1 John 3:11-24 The Power of Love

Welcome to Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service.

This is a message from the series called In the Light out of the book of 1st John by Pastor Don Filsack. If you'd like more information about our church, please visit us on the web at www .recastchurch

.com Here's Pastor Don. Welcome to Recast Church.

I'm Don Filsack. I'm the lead pastor here. And I'm just glad that you guys have come out to worship God this morning and also glad to be back after a couple of weeks away.

I had a great conference last week and very grateful for Zach Lloyd and Michael Brown filling in so well for us in my absence.

It's awesome to just see how the ministry of the word goes forward even in my absence. And I'm just very grateful for them being willing to step up and teach in that situation.

Be sure to fill out any connection cards. Turn those in in the black box and remember that if this is your first time with us and you fill out that connection card, we'd also ask you to please take a free coffee mug back there just our way of saying thanks for joining us.

And then if you're willing to share an email address, that's the primary way that we communicate what activities and things are going on.

You received a worship folder when you walked in, but that's just kind of scratching the surface of what's going on.

If you really want to be in the know, you need to get that email. And if you share an email address with that, then you'll be signed up for that, but you can unsubscribe yourself from it at any time.

You're in control of that. We don't spam your inbox, but one a week with all kinds of links and activities and different things there.

And then any offerings you would choose to give can go in the black box back there as well. You are provided with an envelope. You can recycle that or use it, but we don't pass an offering plate.

And so the black box is back there if you choose to give. And then remember that anything marked expansion fund on either the check or the envelope is going to go directly into an account for our hopes to eventually build a building down the road here.

And I wanted to share an update with you on the expansion fund. I think my tendency is not to not share unless something new has happened.

And I think that's a little bit faulty and that you guys, how many of you are kind of wondering what's going on with the expansion fund? You're kind of thinking like what's what's going on?

And so I wanted to give you an update without a whole lot of movement, just some information that I have to share with you.

We've been in discussions with a couple of local lending institutions and have discovered that our level of comfort and borrowing has kind of hit the wall of reality of what we're actually eligible for.

And so many of you have seen the actual plans that have been drawn up. They're pretty modest plans, not like, you know, flying buttresses and huge cathedral ceilings and, you know, stained glass and all that.

It's a pretty modest facility that allows us some room to grow in our children's ministry. Obviously, we have the benefit right now of using

Kitty U down there. And so we have to make up for that space plus a little bit in order for us to be able to to grow.

And then also the same for our meeting space here in the sanctuary. And so the the price tag on that new building, as designed as the designers have drawn it right now, is one point seven million dollars.

And we are currently eligible for a loan of three quarters of a million dollars. So I'm talking with others.

They're pretty rock solid about that. And our level of comfort for borrowing would be around that area anyways. And so you do the math.

If it's a one point seven million dollar project and we could borrow seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, then we would have a task in front of us for raising funds to even be able to borrow to build.

And so you can kind of do the math and figure that out yourself. But you know that I haven't stood up in front of you and talked about money unless the text has really encouraged us in that direction.

And I don't intend to change that because we've got this huge amount that we need to raise in front of us. We have not tried to do gimmicks or sell you bricks or sell you chairs or anything like that.

I don't really feel like it's our responsibility as elders to try to wring money out of you, especially when you have been so generous already.

I have nothing but gratitude in my heart for the faithful support of this ministry over the past several years. And I've actually been in awe many times.

I think the other elders could say the same thing, that we've been in awe of the generosity of this church. But at the same time, we recognize that we have a significant uphill thing ahead of us when it comes to actually breaking ground and building.

And we're just seeking the Lord's direction in that. The other thing is that we're actually seeking some short -term solutions.

In the meantime, as we kind of look at the way that the growth has happened here at Recast over the past few years, we have a tendency to grow pretty much throughout the year.

So we've been growing pretty steadily. But then what we found is that from January, February, March, really those three months end up being a huge spike in our attendance.

And we've kind of grown during that period of time. So when you look around, you can see a couple of empty seats around here.

And you can kind of maybe go, well, but how many of you were here last, at the beginning of 2013, when we were scrambling, every single seat was full and we were trying to add more seats and people were standing?

Do you remember that? We have no reason to believe that that's not going to be even worse come January, where we don't really want the ushers and the greeters at the door to turn into bouncers.

