Week 4 of Advent: Love
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Living in Love...
Living in Love...
It’s hard to believe, but we are already at the fourth Sunday of Advent. This morning, We’re going to look at God’s love and what it means to live in love.
Simple Love
The great theologian of the last century, Karl Barth, wrote a 10 volume theological work titled "Ethics." When traveling and lecturing throughout the United States at all the important universities and theological schools, it is reported that one young man asked him, "Dr. Barth, you have written multiple volumes on theology. But, if you had to boil down all your theological knowledge into just a sentence or two, what would you say is the essence of your theological understanding?"
Dr. Barth didn’t hesitate. He replied, "It is really quite simple. 'Jesus loves me, this I know - for the Bible tells me so.'" (Devon Huss, SC)
Let’s read,
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
God’s love...
God’s love...
How do we even begin to describe the love that God has for us? How can we even begin to fathom what that love looks like?
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Many think that God’s love is a blank cheque. In other words, when we die, we all get to go to heaven. Have you ever been to a funeral that made you wonder?
In 1989, my neighbour was killed in an accident. Three of my neighbours had gone to a farm sale. They pulled out in front of another vehicle. George ended up with a brain injury, Snoop banged his knees really badly, and Curtis broke his back and died from his injuries.
These neighbours weren’t bad guys, even though they liked to party.
At the funeral the minister got up and spoke of a man that I didn’t know. He preached him into heaven based on his infant baptism.
As a seventeen year-old, something stirred within me. My spirit was grieved that in an attempt to bring comfort to a grieving family, that a minister had given a family false hope.
As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.”
For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
To this day, I don’t know where Curtis is, but I made up my mind that if God called me to preach that I would preach the gospel, I would point people to Jesus.
Jesus is “ ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
Let’s go back to 1 John 4:9-10
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
John explains it really clearly how God demonstrated His love to humans. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.
At Christmas time, we celebrate this love.
Philippians 2:5-8 explains this love,
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
As Christians we believe that God is eternal. This means that He has no beginning and He will have no end. Maybe as a child you asked the question who created God?
I’m not hiding the fact that it takes faith to believe that God has always been. Hebrews 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
You cannot please God without faith. Christianity is not against Science. We are not anti-technology.
Definition of Science
Definition of Science
Science is the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment:
Many of us have made observations in Biology, Physics, and Chemistry, and we continue to make observations every day in our world.
Whenever I barbecue, it is an experimental project to see if the fire that heats up the grill will cook the meat that I am attempting to feed my family. It’s through the process of observation that I ensure that my family doesn’t eat a burnt offering, but something that is hopefully palatable and sends the proper response to each of our tastebuds.
I perform a lab every time I barbecue.
Lab #1:
Barbecuing Hamburger
The purpose:
To cook delicious food.
Procedure:
Heat up the grill
Place burger on grill
Cook to desired temp of 165 F
Observation:
Grill is too hot.
Flames are shooting up
Meat is black
Conclusion:
Watch more closely next time
Go to DQ
As Christians, we may look at the world and observe what we see, and draw the conclusion,
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
We don’t oppose the observations that scientists make, sometimes we don’t agree with their conclusions, because many oppose that God exists.
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
God doesn’t ask us to leave our intellect at the door when we come to faith. He wants us to worship Him with everything He has given us, including our minds.
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
Romans 12:1 says,
“I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.” (AMPC)
Living in Love...
Living in Love...
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us.
Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
The word love, can mean so many things in the English language.
I love pizza! I love my family! I love my wife, and yet when we look at what it means to love in the Koine Greek, in this passage it refers to God’s love.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary 5:22–23
Such self-sacrificing love that sent Christ to die for sinners is the kind of love that believers who are Spirit-controlled manifest.
People that haven’t come to faith yet, cannot express Agape love until the Holy Spirit comes to live in them.
I’m not saying that you cannot love unless you are a Christian. What I am saying is that you cannot love with God’s love that sent Jesus to the cross unless you believe that Jesus died on the cross for you. God must live in us for us to live in Agape love.
We are told that God is love, but love is not God.
Why do we love?
Why do we love?
We love because He loved us.
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.
I’ve got to be honest with you, I’ve been wrestling with what the Scripture means that we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
1 John 3 talks about if we have earthly goods and somebody comes to us in need, we need to do more than just our speech.
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
Here’s the kicker. If Joshua, Caleb, and Zoey come downstairs first thing in the morning, and start asking for chocolate bars and ice cream, as a parent am I supposed to give junk food to them just because they have asked. Then when I don’t give it right away, if they start to demand that I give them what they have asked, what should be my response?
A week ago, a lady that we have helped in the past, said that God had sent her on a mission, and that LifePoint Church was supposed to give her $200. When the suggestion wasn’t answered right away, the lady brought in that I was deceived as the pastor and that God would reveal it to me. From there she demanded that I give it to her, in Jesus’ name.
As Pastor of this church, I have a policy that I don’t give people cash. If somebody needs food, I have bought food. If somebody needs gas, I have given gas,but to give without having any clarity to where it is going, is not being a good steward of God’s money.
I believe that when God calls us to give, He lays it on our hearts, and we know that we need to be obedient to Him.
As Christians, we can’t manipulate each other to get our own way. God isn’t pleased with us when we try to manipulate and call judgment down on other people only trying to get our own way.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Let’s love with actions that are led by the Holy Spirit.
Christ in us...
Christ in us...
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
We call this coming to faith. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in you. God begins to change us when He pours His love into our hearts.
Not your heart that beats 75 times per minute but your spirit.
As we live in His love, that love starts to come out.
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
I want to invite you to ask God, what living in His agape love means for you. How can we love each other more deeply? How can we be looking out for each other? How can we be less judgmental and ask God to give us gentleness when we are called to correct?
How do we lay down our lives for each other?
How do we lay down our lives for each other?
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
I believe that we live in a world that is looking for love. Some seek love in relationships: good or bad. Others try to fill the void with things: possessions. Still others try to fill it with work, but God calls us to go and love those that may persecute us.
He also calls us to,
Matthew 22:39 (NIV)
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Let’s ask God to give us opportunity to show love to everyone we meet. Let’s look for practical ways that we can show love. This Christmas season, let’s give the gift of love.
What is God speaking to you right here, right now? Can we do it or do we need to start planning for it? Let’s be asking God for open doors?
Let’s pray!