Fruit of the Spirit-Love

Unconditional Love

1 John 4:7–16 (HCSB)

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His •One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the •propitiation for our sins. 11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and His love is perfected in us.

13 This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent His Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

INTRODUCTION

280 times “love” is found in the KJV

Yet, in the world that we live in, Love is something that is reserved for only the closest of relatives or the greatest of friends.

But even then that love has conditions. • As long as you don’t tell me how to live. • As long as you do what I want you to do. As long as you don’t hurt me. • As long as you behave in a manner that is pleasing to me, Then, I will love you.

But we are talking about something called Unconditional Love today. • For it was without conditions that Jesus went to the cross of Calvary. • It was without reserve that He so freely gave His life for our sin.

1 John 3:16?Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us:

Many people don’t realize today that THE LOVE OF GOD IS UNCONDITIONAL.

• The word Unconditional is simply what it sounds like. • There is no condition that will either cause us to earn it or deter it.

John 3:16?For God so loved the world…

The Greek word for world (kosmos) is defined as “the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ.” 1. This is the world that God loved. 2. It doesn’t say that God loved all the good people. 3. Or that God loved all the Jews. 4. Or that God loved all the saints. It says, “For God so loved the world.”

So God’s love clearly isn’t based on our spiritual condition or our moral predisposition. • It isn’t based on our behavior or our attitude toward him. • Rather we see here that God’s love for mankind is universal and unconditional. • He loves everyone. • And this is one of the things that sets Him apart from every other god held up by every other world religion.

Christianity uniquely claims God’s love comes free of charge; no strings attached but understand… no other religion makes that claim.

1. Buddhists, for example, follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment. It’s not a free ride. 2. Hindus believe in karma, that your actions continually affect the way the world will treat you; that there is nothing that comes to you not set in motion by your actions. 3. The Jewish code of the law implies God has requirements for people to be acceptable to Him. 4. And in Islam God is a God of judgment, not a God of love. You live to appease him.

• Only Christianity dares to proclaim God’s love is unconditional. • An unconditional love that we call grace. Grace is God freely giving to us the gifts of forgiveness, mercy and love.

• So God’s love for us is unconditional.

Rom 5:6-8 sums it up this way: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet per adventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

• Paul said he wanted “to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” • What a paradox! • It seems illogical, but the love of God is so designed that we might be always learning and continually grasping after, that which shall never be completely known!

• WE WILL NEVER KNOW THE DEPTH OF GOD’S LOVE COMPLETELY!

• Though we learn some today, there will be more yet to learn tomorrow. Even in a world without end, we will still be reveling in the depth, length and breadth of the love of God, FOR GOD IS LOVE!

LOVING THE WAY JESUS loves has no beginning. • His love has no ending. • It is forever. • It will endure eternally.

Loving the way Jesus loved is the only way we are going to make a difference in our communities, in our church, in our ministry, in our lives, and in our world!

• The only way we will make a difference in this hurting, bruised, bleeding, broken, diseased, confused, prodigal world is to love the way Jesus loved.

• Love so amazing and so divine that it demands my all. That is why He was so very careful to define the kind of love he would give us: • Jesus said, “A new commandment that I give unto you that you love one another just like I have loved you, and by this shall all men know that you are My disciples if you love one another as I have loved you.” • The apostle John told us : But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

• “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. For if you only love those who love you, what credit is that to you?

• Even sinners love those who love them. Love as I have loved!”

LOVING THE WAY JESUS LOVED IS THE ONLY WAY THIS CHURCH IS GOING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR WORLD.

• You can help make a difference in this church, if you will love one another with the love of God that he shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost!

• Love forgets a person’s past and even their present sins and failures and considers them to be under the blood of Jesus!

You say, “come on Jim, don’t you know what that person has been doing? • Don’t you know what sin they are involved in?”

Real love… • Unconditional Love, says, “I don’t care how bad your sin. I still love you.” • Unconditional Love says, “No matter what you’ve done, I still want to pray with you. • Unconditional Love says, “No matter how horrible or how gross your sin, I still care about you and I still want to help you in your walk with God any way that I can.

Do you know why I am teaching this this morning? • I believe that Acacia is going to grow. • I believe that this church is going to be in a position to reach people like no other church has for a long time. • I believe that we are going to grow, and as we do, we are all going to be introduced to some people who have been involved in some things that we may or may not have ever considered being involved in, • And if we are not careful, we will judge them. • We will say, Not Me! I’ve never done that! • My Sin is not as bad as their sin!” • I’m Better than them!” • I’m Holier than thou”

• And when we do this we will stop the grace of God from its ability to operate in the lives of people who desperately need His Grace to operate today.