And so you kind of get where I'm going with that. So we have some potential short -term solutions we're looking into.

We're back in the discussions and conversation with the school about the potential to use facilities there for a short -term, intermediate period of time.

We're back at talks with Glass and Associates, our builder and designer, saying can we cut anything out of this?

Is there any way we could save some? So that's kind of where we're at. And I want to talk about how this ties in with our mission and our vision, too.

There'd be no problem at all with any of this if our mission and vision could allow us to just stay here in this limited facility without any room for growth and outreach.

If we just kind of said, you know what, we don't really care to invite any more. We're comfortable. We're big enough right now.

We've grown enough. And so we're not going to invite our friends. We're not going to invite our neighbors. And the ushers are going to become bouncers, if that's the mindset.

But that flies in the face of what I believe God has called us to be as a church. That flies in the face of our mission of finding worshippers for his name.

And so, I mean, we're not, how do you think of the church? I don't want you to think primarily of the church as a social club where I come and I meet with my other

Christian friends and we hang out. Now, is that a component of what we do here? It is. There's a value in that.

But that's not primarily what we are doing. We are not also primarily a school that's just for educational purposes.

You come in, you learn something, you leave. I want you to think of us as a hospital for hurting people, hurting people out in the world,

Christians and non -Christians alike. And we want to have a facility that can, can I say a facility that facilitates openness to our community and towards that value of community.

And this facility has been great for the past few years, but I have a sense in my heart that it's beginning to hamper our mission and our vision and our ability to continue to reach out.

So, I'd encourage you to please be in prayer over the direction that the Lord has for us. I have a sense, I have a sense of anticipation, a sense of enthusiasm about what

God has for us. But right now, I would say that as elders, we feel somewhat like we have the ship in the water and all the sails are drawn and ready and all we're waiting for is for the wind of the

Lord to blow on this thing. And so, just be in prayer. Just please be in prayer about how

God might use you as a part of this. If you have any suggestions, questions, concerns, please come and talk with me or Zach or Kyle or Rob.

And we would love to talk with you further about that. And maybe you're sitting here and you're thinking, I have a potential solution to that.

Let us know. But moving on into the introduction to the sermon, we desire for everybody to be growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service.

That's our growth map is that everybody in all of those three spheres is growing at whatever level you come into the church at in faith, community, and service.

That we all have room to grow in each of those aspects. And particularly in the area of growing in community, our text this morning is going to highlight love and the centrality that love is to have in our

Christian community. That love is to be the center of what we do. Jesus said this,

I'm going to quote Jesus right here. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples.

If you have love for one another, if you have love for one another, then the world is going to know that you are with Jesus.

John is going to take us on a tour of Christian love this morning and show us a bunch of different facets of it. And when we rightly understand and apply, not just understand it, not just speak it, but when we rightly apply love for others in our lives, we find the power available for life through the love of Jesus Christ.

And so I want you to open your Bibles, please, to 1 John chapter 3. It's going to be verses 11 through 24.

Get back into this book after a couple of weeks away. And that's page 878. So if you pull out that paperback

Bible in the seat back in front of you, turn clear to the back, 878. And boom, there it is.

Follow along as I read 1 John 3, 11 through 24. And if you don't own a copy of the Bible, you can take that one with you.

That's in the seat back. We want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God. The very word of the

Lord to us this morning recast. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him?

Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

By this, we know, love, that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does how does

God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.

By this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him. For whenever our heart condemns us,

God is greater than our than our heart and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.

And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.

Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him. And by this, we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.

Let's pray. As Josh and Heidi come to lead us in worship. Father, we are in need of your presence here this morning.

I believe that we've gathered together and probably a variety of different motivations and thoughts that have led us through these doors this morning.

I know that a lot of people have had rough weeks. Some have had really great weeks and some just kind of right in the middle. And it's very easy for all of the different things that have gone on this past week, the things that are going on today, the roast that's in the crock pot or or the things going on this afternoon or or whatever, to draw our attention away from the things that are happening.

And I ask that you would help us to be present here and now. Father, that in the hearing of your word, that in the singing of praises, that we would be transformed and changed in our hearts.

Father, that you would accept our worship and our praise and our adoration to you out of hearts that recognize who you are, what you have done for us, how you have changed us, how you have sacrificed for us, and that we would be moved by your great love, even as we have an opportunity to talk about that and define that today.

