1 June 2014
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to 1 John 4:7-19
1 John 4:7-19 (NIV)
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes
from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is
love.
9 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.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to
love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another,
God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 We know that we live 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
his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,
God lives in him and he in God.
16 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 him.
17 In this way, love is made complete among us so that we
will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like
him.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out
fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made
perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
-- Larissa
met Ian at college in 2005 -- they had dated for about 10 months and were
deeply in love when he was in a tragic car accident and suffered severe brain
damage -- she moved in with his family and helped as his live-in caretaker and
tried to continue her relationship with Ian
-- they even
went on dates together, although Ian couldn't talk and couldn't eat -- but even
though he couldn't talk, she knew he loved her and she knew where he had wanted
the relationship to go before his accident -- he had been ring shopping and
they had talked about marriage and a life together
-- but
Larissa was faced with a challenge -- now that Ian was profoundly disabled,
everything had changed -- he would never be able to fulfill the normal roles of
a husband in their relationship -- he would not be able to provide for her and
protect her -- he would not be able to give her children -- rather than taking
care of her, Ian would need a caretaker for the rest of his life, and that
would fall on her as his wife -- what should she do?
-- I know
what most people would do -- most people would abandon the relationship, and no
one would fault them -- we see it every day, and for lesser reasons than this
-- marriages and relationships break up because someone isn't happy or because
someone doesn't feel in love any longer
-- we live
in a culture fixated on love -- we see it pictured in our movies -- we hear it
idolized in our songs -- it dominates what we think and believe and do as a
nation -- but the image of love that most of us have is not real love -- it's
Hollywood love -- it's storybook romance -- it's emotional -- it feels good for
the moment -- but it won't last because there's no true commitment to
relationship
-- Dan
Seaborn with "Winning at Home" ministries once spoke about a woman in
the Midwest who divorced her husband because he didn't love her like a character
in a movie -- she had just watched the movie, "The Bridges of Madison
County," with Clint Eastwood -- and as she watched that movie, she thought
to herself that her husband would never love her in that way -- he would never
make her happy like that -- so she decided to divorce him and find someone who
would -- that's what she actually put on her divorce papers -- "He doesn't
love me like Robert Kincaid loved Francesca in 'The Bridges of Madison
County'"
-- this is
the picture of love that a lot of us have learned -- and when we try to build a
marriage or another relationship on this image of love, it just won't work
-- this
isn't love -- this is infatuation -- and once things get hard -- once that
initial feeling of being "in love" goes away -- people quit and move
on to the next superficial relationship
-- given a
situation like Larissa and Ian, there's no question as to what most people
would think she should do -- of course she would continue to love him all her
life -- but marry him? -- who would ever consider that? -- what family would
ever think that was a good idea for their daughter?
-- but
Larissa was not like everyone else -- she stayed committed to her relationship
with Ian even through his disabling accident -- and she was a realist about it
-- she knew they could not get married if Ian could not communicate with her,
but until then, she would live with his family and continue to help take care
of him -- and, over time, Ian started to get better
-- he began
to be able to speak, although it was difficult to understand him -- but once
Ian began communicating and progressing in his recovery, Ian was able to
confirm his commitment to Larissa and his desire to marry her -- Larissa and
Ian pursued engagement, went through premarital counseling, and were married
last year
-- by the
way, if you want to see more about Larissa and Ian, I have posted a video about
their relationship on our Koinonia Facebook page, and I'll put up a link on my
blog site
-- but let me ask you this -- what
does it take to love like this? -- how is this possible in our day and time?