Hence, we will stop the move of God in this church.

Hence, we will kill any chance of this church growing and ministering to the people who we say we love.

And we will be just like any other church. We will have nothing unique to offer this community and we will lose our identity as Children of God.

Ephesians 3:19?And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

• In the moment you think you understand the Unconditional Love of Jesus Christ, you only condemn yourself as His love is without measure. • Paul to the church in Ephesus said that His love passes all understanding and knowledge.

Romans 8: 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But what about my sin? • What about my failures. • What about my mistakes? • What about the trouble I’m in right now? • What about the mess I’ve made of my life?

Hear me… Nothing shall separate you from the Love of God. • His love is unconditional. • His love does not depend on your circumstances aligning to His will. • It does not depend on our being acceptable to Him.

1 John 4:19?We love him, because he first loved us.

I don’t know why he loved me first. • I just know that He did. • I didn’t deserve it. • I didn’t earn it. • I didn’t do anything to cause it to happen. • He simply loved me long before I ever returned that love to Him.

In John 15:12?Jesus said, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”? How did He love us? • Unconditionally. • We didn’t earn His love. • And there is nothing that we can to do dissuade it. And that’s the way we are commanded to love others. • We love others, just as they are • We love others regardless of the depth of their sin. • We love others in spite of how they have treated us. • We love others this way because our Heavenly Father loves them this way. • He was despised and rejected of men, and yet He still loved them. So the example He gives to you and I only condemns us if we fail to love in the same measure. John 15:13?Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

A love that divides and criticizes is not real love. • A love that seeks its own revenge is not authentic love. • A love that refuses to initiate reconciliation is not genuine love. • A love that says it won’t forgive is not actually love!

Genuine Love worketh no ill to his neighbor. • Love is patient, suffers long and refuses to retaliate. • God-love is kind and rejects cruelty and seeks constructive ways to improve another person’s life.

• Love is not jealous. • Love does not boast. • Love does not vaunt itself, does not seek to impress. Love does not parade itself and does not seek personal gain. • Love is courteous and never acts out of character. • It never perverts its way. • Love always acts in the best interests of others. • Love is unselfish! • It does not pursue selfish advantages.

• Love shares with others and does not seek its own. • It does not use others to get where it wants to go. • Love is not provoked. • Love is not irritable or touchy and never loses control of itself. • It never responds in anger and doesn’t lash out while being reviled. • Love utters no threats.

• Love forgives! Love, when wronged, has a short memory. • It forgets what it forgives. • It doesn’t keep a record of a wrong suffered.

True Love… Agape Love… Is unconditional love…

And unconditional love will change this world. • It will change your home. • It will change your workplace. • It will change your school. • It will change your family. • And It will change this church and it’s community.

So let me ask you…

Do you love the way Jesus loves?

1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us:

Many people don’t realize today that THE LOVE OF GOD IS UNCONDITIONAL.

The word Unconditional is simply what it sounds like.There is no condition that will either cause us to earn it or deter it.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world…

The Greek word for world (kosmos) is defined as “the ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ.”

This is the world that God loved.It doesn’t say that God loved all the good people.Or that God loved all the Jews.Or that God loved all the saints. It says, “For God so loved the world.”

So God’s love clearly isn’t based on our spiritual condition or our moral predisposition.

It isn’t based on our behavior or our attitude toward him.Rather we see here that God’s love for mankind is universal and

unconditional.

He loves everyone.And this is one of the things that sets Him apart from every other god

held up by every other world religion.

Christianity uniquely claims God’s love comes free of charge; no strings attached but understand… no other religion makes that claim.

1. Buddhists, for example, follow an eight-fold path to enlightenment. It’s not a free ride.

2. Hindus believe in karma, that your actions continually affect the way the world will treat you; that there is nothing that comes to you not set in motion by your actions. 3. The Jewish code of the law implies God has requirements for people to be acceptable to Him.

4. And in Islam God is a God of judgment, not a God of love. You live to appease him.

Only Christianity dares to proclaim God’s love is unconditional.An unconditional love that we call grace. Grace is God freely giving to

us the gifts of forgiveness, mercy and love.

So God’s love for us is unconditional.

Rom 5:6-8 sums it up this way: “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet per adventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Paul said he wanted “to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.”What a paradox!It seems illogical, but the love of God is so designed that we might be

always learning and continually grasping after, that which shall never be completely known!

WE WILL NEVER KNOW THE DEPTH OF GOD’S LOVE COMPLETELY!Though we learn some today, there will be more yet to learn tomorrow. Even in a world without end, we will still be reveling in the depth, length and breadth of the love of God, FOR GOD IS LOVE!