I ask that you would be with us, teach us, guide us, and give us enthusiasm and even joy as we sing praises to you in Jesus name.

Amen. Go ahead and make sure you have your Bibles open to 1 John chapter 3. I'd love to see you guys with those open following along because really the structure of the text is the structure of my sermon.

And I really try to make, you know, kind of stick to the word as we walk through it. And then remember that at any time during the message, if you kind of feel yourself kind of starting to like zone out or whatever, you can get more coffee, juice, donuts, restrooms are back here.

You can get up in the back and do some calisthenics or whatever it takes to kind of keep the focus on the word of God this morning.

We come to a text. It's been a while, a couple weeks since we've been in 1 John. And so we're coming back in at about halfway through the book.

We're actually in the text. It is the halfway marker for the book of 1 John. And so far what we've seen

John do pretty consistently is lift up Jesus and raise a standard of practicing righteousness for those who are in him, are in Christ.

And it ultimately is all focused on how do we know we are in with God? And that's been kind of one of the main questions that we should be asking ourselves when we come to the book of 1

John, that it's working to answer for us. We know that John is addressing a church split situation.

And I think a lot of times we can look back at these texts and we kind of think of it as like just a letter or we don't really put ourselves in the shoes or in the places where these people were walking.

Now, I mean, can you imagine kind of some of the emotions that happen when a church split goes down or a group of people and a faction within the church?

And sometimes those church splits don't cut right according to your friends and your preferences and the things that you like.

And so I think that we've got to put ourselves in the shoes of those people that John is writing to and recognize that they're hurting people.

The church that the church is split really over the issue of who Christ is.

And some people have actually said they don't believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. And they took a group with them and even then in turn tried to take others with them and tried to drag them down and they're meeting with coffee shops trying to subvert what

John is doing here. Anybody think that that would be kind of difficult? You put yourself in that life situation, two of you think that would be difficult?

I'm scared all of a sudden. If more of us don't kind of think that would be rough. And so his letter has been to a remnant of a shattered church and he has been seeking to encourage them to remain strong in the face of false doctrine, to remain unified.

Can you imagine why a bit of a sermon on love, a section in his letter about love might matter to a church like that?

We're saying here's what love looks like you who have been dissed by a huge portion of the church. Here's what unity is going to be built on is based on love and you are being commanded to love one another.

And so we're going to go forward with that. And so in verse 11 John appeals to a message that they have known from the beginning.

He says that they have known it from the very beginning for this is the message that you've heard from the beginning that we should love one another.

I believe that the beginning is not like in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. I think he's referring there to the beginning of their faith.

When you came to faith in Christ you heard something and that something is that they should love one another. Now I'm curious and by the way,

I ask for interaction and I can overdo it from time to time but just just bear with me. I'm trying to trying to kick the habit.

But I'm curious how many of you when you came to faith in Christ were given explicit instructions that you were supposed to love other

Christians? Were any of you given explicit instructions? You came to faith in Christ and immediately were told by the person who led you to faith in Christ now that you're in the family of God, you should love other

Christians. Any of you given that? I think I saw one hand in the in the room. I didn't receive that exhortation.

As an eight -year -old in an Iwana program in the basement of the First Baptist Church in Middleville, Michigan my

Iwana leader walked me through a prayer of salvation. I said I want to go to heaven someday and they told me

I was a sinner and we walked through all of that and I prayed and believed in my heart that Jesus was the

Savior. There was no instruction that it wasn't like well now you're in so you need to love others.

You need to love people. And I'm guessing that most of us didn't receive that exhortation.

And that leads me to believe that there may be something lacking in our communication of the gospel and what we are saved to.

Now many of us can communicate what we're saved from. Right? Maybe that was a big a big motivator.

Saved from hell and if you were saved as a child maybe you had like the fear of hell or maybe it was at a bonfire where they were illustrating it for you or whatever.

I mean, I don't know. I don't know what it was for you. But I mean, so we know what we're saved from but do we understand and have a good grasp of what we are saved to?

What is it? And I fear that often our discipleship programs and I'm saying this our I mean recast

I think any church can struggle with this particularly in the west. Do we have a do we maybe have a problem with independence as Americans?

Like just kind of like we are independent isolated. We can do it go it alone that rough rugged isolationism and things like that.

