GOD PURSUES A LOVE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU

7 Realities of Experiencing God

Part 2

GOD PURSUES A LOVE RELATIONSHIP WITH YOU

1 John 4:7-21

Good Morning Family.

It is great to be with you in the house of the Lord!

Psalm 27:4 tells us, "One thing I have asked of the LORD; this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and seek Him in His temple."

Let's pray.

Last week we began the sermon series 7 Realities of Experiencing God. We discussed the first reality of experiencing God, and that is:

GOD IS AT WORK ALL AROUND YOU.

The Bible tells us in Philippians 2:13 Says: "For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose."

That was Reality one- God is at work all around us.

This brings us to today, and we will be talking about the second reality of experiencing God.

If you have your Bibles with you today, I invite you to open them with me to the book 1st John, 1st John chapter 4.

If you are unfamiliar with the book of 1st John, You can find it by going to the back of the Bible and finding Hebrews, James, 1st Peter, 2nd Peter there; you will discover 1st John.

1st John chapter 4 is where we will be this morning.

Have you ever felt like God has sent someone in your life to test how much you love Him?

Maybe a better way to look at it is that God sends people in our lives to become better at worshipping Him or to become better disciples.

In my experience, I have seen God send people into others' lives so that they would become a more devoted disciple, or to grow in the attitude of worship or to grow in the Love for Christ.

In the last month or so, I have felt God working on my heart, saying to me, I want your heart to be of my heart. I know that God wants me to be more and more like Him, which comes through His love for me.

The definition of love is crucial to understanding the message of the Bible because mankind has a different view of love. Often; we equate love with sexuality, lust, and looks. Yet, according to scriptures, love is not confined to sexuality, nor is it a primary feeling at all. The Bible teaches us that love is a commitment. As a commitment, love is not dependent on just feelings but rather on a consistent and courageous decision to extend oneself for the wellbeing of another. A Believers love is not so much a feeling but of choice.

We can choose to be concerned with people's wellbeing and treat them with respect, whether or not we feel affection towards them. The commitment then produces good feelings, not the other way around. Jesus became the perfect demonstration of God's unconditional love for us by laying down HIS life for our benefit.

If you are there in 1st John chapter 4, let's begin reading from verse 7. This is the Word of God, and it begins like this:

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been 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. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us."

AND THIS BRINGS US TO OUR TAKE-HOME TRUTH

THE TAKE-HOME TRUTH IS THIS:

GOD PURSUES A LOVING RELATIONSHIP WITH US.

The central theme in this passage is love and how God pursues a loving relationship with us. In our scripture today, we find that the word love is used 22 times in twelve verses.

Some call the 1st John the book of love because he says love 46 times in the five chapters.

The Bible describes the Apostle John as the "THE DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED" IN JOHN 13:23

The very essence of love is what the Bible is all about- if you were to describe the Bible in one sentence, it would be GOD PURSUES A LOVE RELATIONSHIP WITH US.

This morning, you might be thinking that God doesn't pursue you. Yet from what the scripture teaches and what I have witnessed in my life, I know God is a pursuing God. He pursues the relationship with you through many ways, through the truth of the Word, reading it, hearing it, reacting to it and applying it in life, through the Church, through relationships with others, others speaking into your life, through prayer and answered prayers, even though trail and situations in your life.

God pursues you because of the great love that HE has for you.

I will never forget the day that it happened to me- when I finally realized that God loved me, and no matter what happened in the world, His love would always be there. (Small Testimony)

From the Old Testament to the New Testament, the Bible describes how we have been created through God's Love and how the relationship was broken because of sin. Since then, God has been perusing His creation back to a loving relationship with HIM.

This book is about how God loves us and how HE wants us to love Him back. But it's not about just a one-time thing; God pursues us each day not only to have that relationship with HIM but to grow in His love.

Today I want to give you four Biblical truths to our 2nd reality in experiencing God: God peruses a loving relationship with us.

The first truth of God perusing a loving relationship with us is this:

GOD IS LOVE.

Look at verses 7-8 with me in your text:

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love."

Verse 16 repeats the statement “God is Love”

The most profound and most resounding statements that John makes are found in verse 8 and 16. It is three words that have transforming power "GOD IS LOVE," say that with me "GOD IS LOVE."

Notice that the Bible says "GOD IS LOVE," not that love is God- why is this important? Because love is an attribute of God, it is WHO HE is.

This explains to us that GOD IS LOVE, then God had the attribute of love from the eternity past, which means before there was the foundation of the world, before people, God was love.

Now, this has a great purpose because when we look in John, chapter 1 says that

"IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD, AND THE WORD WAS GOD. 2 HE WAS WITH GOD IN THE BEGINNING.3 ALL THINGS WERE CREATED THROUGH HIM, AND APART FROM HIM NOT ONE THING WAS CREATED THAT HAS BEEN CREATED."

The Father was in a face-to-face relationship with God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This relational LOVE was, is, and will always be an attribute of GOD.

