very important, somewhat important, or not important” for why they do not go to religious services more often.

(Insert Picture here)

So here’s a statistics that was made showing us why people attend church services.So we can see 10 reasons, from the top up to the 6th, I believe it’s safe to say that these reasons are the valid ones and the one from the beginning is the most valid one.

The rest, it shows that the church is really for everyone, we don’t tell who should attend base upon their reason. In fact I believe a particular Bible based Christian worship service is an open opportunity to those who really seek God and to encounter His love and eventually accepts and acknowledges His saving grace through Jesus Christ. AMEN?

So, different people comes in through that door once in a while or every Sunday

So, what do you think our role is?

How can we become an instrument of Christ’s salvation to others?

Why do you think people really want to become closer to God?

What makes them to have this desire?

This morning I’d like to propose to you this truth:

THE MORE WE SEEK, UNDERSTAND AND ACKNOWLEDGE GOD’S LOVE, THE MORE PEOPLE WILL SEE AND EXPERIENCE AN OVERFLOW OF THAT LOVE IN OUR LIVES.

Our text for this morning can be found in

The title of our message today is: LIVE IN LOVE, LIVE IN GOD

LET US PRAY

God is love. Maybe more than any other statement this has been used to identify God’s basic essence. But if we consider God’s love apart from the totality of God’s nature, our understanding of God will be dangerously skewed. So what does God mean when He says that He is love?

Pastor John Piper offers a helpful definition:

So, you see, after a person had an encounter with Jesus, that person already have the CAPACITY to be an INFLUENCER, some one who can bring about an understanding of what great true love is.

The books of the Bible are many and varied, but if there’s a single thread running through them all, guess what’s that - love.

And God is the source of it all. And God not only has love - God is love (). Love is what prompted Christ’s saving efforts on the cross (). All the commandments found in the Hebrew laws, or given by Old Testament prophets, hang on the idea of loving God and loving one another. God’s love, according to Isaiah, is greater and stronger than even the devotion of a nursing mother (49:15).

(song: maybe later on : This Kingdom)

Today, as we end the month of love, it’s just befitting to make sure we end this month fully knowing the love we have, and the love we share, is that of Christ’s and no one else’s. Because I believe this is the very foundation where we should operate.

Let’s check out our scripture for today. and may I ask can everyone please rise in respect to God’s Word.

1 John 4:7–21 NLT

7 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. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 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. 10 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. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first. 20 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? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.

1 John 4:7

LIVE IN LOVE, LIVE IN GOD

THE MORE WE SEEK, UNDERSTAND AND ACKNOWLEDGE GOD’S LOVE, THE MORE PEOPLE WILL SEE AND EXPERIENCE AN OVERFLOW OF THAT LOVE IN OUR LIVES.

The believers in 1 John understood the love that they received.

In these verses, John talks about 3 things:

THE LOVE CHRISTIANS HAVE FOR EACH OTHER

THE ASSURANCE THAT THEY HAVE IN CHRIST - WHICH IS ANCHORED IN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HIS LOVE

THE QUALITY OF ALL OUR RELATIONSHIP -( with family, church, neighbors and strangers) IS A SIGN OF OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

THE LOVE CHRISTIANS HAVE FOR EACH OTHER

Basically John was saying

The Bible Guide ‘This Is Love …’ (1 John 4:7–12)

‘Let’s do it,’ writes John, ‘Let’s live together in the love of God!’

If we want others to know Christ this only the key - Living together in the Love of God

Sad to say up until this moment, generally speaking, most churches have never passed this stage. John says:

1 John 4:7–8 NLT

7 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. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

You see what Im saying: NOT EVERYONE PASS THIS STAGE WITH FLYING COLORS! I know, you might say, “I’m not perfect! And so does the Christians whom John was speaking to, thats why he said ....let us continue…I believe they also have the problem of not loving one another that much.

From the original translation, the word continue is a verb, present and active. And it’s written together with the words - love one another. You don’t separate it - so continue to love one another.

We all have differences, we all have our own preferences, maybe this is our excuse when we feel that we can’t accept our brother or sister in Christ, but we are not talking about that, what we are talking about is THE LOVE OF GOD IN US, THROUGH JESUS!

The Bible Guide ‘This Is Love …’ (1 John 4:7–12)

Love is, first of all, something we receive from God. He has shown his love in sending Jesus to die for us. Jesus has won forgiveness of our sins and restored us to life in the family of God. If this is how much God loves us, then surely we can love one another.

There is so much more to the Christian life than resisting error and testing spirits.

The love Christians have for each other is a real experience of God’s love. God is invisible, but through the church we can realize and receive his love for ourselves. In John’s Gospel, the invisible God is seen in the coming of Jesus (). In this letter of John, the invisible God is found in Christian fellowship.