I fear that often we take new believers and we teach them to take care of number one.

Take care of numero uno. So so you what do we do in discipleship? We teach that teach everybody to have a quiet time alone in isolation.

Right? That's step one get alone. Okay, and is that not often our one of our first injunctions to new believers get alone with God.

What about community? What about connectedness? What about love? Do we communicate that aspect of this?

We act like like salvation and then sanctification is a self -help program that's centered on the individual rather than a called into community program.

Where we demonstrate love to one another and where we depend on one another where we need each other and where we offer up the gifts that God has given to us in community.

Is there a difference? You hear are you hearing that? Something about this whole idea of love.

And he says John is confident that the believers in his church had heard from the very beginning the call to community.

Had heard from the beginning of their faith you are called into community to love one another. Maybe we all need to be reminded that love is not optional in the

Christian life. As a matter of fact, I would suggest that to you because God has me preaching this this morning. So we need to hear it because it's what

God has directed our attention to. All love is expressed in relationship with others and love cannot be expressed in isolation.

It cannot be expressed. You cannot express love and act on love in isolation.

Even the love of God is expressed in our relationships with others. Love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength.

How? By loving your neighbor as yourself. In connection and community with others. And so the structure of our text this morning has four parts.

Has that been up for a while? Have you guys already seen that? You had a chance to write that down? This is an example.

I just want to let you know if this if you're this your first time here I do not do this very often. So those of you that are have been around for a while I just want you to just take a moment to appreciate that alliteration.

Four points. You know where we're going but you don't usually have a clue where we're going. So you're being tricked if this is your first time here.

I don't usually do that. But I can't. So we're going to go through this first part is going to be the contrast of love and Gavin you can advance that next the next one.

The contrast of love. John begins by telling us what love isn't. Great.

Great definition. And he's going to refer directly to a character in the Old Testament. I love it that he's willing to give us a word picture both for what love isn't and for what love is.

And he's going to reference the Old Testament character Cain. How many of you are familiar with the story of Cain and Abel?

Quite a few of us are familiar with Cain and Abel. Did you know did you realize this? He was the first person at least as far as what's recorded in scripture.

He is the first person born. Did you realize that? Cain the first person born at all.

And certainly at least the first born male child on the planet. Maybe they weren't recording female births and someone was born, but the text tells us as far as we know.

He's the first born child of Adam and Eve. And we know him also more maybe more famously as the first murderer.

Right. First one born is also the first murderer. And do you think then that it's a little bit of an overstatement?

A little bit overstatement for John to tell us don't be like Cain. Do you think

I mean he's the murderer the one who took his own brother's life. Don't act like that people. Okay, that's not setting the bar.

It's not setting the bar super high for us to just say don't murder. Don't murder your brother. Okay, but sometimes if you're in a family you got kids, you know that sometimes that's just enough like to get you by you know today.

Don't murder your brother and that's good. You're like satisfied with that. Um But we're told to not be like Cain.

He's declared to be a son of a child of the devil in essence. Verse 12.

We should not be like Cain who was of the evil one as if the evil one was the one who originated

Cain. We know that he's using a figure of speech there. He wasn't literally born of the of satan, but he acted like it.

And we find insight into the reason he murdered his brother again verse 12. John asked the question and why did he murder him and then proceeds to give us an answer above and beyond what's recorded for us in the book of Genesis.

John here is saying by the revelation of the holy spirit he had some insight given to him by the spirit and what motivated

Cain and look at what it was. What motivated Cain to murder Abel? Because his own deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous.

It's not that Cain murdered and that made him evil. He was already practicing evil deeds beforehand and something about his brother's righteous deeds moved him to envy.

What was the motivation of Cain? And well, he saw his brother's righteous deeds and loathed them and he himself was practicing evil along the way.

And so Cain practiced evil and murder was the result of his practice of evil.

Are you getting what I'm saying there? It's not that the murder made him evil. He already was before that ever took place.

And so John explains that those who practice righteousness should not be surprised that the world hates them as he's here giving us a contrast to love.

He's saying those of us who love, those of us who act in righteousness, those of us who are seeking to love brothers and sisters in Christ should not be surprised when the world hates us.

Those who practice evil will always be in conflict with those who practice righteousness. How many of you would say that you've been the recipient of either subtle or overt persecution for your faith?