II. The Covenant of Love
-- the
other day, while I was preparing for our Bible study in the Book of Daniel, I
had one of those moments where I saw something in the Scriptures I had never
seen before
-- in
Daniel 9:4, Daniel is praying to God on behalf of Israel with these words,
"O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with
all who love Him and obey His commands"
-- and
although I have read that verse many times in the past, the words,
"covenant of love," just leaped from the pages
-- now
we're familiar with God's covenants -- God's unilateral promises to us that
were given throughout the Scriptures -- we've talked about them before -- God's
covenant with Noah and with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the nation of Israel
-- the new covenant given through the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus
-- I've taught about covenants -- I've studied covenants, but for some reason,
I had never noticed that phrase -- "covenant of love" -- before
-- so I did
a word search in the Bible, and lo and behold, it was everywhere -- as far back
as Deuteronomy 7:9, when God was giving the law to Moses -- "Know
therefore that the LORD your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love to a thousand
generations of those who love Him."
-- Psalm
105:8 -- He is the faithful God, keeping His covenant of love" -- 1 Kings 8:23 and 2 Chronicles 6:14 --
"You who keep Your covenant of love"
-- Nehemiah 1:5 -- "The great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of love"
-- I asked
you how Larissa was able to do what she did -- how she was willing to marry Ian
and take on the role of caretaker and provider for their family in a situation
most people would have walked away from? -- I think the key is in this phrase
-- the covenant of love -- and the answer is in this passage from 1 John 4
-- over the
last several years, I have really begun to understand that Christianity is all
about relationship -- that it does not make sense without relationship -- you simply
cannot be a Christian by following the rules and coming to church -- you must
be in a committed relationship with God and with others in order to experience
and enjoy God's presence in your life
-- God's
love for us -- expressed through His covenant -- is the source of what we need in
our lives today to truly improve all our relationships
-- a lot of
people have missed out on experiencing outstanding relationships in their lives
because they have never experienced true love at the deepest level like that of
Larissa and Ian -- true sacrificial, agape love -- and because they have never
seen or experienced love like this, they think it can't happen -- because they
have never seen love or experienced it in their lives -- they can't duplicate
it or offer it to others
-- so, this
morning, I want us to talk about finding true love -- of experiencing and
sharing God's covenant of love -- the source of all love and the foundation of
all relationships
III. Scripture Lesson -- 1 John 4:7-19
-- the
epistle of 1 John was written by the Apostle John -- John was one of the first
of Jesus' disciples -- he had lived with Jesus for three years -- he had
watched Jesus as He lived among us -- healing and teaching and preaching --
John had seen the love of Christ expressed in tangible ways every day -- and
through his experience with Jesus, John came to know and understand true,
perfect love in his own life
-- the love
of God defined him -- in fact, in the gospel of John, John doesn't even name
himself -- he calls himself by the phrase, "the disciple Jesus loved"
-- for John, it was Jesus' love that gave him life and made him who he was
-- at the
time this letter is written, John is an old man -- scholars think he could be
in his 80s or 90s -- he's lived a long life serving God -- preaching and
teaching and sharing with countless others the good news of Jesus' death and
resurrection -- but now, at the end of his life, he can't help but give away
what Jesus gave to him -- and that was perfect, unconditional love
-- it’s
practically all he can talk about -- all he can think about -- all he cares
about -- let's look back at what he has to tell us about God's love
-- verse
7-8
1 John 4:7-8 (NIV)
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from
God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is
love.
-- like I
said, John was obsessed with love -- in these two verses, John uses the word
"love" five times -- he says we should "love one another, for
love comes from God" -- the Greek word that John uses here is the word, agape
-- it refers to true, unconditional love -- sacrificial love -- the love that
puts another person first, just as Larissa did with Ian
-- John
says, "love one another without condition -- love them regardless of who
they are -- love them regardless of what they do -- love them from your heart
and with your whole being"
-- that's
not the message of the world -- the world tells you to love in response to
someone else -- the world tells you that marriage is a contract -- you only
have to love someone -- you only have to stay married -- if the other person
fulfills their end of the deal
-- the
world tells you, "if your partner is not fulfilling you, then you can
leave -- if you're partner is not making you happy, then you can leave -- if
you're partner is not responding to you the way you want them to, then you can
leave"
-- but John
says something different -- John says "love them regardless -- love them
when you first wake up in the morning and they're not at their best -- love
them when they're grumpy and have had a bad day -- love them when they're sick
and tired -- love them when they don't seem to care about you -- love them
always without condition"
-- but
there's a caveat -- we can only love in this way if we have first experienced
it in our own lives -- John says, "love them like this, because God loves
you" -- in other words, the source of love is God Himself -- the only way
you can love someone unconditionally -- sacrificially -- is if you have
experienced that type of love in your own life
-- how was
it possible for Larissa to stay with Ian and love him in spite of the effects of
his devastating accident? -- why could she do this when so many other
relationships fail for lesser reasons? -- because she didn't love as the world
loved -- she knew God -- she knew His covenant of love -- and because she had
experienced agape love in her own
life, she was able to give it to Ian in a situation most of us would find
unbearable
-- verse
9-11
1 John 4:9-11 (NIV)
9 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.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to
love one another.
