1 John 4: 7-16
God does not love you!
The world has a bad view of what love is!
In our culture, when
we use the word “love,” it is usually used in a way that refers to sexual love
or selfish love.
Sexual Love
·
Sexual
love meaning “I love you,” which is code word for “be naked.
·
Guys
will tell women all the time “I love you” if!
·
It’s
trick. It’s not that they really love you.
·
It’s
a sexual love that they’re talking about, that they want to have sexual
intimacy or perversion with you
·
They
don’t really love you.
·
We
use the word “love” because we’re a confused culture.
So
when the Bible speaks of love, it’s not a sexual love we’re talking about. The
Bible says that we can love each other, but it doesn’t mean that we’re going to
be perverse in our relationships with one another sexually
Selfish Love
·
if
you love me, I love you
·
If
I want you to love or like me, then I will love you
·
It’s
a love that loves those that are lovely. It’s a love that loves those who
benefit us in some way
So
we’re not talking about a sexual or a selfish love when we come to the Bible. We’re
talking about a supernatural and a selfless love, the kind of love that allows
us to love strangers, the kind of love that actually goes even further than
that and it enables us to love our enemies.
Love Defined: love is passion
that compels you to do what is in the best interest of another person, and that
way love isn’t just what we think or we feel.
Love is what we do
·
Love
always put your interests and your health above of mine
·
I may give you money. It would be better for
me if I kept it, but it’s better for you to have it.
·
I
may give you time or affection, it’s better for you to have it than me because
I consider you more valuable than my own convenience or my own pleasure, and
I’m willing to put you first as a priority in my life because I care for you.
·
When
we’re talking about love, that’s what we’re talking about, doing what is in the
best interest of another person, not just using people for sex or selfish
motives, but serving them selflessly in a supernatural way, which is love.
Cultures misunderstanding
Love does not start
with us
·
There
is a miss understanding in today’s society that we have to love ourselves first
·
This
is contrary to the bible
·
Its
wasn’t until the 4th century that the idea of the individual was introduced
·
It
has morphed to its all about us, and self-thinking
A gentleman named
Rousseau.
What he says is this: We are individuals, autonomous individuals who can get
better. We don’t need God. In fact, the answer is in us. This is the hallmark
of American thinking. If you want to be a good person, look at the goodness in
you. If you want to be a loving person, look at the love that is in you. Seek
within yourself all the resources that you need to fix yourself and to make
yourself into a great person, a loving person, a kind person is in you.
So
all of a sudden, we take our eyes was off of God, and back into self, and the
answer to all of our problems is to look at ourselves and to know ourselves and
to love ourselves and once we have healed and loved and fixed and known
ourselves, then we’re ready to do good works on the earth.
That’s
Bull! That’s not what the bible teaches, the bible teaches us that the only
Godd we have in us comes from God! So I want
you to get rid of that crap and lets look into scripture and see where God
takes us!
1 John 4:7–8 (NLT) Dear friends, let us continue to love
one another, for love comes from God.
Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does
not love does not know God, for God is
love.
·
God
is the source of Love
·
We
aren’t to look to ourselves we are to look at God for love
·
If
you truly love that you know God
God is Love!
·
Whatever
God is, that’s what love looks like.
·
God
is love, everything God does is Love
·
There
is nothing that God does that is not Love
The question; I hear this
frequently. This is a common critique. The Bible says God is love. How could a
loving God create hell and send people there?
My Response: How could he not!
John 14:2 (NIV) My Father’s
house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am
going there to prepare a place for you?
Heaven
is Gods House and like a good Father he has authority over his house and there
are those people that don’t follow gods rules and God won’t let them in to harm
his Children.
God
is a loving Father who loves his kids, God loves other people as well, and God
says, “You’re welcome to come over to my house. You’re welcome to come to
heaven. You’re welcome to be adopted into my family. I’ll even be your Dad, but
here’s the rule. You got to play by my rules. I can’t just let you come to my
house and just ravish my kids and disrespect my authority. I love you, and if
you want to be part of our family, we welcome you, but it will be on my terms
because I love my kids, and I’m not gonna set them in harm’s way.”
God is love and everything he does is love, and if you
are his child, he will not let anyone in Heaven that will harm you! You have to
adopt his rules here and turn your heart to him so that he can let you in to
His house.
1 John 4:9–10 (NIV) 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. 10 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
doesn’t conceal his love.
·
God
doesn’t sit up in heaven and say, “Well, once you’re a good person, I’ll show
you my love.” God starts by showing us his love.
·
God
showed his love among us in this way. He sent his one and only Son into the
world that we might live through him. That’s Jesus.
·
Christianity
teaches that God initiates, that God loves, that God goes first, that literally
God extends his hand long before we do, that God is love, and he beats us to
kindness every time.
·
So
many people run around trying to find love the have sex for love, the get
abused for love, they pay for love! Can I tell you “you are already loved!
·
God
loved you while you were still his enemy
·
God
loves you when you turn your back
Even
though we are rebels, people who turned their backs on God he still sent Jesus
to die for us! Romans 5:8 spells it out that God sent Jesus to die for us while
we were still His enemy. He loved us and cared for us while we were doing
everything we could to run away from Him. We are loved we don’t have to try and
find it we already have it, God gives it freely to us. This allows us to love
others and do it selflessly and follow Jesus’s example to love others even if
they don’t love us. We can be secure in the fact that God loves us and we can
love others to shine light in the dark world!
The murder Trial
1 John 4:11–12 (NIV) 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.
·
Love starts at home,
it starts in the church
o It starts in side
these 4 walls
o We have to be a
loving people inside the church
o If we can’t love
each other in here we can’t take it in to the world
·
No one can see God
o We are the only “Jesus”
some will ever see
o We have to be the
light in the dark
o We make Gods
complete by shining his light through love
o Jesus great command
was to love one another
o The world is only
going to get darker (less loving)
I’ll
tell you the good news. God does love you, and that will enable you to get it
together. God is love. God shows us his love in Jesus.
·
If
we want to know that we’re loved, we look to Jesus.
·
If we want to know what love looks like, we
look to Jesus.
·
Not
only does God love us, he then gives us love to share.
1 John 4:13–14 (NIV) 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
we know Jesus it’s because he gave us the spirit to live in us
·
We
as Christians get a bad rap
·
We
aren’t all hypocrites
·
We
need to start being real with the world
·
Because
of Jesus
o There are women’s
rights
o The orphans are
cared for
o Hospitals we did
that
o Colleges we did it
o Schools yep us
o Red Cross (started
by a christain)
God
sent his love into the world through his people and its time we started acting
Like Gods chosen and start loving the world again!
1 John 4:15–16 (NIV) 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.
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