Raise your hand if you feel like it. And so let me back up and just ask this question. How many of you have ever listened to the radio and felt like someone was laughing or mocking at your faith?

Have you experienced that? So you have a sense at least in that that the world doesn't see things the way that you see things.

Many of us can point to interactions we've had with co -workers, neighbors, other people, maybe family members or extended family members who would laugh at us for the things that we believe or the things that we would speak as true.

And so I think we can relate to that. To give you an illustration of this, the way that maybe sometimes in overt ways we might receive persecution.

It was between my freshman and sophomore year of college. I went to Bible college in South Carolina for my first two years.

And so I just wrapped up my freshman year of Bible college in Columbia, South Carolina. Super excited.

Studying Old Testament survey, New Testament study, Bible doctrine, all kinds of you know, and so can you picture kind of like a young man on fire for God gonna take my summer for Jesus?

Okay. So where do I take the summer? I go to work at Kraft containers, Kraft packaging up in Grand Rapids, living in Middleville, move back with my family for the summer and I'm gonna man, am

I just gonna share my faith with the people at this factory? And how many of you know where this is going?

Okay. It was, I mean the whole summer was like one big like nightmare.

I took my Bible and I'd read over the lunch break, lunch break in the middle of the night, third shift and how many of you know that it became a game?

You can picture this game. Some of you live this game Monday to Friday and it's a game called make the religious guy blush or make the religious guy get angry.

And maybe some of your workplaces is like that with, they're like that with you, but that was my summer was people just speaking vile, obnoxious things.

What happened last night and what they're gonna do tonight and this, that and the other and it just got to be like a real attempt to get under my skin.

I was pretty obnoxious, but it got worse about halfway through the summer. There was an individual who was hired on to my shift and ended up working on the same machine as me and we worked on a kind of a little bit of an assembly line putting nesting packages for mirrors to go into.

So that's what we were doing all summer, same thing day in and night in and night out. But he ended up working on my same machine and he proceeded to basically tell me he was a self -professed

Satan worshiper. I don't believe that he really was. I think he just said that to get under my skin. I don't think he went out and sacrificed goats and stuff.

But he you can just kind of see that he might have wanted to wanted to say that just to get at me.

One particular night we were working on the line and he said something that was particularly vile directed to me and then asked me, got really close to me and asked for my response.

And by God's grace, I just kind of stepped back, tried to keep doing my job. He was in my way.

And the next thing I know he hauled off and punched me in the chest. Okay, I don't know what

I'd said something or if I'd done something, but he actually punched me in the workplace because I wouldn't respond to this this vile statement that he made.

Now to put a little context on that, I'm not a big guy. Like you can look at me, skinny wrists and all that business.

But I want to let you know that in honesty, and I say this to just kind of explain the story a little bit more in depth.

And this is a confession. This is not boasting at all. But I was suspended two times in high school for fighting. I would never start a fight, but I would never refuse it.

I mean, and it didn't matter if they were bigger than me. I was either going to get knocked out or somebody was going to pull me off of somebody.

But I wasn't going to back down if somebody threw the first punch. And so this was

God's grace. It was a supernatural grace that I didn't respond and retaliate to this guy who punched me. And the bottom line, he ended up losing his job within the hour and people kind of backed off a little bit until, you know, getting close to the end of the summer or whatever.

But I say that to say, we don't have to go out and seek trouble. Trouble will find us.

Just sometimes standing for Christ or just letting people know that you're with Christ will bring the pain.

And I know some of you live there. Some of you live in those places and yet simultaneously, are we called to spread the light?

Are we called to live that way? I mean, so now some of you might be listening to that story and going, okay, well now you've given me a cause for fear because I don't want to get punched at work.

So I'm going to just not tell anybody that I'm a Christian. No, just go out and be bold about it and let the chips fall where they may. I don't think

I did anything wrong that summer in an enthusiasm and a zeal to bring Christ into my workplace.

But sometimes it's just our identification with Christ that brings hatred in our direction. We don't need to go out and confront evil head on in order to warrant those attacks.

In a more local setting and more current, I've several times had conversations with complete strangers at the coffee shop.

Didn't know them before they walked into the coffee shop. And in the conversation, they find out I'm a pastor and boom, they just begin to ignite an attack against the church.