Knowles, A. (2001). The Bible guide (1st Augsburg books ed., pp. 689–690). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.

Knowles, A. (2001). The Bible guide (1st Augsburg books ed., p. 690). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.

THE ASSURANCE THAT THEY HAVE IN CHRIST - WHICH IS ANCHORED IN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HIS LOVE

Now in vs. 13-18 .. he says - “And now so we know”

There are so many things that can rattle us as a Christian. Things that can test the very fiber of our christianity. There are even times that in a severe trials, we even think that God did not seem to be answering our prayers. You know, the difficulties in your life multiplied without relief. You cried out to God, but He seemed to be on vacation. You just couldn’t make sense out of what was happening to you. Then, you began to doubt both the Christian faith and whether you were really a Christian at all.

In verses 13-18, the church was badly shaken. The believers have been worried by false teachers and unsettled by some of their members leaving. Now they need to know where they stand and what they can be sure of in their Christian life

The believers have been worried by false teachers and unsettled by some of their members leaving. Now they need to know where they stand and what they can be sure of in their Christian life

Knowles, A. (2001). The Bible guide (1st Augsburg books ed., p. 690). Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg.

Now in vs. 13-18 .. he says - “And now so we know”

John Says in vs. 4-12 “This is love...John’s point (in 4:12) is that if we see God’s love surfacing in our relationships with others, then we have evidence of God’s abiding in us.

Now in vs. 13-18 .. he says - “And now so we know” We know that we abide in God and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit (4:13).

1 John 4:13–18 NLT

13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.

The believers in John’s time where reminded that as they declare that Jesus is the Son of God, THEY have God living in them and they live in God.

John was emphasizing that even through doubts and fears, one must keep on holding on to the truth, that only by living our lives IN God, our love grows more perfect.

As that love grows, it will be a spontaneous thing, we will be naturally sharing that love to others. It will just be an overflow of what is in our hearts.

The Bible Guide ‘And so We Know’ (1 John 4:13–18)

Love isn’t something God has created, but the heart of his own being. Anyone who shows God’s self-giving love is clearly related to him. Such love is ‘made complete’ when it comes from God through us and brings saving help to others.

THE QUALITY OF ALL OUR RELATIONSHIP -( with family, church, neighbors and strangers) IS A SIGN OF OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

1 John 4:19–21 NLT

19 We love each other because he loved us first. 20 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? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.

1 John 4

Dealing With Difficult People

Earl Nightingale told how on one National Secretaries Day he gave his secretary some flowers. She remarked how beautiful they were, but wondered why they didn't have any scent.

He informed her that the flowers came from a hothouse and explained that because these flowers were raised in an isolated environment, they didn't attract insects (bugs) to pollinate them. As a result, they lost their scent. In the same way, fruit raised in a hothouse, because it doesn't need to attract insects to scatter its seeds, doesn't taste as good as fruit grown in its natural environment. (Weekend Encounter, Oct. 28, 2010). When we withdraw and isolate ourselves from people who "bug" us, it might make us feel safe from harm, but it affects us in other ways. We lose a part of what God created us to be, like a rose loses its fragrance and fruit loses its taste. God uses those people who bug us to bring out the best in us. Rather than running away from those people, let Jesus live His life through you, and the fragrance will come out. (Kent Crockett, www.kentcrockett.com)

Most of the time a person would really choose to sever their ties, their relationship with a person who hurts them emotionally so their life will not be miserable. And this typical attitude is exactly what we see even inside the church. And why is that?

Two things:

1. A person who says he is a Christian really has experienced the birth which comes from God. or..

2. That person is not into making Christ known in his life.

I would not say that - that person is not a Christian, because the context of the verses we are studying is within the realm of Christian believers, whom John was addressing this.

So from our proposition from the beginning:

THE MORE WE SEEK, UNDERSTAND AND ACKNOWLEDGE GOD’S LOVE, THE MORE PEOPLE WILL SEE AND EXPERIENCE AN OVERFLOW OF THAT LOVE IN OUR LIVES.

In these verses, John talks about 3 things:

THE LOVE CHRISTIANS HAVE FOR EACH OTHER

THE ASSURANCE THAT THEY HAVE IN CHRIST - WHICH IS ANCHORED IN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HIS LOVE

THE QUALITY OF ALL OUR RELATIONSHIP -( with family, church, neighbors and strangers) IS A SIGN OF OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

In all of this things: one great underlying fact - John wants us to see and understand

Bottom line:

The Letters of John and Jude Love within the Divine Family (1 John 5:1–2)

the fact that love of God and love of others are inseparable parts of the same experience

Related Media

Related Sermons