The Imperative of Love
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The Imperative of Love
The Imperative of Love
Well good morning
Its great to see everyone here
I’m actually surprised to see this many people
We have soldiers in the field
On PDSS
On quarantine
So the fact that you all came
Brings joy to my heart
So we are going to continue in 1 John
And I called this sermon the IMPERATIVE OF LOVE
In reality I think this sermon is a wake up call for the body of Christ
I think this is John kinda of throwing some punches at his audience
But its needed nonetheless.
You know as I’ve grown through Christianity
And as I’ve walked through 1 John
I would be lying if I said that I’ve never questioned my salvation
You know that honestly what this book is all about
Its a wake up call
It literally requires you to ask the hard question, Am I truly saved
And believe it or not,
I actually think that it’s healthy
To question your own salvation
To question whether you’re saved
To question whether you’re in the faith
To question whether or not you’ve been accepted by God
I mean, and really think on this
Is there a more important question
Seriously is there?
But I remember one pastor telling us
Something that has always put my heart at ease
Because apparently he had preached a sermon one day that was particularly harsh
You know one of those line down the middle type of sermons
But apparently this church member came up to the pastor following the sermon
Tears in his eyes
Almost panicking
Asked him, How can I be sure,
How do I know I’m going to heaven
How do I know I have the faith that our Lord would approve of and accept?
The pastor looked him dead in the eyes and said
My friend,
The question you just asked is not a question a non-believer would ask
That’s powerful
And it’s stuck with me to this day
Because if you’re not saved then you don’t care
In fact you think everyone is delusional
But if you question your salvation then I would argue
You have enough faith to want to be accepted and to me
That’s evidence enough that you are saved
But now don’t get me wrong
Because there’s more to it than just that
There is a danger thinking that its just that simple
Evidence of faith is more than just a passing question.
Because there’s some evidences
Some proofs here
That need to be met in order to validate our salvation
In order to come to a conclusion that I am saved
Today we are going to go over one of those evidences
And we are also going to understand
Some of God’s promises
As well as His encouragement towards suffering.
If you would please open your Bibles to
So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.
This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.
You know if you had to ask me
What is the greatest threat to a Christians now days
What is the greatest threat to our salvation
What is the greatest threat to the progression of the church
I would argue it’s a lack of love
From a dying body
From a dying church
It’s a church that refuses to come together
It’s a lack of love for the fellowship in Christ
It’s a lack of understanding that we must gather together
That we draw our strength from each other
And we live in a day and age
When people just don’t go to church anymore
If you looked back 50 years ago
This place would be packed
You’d be looked down on for not coming to church
It’s as if we’ve fallen back into this virtual world
Where we do church online
We don’t come together anymore
We don’t develop the community anymore
We don’t live our lives out together anymore
And that is poison when it comes to the body of Christ
We need each other
We feed off of each other
That’s why we are called the body of Christ
Look I don’t know if you realize
Between every church in the local area
Between both Catholic and protestant
We average around maybe 1200-1500 people a week
Out of a community that houses nearly 40k
That is roughly 4% of the population
And I’m talking both military chapels
And civilian churches
What’s even more amazing
These numbers are duplicated throughout Europe
Throughout the United States even
Over the last few decades we have been a church in crisis
Because we don’t come together anymore
And yet the Bible tells us
We must do this
Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
Honestly with the way prophecy is being laid out now days
And the way the church is shrinking
I couldn’t think of a better passage than this
Because we have become a body that truly feels
We where meant to do this on our own
That is the furthest thing from the truth
I hear it all the time
I don’t want to offend anyone
My faith is a personal thing
I go to church online
By myself alone
I don’t want to deal with the relationships
After-all church is messy, it requires effort
Do you know when you look at the early church
We are talking Acts 2 here
You see people doing life together
You see people sharing things
Living in community
Calling each other out on the sin
Making sure everyone is OK
Being there for each other
And I know this is highly unpopular,
especially in an environment drowning from COVID
But we cannot be a church if we are doing church online
If we’re not coming together
If the seats are not filled with the faithful
Studies show
Numbers show
And I get it
I know I’m stepping on toes here
But think on this,
If you were Satan
What’s the easiest way to bring the Body of Christ down
Get em to stop meeting together
They lose loyalty to one another
They lose commodore
Most importantly, they lose love for one another
John says here that a requirement of salvation
A sign of your salvation
An outward working or visible sign of your salvation
Is a love for the brotherhood
A love for the sisterhood
A desire to be with those in the faith
One author put it like this
The Bible Knowledge Commentary (3:10b)
John now considered love as the appropriate expression of the regenerate life of which he had been speaking. Love is righteousness in action
You want to know if you’re saved
You want to know if you’re going to heaven
Ask yourself one question
Do you enjoy the company of non-believers over the body of Christ?