Have you ever been in that context? Oh, a Christian. Oh, you're one of those. And boom, they're just like ready to roll and go with their thoughts and opinions and animosity and anger towards the church.

Thank you, I appreciate your opinion. I am grateful to be having this conversation. But loving people and expressing biblical truth is often just enough to get into it with the world.

We shouldn't be surprised, John says, when the world responds without love toward us. But our call is something different.

In verse 14, John declares that our love is a sign that we are truly alive. Those who do not love are living in the realm of death.

But those who truly love others are living in the realm of life. Without love, we have no reason to believe that we belong to the one who called himself love.

And so love is a sign of spiritual life within us. And now John takes it just minds just a smidge deeper into the church and into us by saying, everyone who hates someone else is a murderer, like Cain was a murderer.

He makes that connection. Now, how many of you think that's a pretty dramatic connection for John to make here?

He says, if you hate somebody, you're liable to murder, you're guilty of murder.

At face value, does that seem a little bit strong? And yet, those are the very words, he didn't originate this, this didn't start with John.

Jesus is the one who said this, and John is just the messenger. In Matthew 5, 21 through 26, in the

Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, anyone who has been angry enough to curse someone is liable to murder.

Anyone who has said, you fool, to another individual has had murder in their hearts. Pretty dramatic, but yet the words of Jesus Christ, our

Lord. And John goes on to say, murder is not consistent with the eternal life found in Jesus Christ.

John is not here technically spelling out salvation as if to say, if you've murdered somebody, you can never get to heaven, you forfeit it, or there's no way to get eternal life if murder has happened.

There's not an unforgivable sin in that sense. If your mind turns there,

I think you're stretching what John is trying to accomplish by this text. He's providing a contrast to love and saying, this kind of life is not consistent with Jesus.

If you're walking as Jesus walked, then murder and hatred are not going to be on the playlist of your life.

Does that make sense? Tracking with that? And so now we shift from the contrast of love as Cain to the character of love.

And he's going to also give us another person to identify with. So if you want the contrast of love, you think of Cain.

If you want to understand what love is, you think of Jesus. He is the model for us.

And John gives us a working definition of love through an illustration. Look with me at verse 16 for just a moment.

Look down at the text. But by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

How do we know love? The cross. That is how we know love.

John gives us a working definition. The cross is the definition of love. It's a wordless definition in a sense.

Certainly, we need some words to make sense of that cross that's on the center of the hill of Calvary 2 ,000 years ago.

What's going on there? There's some words need to be expressed to explain it. But to see him there and understand what he is doing, just that image of him bleeding and dying for us is the definition of love.

They say a picture can speak a thousand words. But the picture and the image of Jesus on the cross laying down his life has launched millions of people into purpose, hope, joy, love, and practicing righteous living.

This is love. This is love that he willingly chose to lay down his life.

And that needs to be the center of any definition of love that we have. The concept of the cross at the centerpiece of the way that we view love.

Is that different than what our culture is going to tell you love is? Is the cross going to come up in a conversation or in a dictionary definition of love?

No. If we polled people out in our community about what love is, how many of you think there might be something to do with feeling in there?

The cross is not a feeling. The cross is an honest -to -goodness, real -life sacrifice.

A giving up of self, Jesus giving up himself for others.

That is love. Not some warm, fuzzy feeling that I get about someone or something.

How many of you know that ultimately the world's definition of love ties into one person's feelings?

Mine. You can say yours. That's the way the world defines it.

And so what we tend to do is we tend to hold people off because the sacrifice kind of love says,

I will share myself with you. I will show you myself and I will let you in. But if my definition of love is all about me and what

I receive and what I get, I'm going to hold you off because I don't want you to really know me because you might not love me if you really know me.

You get it? And so I'm going to hold people at arm's length. I'm going to hold my wife at arm's length. I'm going to hold my kids at arm's length.

I'm going to hold everybody in my life out there so that you don't really see my heart. Because what I want to feel is I just want to feel warm and fuzzy, and it's easier to feel warm and fuzzy if everybody likes me.

You getting what I'm saying in that? The definition of love is focused on the cross.

He didn't just die as an example, but he died willingly with us in mind. Those two words, for us, is key.

Those two words, for us, John is reminding us of the substitutionary nature of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Not just an example, but us in mind. How much are we loved? We are loved so much that Jesus died for us.