LOVING THE WAY JESUS loves has no beginning.

• His love has no ending.

It is forever.It will endure eternally.

Loving the way Jesus loved is the only way we are going to make a difference in our communities, in our church, in our ministry, in our lives, and in our world!

The only way we will make a difference in this hurting, bruised, bleeding, broken, diseased, confused, prodigal world is to love the way Jesus loved.Love so amazing and so divine that it demands my all. That is why He was so very careful to define the kind of love he would give us:Jesus said, “A new commandment that I give unto you that you love one another just like I have loved you, and by this shall all men know that you are My disciples if you love one another as I have loved you.”The apostle John told us : But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?“Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. For if you only love those who love you, what credit is that to you?Even sinners love those who love them. Love as I have loved!” LOVING THE WAY JESUS LOVED IS THE ONLY WAY THIS CHURCH IS

GOING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN OUR WORLD.

You can help make a difference in this church, if you will love one another with the love of God that he shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost!Love forgets a person’s past and even their present sins and failures and considers them to be under the blood of Jesus!

You say, “come on Jim, don’t you know what that person has been doing? • Don’t you know what sin they are involved in?”

Real love…

Unconditional Love, says, “I don’t care how bad your sin. I still love

you.”

Unconditional Love says, “No matter what you’ve done, I still want to

pray with you.

Unconditional Love says, “No matter how horrible or how gross your

sin, I still care about you and I still want to help you in your walk with God any way that I can.

Do you know why I am teaching this this morning?

I believe that Acacia is going to grow.I believe that this church is going to be in a position to reach people

like no other church has for a long time.

I believe that we are going to grow, and as we do, we are all going to

be introduced to some people who have been involved in some things that we may or may not have ever considered being involved in,

And if we are not careful, we will judge them.We will say, Not Me! I’ve never done that!My Sin is not as bad as their sin!”I’m Better than them!”I’m Holier than thou”And when we do this we will stop the grace of God from its ability to operate in the lives of people who desperately need His Grace to operate today.

Hence, we will stop the move of God in this church.

Hence, we will kill any chance of this church growing and ministering to the people who we say we love.

And we will be just like any other church. We will have nothing unique to offer this community and we will lose our identity as Children of God.

Ephesians 3:19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.

In the moment you think you understand the Unconditional Love of Jesus Christ, you only condemn yourself as His love is without measure.Paul to the church in Ephesus said that His love passes all understanding and knowledge.

Romans 8: 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But what about my sin?

What about my failures.What about my mistakes?What about the trouble I’m in right now?What about the mess I’ve made of my life?

Hear me… Nothing shall separate you from the Love of God.

His love is unconditional.His love does not depend on your circumstances aligning to His will.It does not depend on our being acceptable to Him.

1 John 4:19 We love him, because he first loved us.

I don’t know why he loved me first.

I just know that He did.I didn’t deserve it.I didn’t earn it.I didn’t do anything to cause it to happen.He simply loved me long before I ever returned that love to Him.

In John 15:12 Jesus said, “This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”

How did He love us?

Unconditionally.We didn’t earn His love.And there is nothing that we can to do dissuade it.

And that’s the way we are commanded to love others.

We love others, just as they areWe love others regardless of the depth of their sin.We love others in spite of how they have treated us.We love others this way because our Heavenly Father loves them this

way.

He was despised and rejected of men, and yet He still loved them.

So the example He gives to you and I only condemns us if we fail to love in the same measure.

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

A love that divides and criticizes is not real love.

A love that seeks its own revenge is not authentic love.A love that refuses to initiate reconciliation is not genuine love.A love that says it won’t forgive is not actually love!

Genuine Love worketh no ill to his neighbor.

Love is patient, suffers long and refuses to retaliate.God-love is kind and rejects cruelty and seeks constructive ways

to improve another person’s life.

Love is not jealous.Love does not boast.Love does not vaunt itself, does not seek to impress. Love does not

parade itself and does not seek personal gain.

Love is courteous and never acts out of character.It never perverts its way.Love always acts in the best interests of others.Love is unselfish!It does not pursue selfish advantages.Love shares with others and does not seek its own.It does not use others to get where it wants to go.Love is not provoked.Love is not irritable or touchy and never loses control of itself.It never responds in anger and doesn’t lash out while being reviled.Love utters no threats.Love forgives! Love, when wronged, has a short memory.It forgets what it forgives.It doesn’t keep a record of a wrong suffered.

True Love… Agape Love… Is unconditional love…

And unconditional love will change this world.

It will change your home.It will change your workplace.It will change your school.It will change your family.And It will change this church and it’s community.

So let me ask you… Do you love the way Jesus loves?