God - Ship
'Ships: A series on being with people • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro: 3 Legged race Wolf Pack
Relationships are where we live our lives
We are who we are mostly because of the relationships that formed us to this point.
How does the gospel transform us to relate with others
Cross bought Grace
Transforming us
Given to them
It is the gospel that transforms us to
What is the gospel? The gospel is the good news that though we are fallen in sin, under God’s righteous wrath, condemnation and penalty for sin for wrongdoing, Jesus Christ came as a man, lived a perfect life and died a perfect death in our place, on our behalf, so that our sins would be forgiven and then rose again to life, defeating death, satan and sin for those who would believe on Jesus Christ individually and personally. That is where we will gain our foundation.
Real love comes from God 7-10
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.
His love in us makes God visible 11-13
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.
Faith becomes public as the God of Love lives in us 14-16
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.
Perfect Love casts out Fear 17-18
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.
Rubber, Meet Road. 1 John 4:19-21
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.
First things First v 19
We don’t love because it is our natural bent.
Getting things out of order is dangerous
Dependent on God’s work on the cross
He loves us first
CS Lewis said this: “When I have learnt to love God more than I love my earthly dearest, then I can love my earthly dearest better than I do now… When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed, but increased.” (So Lewis is saying that he cannot love another person rightly if he does not love God first and foremost) What putting first things first does is that it makes
Our love/relationship is dependent upon God’s work on the cross not their behavior toward me.
Notice that it does not say that We love because they first loved us, or we love becausethey first did everything to gain our approval, or we love because they behaved well enough for me to let them into my group. Or we love because they smell good enough or whatever. It says we love because he, God, first loved us,
Example - Grace - So in my relationship with Grace, my earthly dearest, I am not loving her as I ought to if I love her more than I love God. I am only loving her rightly and properly and as much as I should if I realize that Christ died for me to reconcile me to God, and God is always and forever my first and greatest love. Only in that way will my love for my wife increase to the place that it ought to be. So our secondary relationships are not ignored or unimportant, when our relationship with God is first and foundational, our relationships with others are made better, more complete, because they are on the right foundation.
Loving God = Loving Others v 20
You are not loving God if you hate your brother
Our love for others reveals how we think that God has loved us.
You are not loving God if you hate your brother
Our lack of love for others reveals how we think God has lacked love for us.
◦ He who hates his brother CANNOT LOVE GOD
How we see relationships vs how God sees relationships
Our love for others has everything to do with our relationships with God
He who hates his brother CANNOT LOVE GOD
True, right, and deep relationship with others can grow ONLY out of our relationship with God.
Sometimes we cannot reconcile. But we still love.
Trying to do this any other way is like two ticks and no dog
Relationships ARE NOT Optional V 21
◦ Relationships are part of us knowing, worshipping, honoring and pleasing God with all of our lives.
They are not a tack on to being a Christian. They are not an accessory that we can go without, they are not sugar on top of your pretty please. Relationships with believer and unbelievers are vital and required for you as a Christian. And yet, they are not to be an end in and of themselves, but a means to the end of knowing, worshipping, honoring and pleasing God with all of our lives.
◦ Whatever we do to others, we are doing the same to God
◦ If we hate, demean, use, hurt, manipulate, or sin against others,
◦ We hate demean, use, hurt, manipulate & sin against God
How can I do this? -
All through the New Testament there is a deep and unbreakable connection between the cross and our relationships. We must see that they are linked together. How? Can God relate with sinful people like us? He ought to have absolutely no relationship with us at all. We personally offend him when we sin. But he provides Jesus to die for our sins and forgive us if we personally repent and believe that he died in our place. This is where the vertical and horizontal meet. So if our relationship with God is a vertical and up and down relationship with God, then our relationship with others is a horizontal relationship.
Application: Accepting God’s Design in relationships
The relationship that sets the stage for all others is with Him
God Sanctifies us through others
Relationships cause us to rely more on the cross than ourselves
1 John 4:7-21
Introvert or Extrovert?
Would you rather go with a friend to the mall/coffee or have them over to your house?
Would you rather have 10 decent friends Or 1 best friend?
How would you describe (What are the qualities of) the perfect relationship/friendship?
Was there anything that stood out from the message? Something that was new or different than what you had thought before?
How do we make God’s love visible by loving others?
Why is it hypocrisy to claim to love God and hate your brother?
How does the way God has loved you help you in your relationships with others?