And as I said earlier, the concept of the cross should be the center of any brand of love.

I love it that in the Greek language, there's multiple different words that are used for love, and it makes for a great study.

But I want to be clear that the cross needs to be the center of every definition of love.

Of every brand and type of love. And so to simplify things, you can talk about agape love as some type of pure love, or eros, the love between a husband and a wife, or you can talk about philia,

Philadelphia, philia, the city of brotherly love. So there's all different kinds of brotherly love, philia.

The centerpiece of all of those brands of love is the cross.

That's the central definition. It's a self -giving, a willing self -giving to brothers and sisters in Christ.

A willing self -giving to my wife. A willing self -giving to God.

Whatever brand of love it is, it needs to have the cross in mind. And that love is to define our love for each other.

The cross defines the way, what we're being called to do here. We ought to lay down our lives for each other.

Now, I don't believe that John had simply in mind the notion that hope, you know, that someday down the road you're going to be called, you're going to be walking down the street, and one of us is going to be there walking in the street, and a truck's coming at us, and boom, you got a split -second decision to shove them out of the way and take the hit yourself.

Or, you know, the hand grenade is thrown in, and you've got to dive on it and sacrifice yourself. Is that the extent of what

John is going for here? Is that kind of martyrdom and that kind of self -sacrifice? You ought to lay down your life as he laid down your life for others.

Do you think that's all that he has in mind? That you might need to... Should you be willing to lay down your life in a literal, real way for others in this church?

For your spouse, for your family, for... Yeah, yeah, you should be willing to do that.

But I think what John has in mind here is something much more mundane and daily than the notion that the pie -in -the -sky type of love that's kind of like, well,

I would die for you. If push comes to shove, I think I would, maybe.

You hope so. Verse 17 shows that it's not just primarily the abstract, how far would you be willing to go for another that defines love.

But look at verse 16 with me. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does

God's love abide in him? God's love moves us out to actually sacrifice for others.

True love is in the routine things of life. If we have the means to help out somebody else in need and then we close off our hearts to them.

John says, we ought to ask ourselves the question, is God's love even in us? If we're unwilling to part with our worldly possessions for the blessing of somebody else.

I. Howard Marshall, in his commentary on this passage, says something profound about this very subject that I wanted to quote for you.

He says, the world is not as much in need of heroic acts of martyrdom it's not as much in need of heroic acts of martyrdom, but in heroic acts of generosity.

Heroic acts of generosity towards others. Which is easier? I want you to think this through with me.

See if I, I might be off on this. Sometimes I get these things wrong, but which do you think is easier? To say with your mouth,

I will die for you or to part with your material possessions for the blessing of another?

Which of those is more difficult? I would say my mouth runs a lot.

So it's very easy for me to say I would die for you. Because the chances are I can run the science in my mind and run the math and run the numbers and the chances that I'm actually going to be called to make good on that promise are slim to none.

You're getting what I'm saying? Is that pretty easy to say that? How easy is it to part with your material wealth for the blessings of others?

The point of hurt and sacrifice when it's literally a sacrifice. Is that tough? And that's the calling that is being given here.

So the character of love is defined by Jesus on the cross and it's primarily action over words.

And I'm convinced that so many problems in the church around the world and here in America could be solved by a practical application of verse 18.

Look at verse 18 with me. Little children, let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth.

Do it, not speak it. Now for some of us, the words to pronounce

L -O -V -E is fairly easy. It's pretty easy to say that. Now, some are sitting here going, it's not as easy.

It's not that easy. I mean, I have a hard time saying it to my wife. I have a hard time saying it to my kids. Well, maybe that would be a good place to start for you then is actually saying it.

But how many of you know that saying it isn't the end? To say I love you is pales in comparison to sacrificing for someone.

Is that, am I right about that? Certainly they need to hear it, you guys.

Speaking of you, they need to hear it. But there is a component which he's saying, go, go, not just in speech, not just in talk, not just pronouncing the word love.

That doesn't make you loving. It's going out in action and living it. To love in deeds, to love in our behavior, to go out into the world and live out the implications of the cross in our home, in our neighborhood, in our driving style, in our driving style.

I mean, the way we drive our car. Have you ever thought about that as a component of love?