Folks, God is LOVE because of the relationship God the Father has with God the Son, and it was of a relationship of Love.

Listen to what Jesus prays in John 17:24:

"FATHER, I DESIRE THOSE YOU HAVE GIVEN ME TO BE WITH ME WHERE I AM. THEN THEY WILL SEE MY GLORY, WHICH YOU HAVE GIVEN ME BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME BEFORE THE WORLDS FOUNDATION."

God's love extends beyond the confines of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, God's love extends to and is shown through His created beings.

This morning, I have to remind you that GOD IS LOVE AND GOD LOVES YOU!

There is nothing like the love of GOD; it is the most overwhelming thing I have ever had. It is the greatest thing that God has done for you or me.

1st Corinthians chapter 13- 4-7 gives us a glimpse of what God's love is like; listen to this:

"LOVE IS PATIENT, LOVE IS KIND. LOVE DOES NOT ENVY, IS NOT BOASTFUL, IS NOT CONCEITED,5 DOES NOT ACT IMPROPERLY, IS NOT SELFISH, IS NOT PROVOKED, AND DOES NOT KEEP A RECORD OF WRONGS. 6 LOVE FINDS NO JOY IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS BUT REJOICES IN THE TRUTH. 7 IT BEARS ALL THINGS, BELIEVES ALL THINGS, HOPES ALL THINGS, ENDURES ALL THINGS.8 LOVE NEVER ENDS.”

This describes God's Love for us; this is not worldly love.

Here in John- he tells us that love is from God, that God is Love, and that He loves us.

The first truth of God perusing a loving relationship with us is GOD IS LOVE.

The second truth of God perusing a loving relationship with us is this:

GOD TAKES THE INITIATIVE IN THE LOVE RELATIONSHIP.

God always takes the initiative in this love relationship

Look at verse 9 "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."

It began before the world was formed.

The creation of the universe shows the extent of God's love for each of us. God created everything for HIS people to survive and live on this earth within this universe. God walked and talked with man at creation. He had fellowship with Adam and Eve. God took the initiative so each person in the Old Testament would know and experience HIM, from Noah, Abraham, to Moses and the prophets.

The same is true in the New Testament when Jesus selected the disciples- Jesus told the disciples, you did not choose me, I choose you. So that they could know Him and experience Him, he came to many people in the Bible so they could experience the love of God and what it meant to be in a relationship with HIM.

God never intended for man to take His love and turn it into something that others could never attain. I know that sometimes mankind will get in the way of God's love for us.

I have to tell you that it is a tragedy when that takes place.

But listen to me, folks, God makes that same statement today as He does in the Old Testament and the New Testament because HE wants each of us to experience His incredible love.

Look at verses 9-10 with me:

"In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

If God did not intend for us to have a loving relationship with HIM, why did He send His Son to die for us?

For us today, we can see that God initiated His love through creation. Because sin entered the world, were we in need of redemption, so God's love was initiated by Him sending His one and only Son for a final sacrifice so that no one would be excluded from God's love. That word propitiation in verse 10 means that means to "to ease the anger and to regain favor"-

So the sacrifice of Christ was God's way to satisfy His anger and wrath because of sin and regain His favor, and that is the significance of the sacrifice of Jesus.

The Old Testament describes it the best as:

"But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds." ISAIAH 53:5

In the New Testament, the Bible says in Romans 3:22-26

"God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. 24 They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint, God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus."

Notice that in both the Old and the New Testament, God takes the initiative to reconcile us back to HIM. He is taking the initiative to pursue a loving relationship.

He could have said I created them, they fell away, forget them, but that is not what embodies God's love.

We may be the ones separated from God because of the sin that prevails in our lives, but it is God that has done everything to ensure that we have a path back to His loving relationship.

Jesus paid it all so that we could experience the Love that God has for each of us.

The first truth of God perusing a loving relationship with us is GOD IS LOVE.

The second truth is; GOD TAKES THE INITIATIVE IN THE LOVE RELATIONSHIP.

Then Third truth

GOD CREATED US IN HIS IMAGE WITH THE CAPACITY TO LOVE AND BE LOVED.

Look at verse 8

"The one who does not love, does not know God."

The absence of love in an individual's life proves that he does not know God and is a stranger to God.

But when we do experience God and His love, we find that we can be everything that God created us to be.

I am turning to Genesis chapter 1, verses 26-27. You can go there with me. These verses might be one of the most misunderstood scriptures in the Bible, it is straightforward, yet the dynamics of what it says is hard to understand. Verse 26:

Then God said, "let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let him rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth and over the creatures that move along the ground.

27- So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them"

To understand the complexity of the creation and what it implies about us, we must understand by nature who God is; we need to know all about God. Then we can know that He creates us in His likeness, but we were not just designed to look like God but were created to be like God in his attributes and characteristics.

