Pouring out our Love

Intro:

1 John 4:7 NKJV

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.

This entire year, we’ve focused on [Praying with Paul]. I intended to continue with that tonight, but as I do with every series, I am always ready for God to interrupt my plan. He has this week.

So the title of my message is, [Pouring out our Love].

(Who believes that God Loves Us?) As I thought, we would all answer with a resounding yes.

Anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ would automatically know the answer to this question. It is instilled in us from our earliest Sunday School class or Kid’s Church lesson.

Every day that I have prayed for the past five or six days, I have been overwhelmed with God’s love for me. Today, after reading my Bible and worshipping, I waited in silence for five minutes.

I felt the Lord speak to me:

Do you love me for who I am or what I have done?

I answered, I love you for who you are.

Do you love me when I have made decisions you have not understood?

Yes

Thank me for what I have done, but love me for who I am.

I felt overwhelmed with a sense of God’s love and presence. I felt I needed to shift gears tonight and focus on the love of God.

A proper perspective on God’s love has the potential to change everything for us.

I have three points concerning this subject: [A Definition of God’s Love], [A Distortion of God’s Love] and [The Distribution of God’s Love].

Let’s begin

1. A Definition of God’s Love

1 John 4:8–10 NKJV

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.

We are informed simply, [God is Love.]

God is the epitome and the essence of love.

(How do we know that God is love?) To John, it is not just about what God has said, but how God showed He IS love.

God, in His love for mankind, sent His only begotten Son into this world.

I love the way John says that God’s love is manifested.  Manifest is defined as: to display or show (a quality or feeling) by one’s acts or appearance.

It is not enough that God said that He loved mankind; He showed this great love by sending His ONLY Son for us as the propitiation for our sins.

God revealed His love by sending His Son to die in our place.

The word propitiation is only found three times in the Bible and two of them are found in 1 John 2:2 and 4:10.

Propitiation describes the sacrifice that Jesus made. Through His death we have been reunited with the Father.

When we define God’s love, we must think about who He is before we focus on what He did for us!

HE IS LOVE. How does HE reveal His love?

He poured out His love on us by sending His Son to save people who had nothing to offer in return. It is not about the importance of our love for Him, it is because He loved us!

Who is thankful that God loves us?

2. A Distortion of God’s Love

1 John 4:17–18 NKJV

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.

What do I mean by God’s love distorted, I mean that if the enemy could have his way, he would want us to have a distorted view of God’s love for His people.

There is a vast difference from head knowledge and heart knowledge. We can know something up here (point to head) but not fully understand or believe it in here(point to heart).

(How can this be?) It all comes back to our perception of God’s love for us.

Many Christians are afraid of God. I am not speaking of respect or admiration, what we call the fear of the Lord. I am speaking of the distorted view of what we think God thinks of us.

John said that love has been perfected in us when we have the proper perspective of God’s love for us!

John shows us that we have nothing to fear, ESPECIALLY the Lord.

God knows everything about us. It will not surprise Him to find out we are tempted. It does not surprise Him to find out we have certain struggles. Our deepest darkest secret that we wouldn’t want anyone to know, He ALREADY knows and HE is not surprised.

If we could have attained perfection on our own, He would have never sent His Son. But instead, He looked at humanity and saw that we were flawed because of sin and He alone had the remedy.

Let’s never allow the enemy to distort God’s love for our lives. He is not plotting against us.

The enemy wants to distort our understanding of God’s love and cause us to blame God for every bad thing that happens.

However, James 1:17, “Every GOOD gift and every PERFECT gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.”

God is not the author of all of our problems and disappointment, why? Because God is LOVE! God loves us!

(Who is thankful that God loves us?)

3. The Distribution of God’s Love

1 John 4:19 NKJV

19 We love Him because He first loved us.

If God IS love and the enemy wants to distort God’s love then (what should we desire), for God to distrubute His love in our lives

. {Our love for the Lord did not originate with us, it originated with Him!} God made the first move.

(How then is God’s love distributed?)

Romans 5:5 NKJV

5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Romans 5:8 NKJV

8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I love this scripture. The love of God has been given to us through the Holy Spirit. (How did this happen?) Let’s look back at the time we got saved.

Each of us who have accepted Christ as our Savior and are living for Him because we, at one point, were convicted of our sins. I cannot tell you the date or the time, but I do know that I was saved when I was four or five.

(Who remembers feeling that conviction?) We could tell there was something wrong with the way we were living and the Holy Spirit convicted us.

(Why would God bring conviction?) Because He loves us. He wants us to see that we need Him and that He is the only remedy for our sinful lifestyle.

God distributes His love through the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is available for so much more than speaking in tongues or for having good services. I always pray that the Holy Spirit will be present in our services.

Why? Because when He is here, everything changes and when He is here, there will be conviction that will lead to repentance, which ultimately leads to experiencing the love of God.

God distributes His love through the Holy Spirit!

Close:

God loves us. If there is but one thing you take from this message, let it be this, GOD LOVES YOU!

He defined His love through sending His Son! And because of this we need not have a distorted view and think that God is always mad at us. Perfect love casts out fear!

And today, God wants to distribute His love through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

What do we do with the knowledge of His love for us?

Luke 7:36–37 NKJV

36 Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,

As normally happened with Jesus, the pharisees sought to entrap Him. Simon, a pharisee, invited Him for a meal. A woman found out and came to Jesus.

She poured oil on His feet, weeping, kissing, and washing His feet.

Everyone was surprised, except Jesus. Simon was offended, and thought, why is this woman doing this?

Jesus discerned his thoughts and shared a parable— two men were in debt one owed the equivalent to 500 days wages, the other 50 days wages.

The creditor canceled their debt, who do you think will LOVE him more?

The pharisee identified that the one who was forgiven MORE will love more. Jesus made His point— the woman showed love to Jesus while Simon all but ignored Jesus.

Luke 7:47 NKJV

47 Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

If God is love, if He pours out His love, what is our response? Why do we love Him?

Do you love me for who I am or what I have done?

I answered, I love you for who you are.

Do you love me when I have made decisions you have not understood?

Yes

Thank me for what I have done, but love me for who I am.

Tonight, we have the opportunity to POUR OUR LOVE OUT ON HIM!

Let’s tell Him how much we love Him!

Not for anything He has done, but simply because He is love!

We love God for who He is and we thank God for what He has done.