You cannot be a Christian and hate the body
Hate the very people you will spend eternity with
Don’t get me wrong
I’m not saying you are saved by coming to church
But you cannot expect to grow
You cannot expect gain the benefits of the faith
The benefits of community
The benefits of love
Without coming together as a church
Case study results****
What’s unique
The more you study this book
The more you begin to understand
Everything in here focuses on community
I mean did you realize when you get to heaven
We will live in community
We will worship in community
We will do everything in community
It’s best to get used to it now
Because you’re not going to get there
And have your own slice of heaven
That’s not how the Bible describes our eternity with God
Like I said I hear it every day
I don’t need to go to church to experience God
I don’t need to go to church to grow my faith
I don’t need to go to church to understand who God is and
I’m telling you right now that is so opposite of what scripture teaches
That I really truly believe that that mindset is like a nuclear weapon against Christians.
And think on the other side of this passage
What does a body of believers do for you
It builds you up
Gives you strength
Hold you accountable to moral decisions
To how you live
Because lets face it,
We live in a world that is designed to help us slip
We live in a world that is surrounded by sin
Surrounded by chaos
And lets face it
We live in a world that will look down on you
That will despise you
That will hate you
Even to the point of physical persecution
For trying to live a moral life style
For trying to live a life like Christ did
But really think on this to because its nothing new
The Bible is abundantly clear on the persecution
You will face because you’re a believer
And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.
God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.
And in 1 John 3 verse 12 and 13
We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.
Why do you think
Belonging to the body
Building the body
Becoming a tight nit community
Is so valuable?
Because the world is going to hate you because of jesus
Do you remember a few weeks ago
We talked about a war
A spiritual battle
We talked about choosing a side
Your decision to follow Christ
Literally means you are at war with Satan
Literally means you will be attacked
You will succumb to temptation
succumb to trials
Tribulations
But when you have a fellowship believers
You have men and women willing and able to build you up
To stand you back on your feet
That’s what this is talking about
I mean look
The first murder
The first act of violence to ever happen on this planet
Was from a man
Who killed his own brother
Out of Jealousy
For being accepted by God
Killed Him for doing right
Guy’s I’m here to warn you today,
The closer you get to Christ
The more the world is going to hate you
The more the world is going to despise you
But go back to the text real quick
Because there is a piece in here
That honestly i didn’t catch
Until I studied this text
There is an obvious warning about how the world is going to treat us.
But in reality John is saying we the body
Must not be like Cain
We must not be like the world
In all reality John is saying
If you harbor hatred your heart towards a fellow believer
If you treat a fellow believer
In a manner that the world treats a Christian
Then in fact you need to do a spiritual check up
One author put it
The Bible Knowledge Commentary (3:13)
The world hates Christians. That fact should not surprise the readers at all. What else can the world, which is led and ruled by Satan, be expected to do? It is hatred among believers that is so abnormal, and against which John was fundamentally warning.
Look I remember when I ran a ministry called celebrate recovery
And for those of you that don’t know
CR is a basically a Christian AA group
But they deal with a range of issues
But I remember the bulk of the people that came
Where individuals that had actually been kicked out of churches
Told to never come back
Because they didn’t fit the mold
Didn’t match what the church or the pastor wanted
Several of these men and women were told by fellow believers
They are an embarrassment to the church
That they didn’t want to be seen with them
And I remember how hurt these people were
I remember several leaving the faith
They figured if this is what Christianity is, they want no part
Look that is why John says here, We must not be like Cain
We must not look like the world
Church, we have an amazing opportunity here.
When it comes down to the possibility of witnessing to people
Take your pick
We have thousands around us
Many have never heard the Gospel
Many have never been shown what true Christianity looks like
Many are lost,
Looking for anyone to accept them
I know I speak to them daily
I want to encourage you today
Get out there and share the Gospel with anyone
Even someone you know is a Christian,
Just to be sure
Show them love,
Show them righteousness in action.
We have the opportunity to share the compassion
The acceptance
The joy of Jesus to everyone we see
We have the opportunity to be the light in the dark
Take some time this week,
Pour your heart out to everyone you meet
Treat them as Jesus would
Live your life as Jesus did
Thank Him for the cross
Thank Him for forgiveness
Thank Him His promises
And start to live your life on mission for God
Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.
Lets close in prayer
‘May the Lord bless you
and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor
and give you his peace.’