We are not just a photocopy but were are to be a replica of who God is – therefore if God is love – look at the later part of verse 7 "everyone who has been born of God Knows God," and not only do we experience His love but we were made with the capacity to love and to be loved.

I know this is tough because many of us have been loved by others in the wrong way; in this world of sexuality, lust, pornography, we often don't experience God's love from others.

Arthur Pink, a man that has done great work in commentaries on the Bible, said

"There are many who talk about the love of God, who are total strangers to the love of God."

The truth is that our thoughts and facts need to be formed and regulated not by the world but rather the scriptures, who tell us what God's love is and how we are to love.

In the scripture, we see that:

God's Love is limitless:

Ps 36:5,7 "Your love, O Lord reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the skies,… How priceless is your unfailing love."

This is a small taste of God's limitless love – we never have to worry about God falling out of love with us because HIS love is Limitless.

God's love is everlasting

Ps 136:1-2 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever".

God's love is faithful. It includes kindness, mercy, faithfulness, and forgiveness.

God's love is invincible.

Romans 8:38-39 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from God's Love that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Looking back at verses 8 and 16, John states that “GOD IS LOVE”. He is not saying that God possesses love. He says that Love is the very essence of God that it is His very Nature- not that HE loves, but HE IS LOVE.

To say that God doesn't love even in the darkest of times is to say that God doesn't exist in those times, to say in our ugly times of life that God doesn't love us, that is misunderstanding who God is- when we misunderstand Gods love- we misunderstand our love for God and one another.

Listen, folks, whether you are running towards God or running away from Him- God Loves you- He desires to have you back in that loving relationship. That is why John says in verse 9:

"God's love was revealed to us in this way God sent His one and only Son into the world so that we may live through Him."

Then Jesus, before He goes to the Cross, says to the disciples in John 15, "No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends."

This is the kind of love that we are made for, not only to receive that love but to give that love.

Verse 12 "God's Love is perfected in us" because He created us in His image for love and the capacity to love.

FIRST, GOD IS LOVE.

SECOND, GOD TAKES THE INITIATIVE IN THE LOVE RELATIONSHIP.

THIRD, GOD CREATED US IN HIS IMAGE WITH THE CAPACITY TO LOVE.

THEN FOURTH - OUR LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER IS PROOF OF OUR LOVE FOR GOD.

NOW DON'T MISUNDERSTAND ME!

I am not saying that you have to prove your love for God. I am not saying that at all.

Because God is love and knowing that we are made in the image and character of God, John shows us back in verse 11 -13that "If God loved us in this way, we must also love one another. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us”

And in 1st John 3:16, The Bible tells us that "this is how we come to know love: He laid down His life for us: we should also lay down our lives for our brothers."

So Not only does God pursue a loving relationship with us, but He wants us to pursue a loving relationship with others as well.

John rarely ever talks about the Love that God has for us without commanding us to love others in the exact way God loves us.

God doesn't leave it to our own description – he doesn't leave up to us- He tells what we are to look like in Love, and that is God. The Bible says that "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will have enteral life” (John 3:16.

This is how we come to know the love of God because He laid down His own life and because we are in the image of God with the character of God we should do the same for others.

It is no doubt that God's Love is perfected when it spills over into our relationships with others.

Consider your relationship with your spouse, children, grandchildren, friends, the people you work with, and the people right here in your church; you can tell if you love the people God has placed around you when you invest in them. The life of Christ Jesus will be manifested within others. The life of Christ within you will create life in others you come in contact with within the church, in your neighborhoods, grocery store lines, and everywhere else you go.

God pursues a continuing loving relationship that is real and personal.

In the beginning, God made man in the image of Himself to have a relationship with us. He had a relationship with Adam and EVE, and God walked in the garden. He talked to them, and they were a part of a community together.

Sin entered the world, yet God was still talking to His people and seeking a relationship that He made us for. When God had enough, HE ended the world with a great flood, Noah's Family rebooted the world. Then God freed His people from the bondage of Egypt- He gave Moses the Ten Commandments so that people could have a better understanding of Him. The Ten Commandments are the characteristics of God. God continued to want a relationship with His people, and after 500 years of silence, God would send prophets to proclaim His name and word.

God knowing sin has separated His people from Him, sent His one and only Son to be the final blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin so that we could have the relationship we were created to have.

Jesus bridges the gap between the Father and us. God continues to be active and continues to pursue a loving relationship with us. He wants us to show that relationship to others so that they can have the same relationship with HIM.

GOD PURSUES A LOVING RELATIONSHIP WITH US BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE

HE HAS TAKEN THE INITIATIVE IN OUR RELATIONSHIP

HE CREATED US TO LOVE AND BE LOVED

AND OUR LOVE FOR GOD IS PROVEN BY HOW WE LOVE OTHERS.

Folks make no mistake about it this morning, God is pursuing you- He wants you to have a loving relationship with Him. Whether you have given your life and heart over to Jesus or not, God still pursues a loving relationship with you each and every day.

Invitation