-- John
wanted his readers to understand the image of true, unconditional love so they
could give it to others -- "This is how God loved us," John
said. "This is what love looks
like."
-- you know
since I have been married, I can't tell you the number of times that Kim has
drug home orphaned animals of one kind or another -- in fact, I got a call from
her just this week saying, "You're going to be mad at me" -- she was
breaking the news that another orphaned animal was coming home -- but that's
one of things I love about her, although I have drawn the line at orphan goats
-- no goats -- no way
-- I
remember a few years ago when she brought home a kitten that she had found at
the base -- this kitten was wild -- it was vicious -- she actually had to put
out a trap to catch it -- and that kitten hated her
-- she put
it in a cage in the house -- and every time she walked by, that kitten would
hiss at her -- every time she opened the cage to feed it, that kitten would try
to bite her -- it would scratch her -- it would spit at her -- it hated her
-- but Kim
still showed love to that kitten -- even though it hissed at her -- even though
it spit at her -- even though her arms were scratched to pieces -- she still
showed love to that kitten even though she might not have felt like loving it --
she had committed herself to this kitten, so she fed it and took care of it and
loved it despite the way it acted towards her
-- that's
just what God did for us -- God created us -- He made us in His own image --
and when we turned away from Him -- when we rejected Him -- when we spat in His
face and disobeyed Him and did things our own way -- when we were mean and
nasty to Him -- He still loved us
-- He loved
us so much that He sent His only Son to earth for us -- He sent Jesus to die
for us on the cross so that we might be forgiven of our sins and receive
eternal life with Him -- He gave all He had so that we might know and
experience His love
-- God
loved us without condition -- in spite of all that we did to Him, He loved us
-- and John says here, "since God loved us -- since God agaped us
-- then we should agape others"
-- in order
to truly love someone else, we must know love in our own lives first -- John
tells us that God is love -- so, if we want to have real fulfilling
relationships with others in our lives -- if we want to experience and show agape
love to others, then we must know God
-- so, how
does that happen? -- how do we know God and experience His covenant of love in
our lives?
-- verse
12-16
1 John 4:12-16 (NIV)
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God
lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 We know that we live 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 his
Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God
lives in him and he in God.
16 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 him.
-- we come
to know God through His Son, Christ Jesus -- the Bible tells us that Jesus came
to earth for one reason -- He came to die on the cross to pay the penalty for
our sin and forgive us for all the wrong things that we have done -- and then He
rose from the dead on the third day to prove that He had conquered sin and
death and won for us eternal life with Him
-- in these
verses John points to the cross and says, "This is love"
-- to
receive that love -- to drink from the fountain and source of love -- to
receive God in our lives -- is something that we have to do if we truly want to
experience love in all of our relationships
-- you
cannot love if you don't know God -- you cannot love another like Larissa loves
Ian if you haven't experienced the agape
love of Christ
-- the
Bible says that you enter into a relationship with God -- you come to know Him
when you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God -- when you believe
that Jesus died on the cross for your sins -- and when you put your faith and
trust in His atoning death and resurrection by asking Him to forgive you of
your sins -- and by receiving His offer of love and life
-- it's
more than head knowledge -- it's heart knowledge -- it's not just knowing facts
-- it's knowing a person and being in a relationship with that person
-- as one Christian
song puts it -- it's more like falling in love than something to believe in --
more like losing your heart than giving your allegiance
-- in
Revelation 3:20, Jesus says, "Here I am!
I stand at the door and knock. If
anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and
he with Me"
-- that
verse is not just about salvation -- in the Book of Revelation Jesus told John
to give that message to the church at Laodicea -- to the people in Laodicea
that knew Him and professed faith in Him -- to Christians just like you and me
-- Jesus knocks
on the door every day -- it's not just a one-time thing -- it's not just about
salvation, although that is the first step
-- Jesus
wants to be in a relationship with you, so every day He knocks and every day He
offers us life and love and a covenantal relationship with Him and then He
tells us, "take this love and give it to others"
-- when you
know God in this way -- when you are in a relationship with Him and have put
your faith and trust in Him and Him alone, you will find a wellspring of love inside
of you that will overflow from your heart to others
-- all you
have to do is respond -- all you have to do is open that door -- and Jesus will
come in every single day to share your life and you will know and experience
love as never before
-- you
can't give what you don't know -- you can't love if you don't know love -- if
you truly want to know love and know that you are loved -- if you truly want to
give love to your spouse and to others -- then you first have to receive the
love that God is offering us through Jesus
-- even if
you are already saved -- even if you have trusted in Jesus for your eternal
life and for the forgiveness of sins, you still need to open that door every day
so Jesus can fill your heart with His agape love and so you can share it with
others
IV. Closing
-- let's
bring this to a close
-- you're
probably aware that the highest grossing animated film of all time came out
this year -- the Disney movie "Frozen"
-- I
haven't seen the movie yet, but I do know what it's about -- it's the story of
true love and the power of love to melt frozen hearts
-- not to
give away too much of the story, as part of the major story of the movie, the
princess Anna begins to slowly freeze to death because of a magical spell gone
awry -- she learns that only true love's kiss can thaw her frozen heart and
bring her back to life -- she rushes to the arms of her fiancée, but discovers
he never truly loved her -- he only loved what she could do for him -- he only
loved her as the world loves -- and she leaves his presence broken-hearted
-- when the
snowman Olaf finds her dying from her frozen condition, he doesn't hesitate to
start a fire to keep her warm until she can find the source of true love --
Anna protests and tells Olaf to leave because he will melt from the heat --
Olaf responds, "Some people are worth melting for"
-- what a
phrase -- "some people are worth melting for"
-- Larissa
said something similar when confronted with Ian's condition -- "some
people are worth sacrificing for"
-- God said
something similar in this passage from 1 John 4 and throughout the pages of the
Bible -- "some people are worth dying for"
-- through
Jesus' death on the cross we come to know true love -- we come to experience the
love that melts frozen hearts -- the love that establishes relationships with
the unloveable -- the love that forgives -- the love that heals -- the love
that empowers us to love and to perform sacrificial acts of love in our own
lives
-- John
said it best in 1 John 4:19 -- "we love because He first loved us"
-- it's not
rules -- it's not about church -- it's not about doing right -- it's about love
-- you can
only love if you know love -- you can only love if you know God -- and you can
only know God through His Son Jesus Christ
-- so as we
close, let us think about two things:
-- first, let's
think about the relationship we have with Jesus -- do we know Jesus? -- do we
know God? -- are we in love with Him? -- have we asked Him to love us and to
forgive us of our sins? -- are we continuing to open the door of our hearts in
response to His knock? -- this is how we know and experience God's covenant of
love
-- and, second,
let's think about our relationship with others -- are we loving others with the
same agape, sacrificial, unconditional love that we have experienced through
Christ? -- if not, then we need to start moving in that direction through the
power of God's love in our lives
-- as we
close, I would invite you to respond to God's word as you feel led -- to hear
His knock on the door -- and to open it and to invite Love into your life
-- let's
pray [pray]
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