Ooh, ouch. Do I drive in a loving way? Okay, Don, you're getting too personal now.

What about to love, certainly in our speech, things that we say about one another, what we choose to not say about one another, to love in our sacrifice for others.

That requires a heart change. By the way, the context here is primarily within the church.

I'm applying it at a broader perspective and yet simultaneously recognizing that what John is talking about is our love for one another here recast.

This is a good place to start with loving others. But that it requires a heart change for us to drive in a loving way, that it requires a heart change for us to love in our home in a sacrificial way, that it requires a heart change.

That's why John is now gonna turn to the confidence of love in the next few verses. Our love for others will determine our level of confidence when we ask the question that we should be asking, are we indeed on the side of truth?

How many of you know that you're gonna lack confidence answering that question if you don't have love for others? And that's what

John is saying. If you don't love others, then you're gonna lack confidence. When push comes to shove and you're asked, is the truth in me?

You're gonna struggle with the answer to that question. You're not going to be moved towards confidence or assurance without love.

You getting that? You don't have love, you're gonna lack confidence and assurance. John knows that by laying this mandatory love on pretty thick, and by the way, it's not mandatory like you must love or else, it's mandatory as in if you are really in Christ, you will have this, that kind of mandatory.

And he's laid it on pretty thick. And so he knows that some of us are gonna look into our hearts and not find much love there.

You should be kind of introspective right now, thinking about yourself, not elbowing the person next to you, but thinking about yourself and going, is there love in here for others?

Is there love for my brothers and sisters in Christ? And if you don't find much love in there,

John knows that it's gonna put you in a tailspin. It's likely, likely put you in a bit of a tailspin and reasonably so.

And so we may be tempted to hurry up and act like we love others, right? Hurry up and play the part and act like there's love in here.

But have you ever been the recipient of pretend or fake love? Have you ever tried to give fake love, pretend love?

That doesn't last very long at all. Maybe, maybe an hour. You pull it off in a weekend if you're super awesome.

But not really. And so John gives a further reminder that we can have a false assessment of ourselves.

God is greater than our hearts. God is greater than our conscience. He knows us better than we know ourselves.

And even if we feel like we don't love enough, we need to remember that our salvation is not contingent on how much we love, but it's contingent upon the

God who is greater than our hearts, the God who knows all things. That's where salvation is found. Salvation is never pictured as our love for others that saves us.

Go out and do kind actions. Do, you know, help old ladies across the street and work at the food bank. And boy, then you're in because you've showed love to others.

Salvation is a relationship with Jesus Christ. It's a relationship with the one who truly shows us what love is.

And then he in turn empowers us to go out with his love towards others. So what's at stake?

If we look inside and we're kind of going, is there love in here? Is there not love in here? What's primarily at stake according to this text is our confidence before God.

You will lack confidence before God if you're doing this searching in your heart and you don't find love there. And so then we turn to verse 22.

And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. That's a statement of confidence.

It's one of the most difficult passages for me personally in my walk with Christ. It's tough. It's one that of all the things in scripture that I have to take based on faith, not upon my personal experience, this is one of them.

How many of you, if you're just being flat out honest, you've asked for something good from the hand of God that hasn't been provided for you?

How many of you would say that you asked when you were walking with God and you were in a good position with him and you felt like you were really in love with Christ and really connected with him and you asked for something good and it didn't come to pass that way.

I had a good friend in college who was praying desperately for revival on his college campus. All four years, he went to a college up in Grand Rapids and he was praying desperately for revival.

God, would you send it down? And I mean, he was a man of prayer, is a man of prayer. He's connected with the word, studying

Greek on his own. Like this is the kind of caliber of individual he was. It is.

And his faith was almost shipwrecked on this notion right here because he was asking, he was seeking to please

God. He was walking with him and bringing honor and glory to him and in worship to God and saying, your will be done.

But God, I know it would be your will that revival would happen. I know that that would bring honor and glory to your name. And he'd get like four or five students out of 5 ,000 to a prayer meeting pretty consistently over his four years there.

And it was a struggle for him. So what, how many of you think it might be valuable for us to make sense of this notion that John is saying in whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him?

Well, the simple answer might be maybe my friend wasn't obeying God. Maybe he wasn't really pleasing him or whatever.

And so you could go there with it. There's all different kinds of directions or some might even be tempted to dismiss this passage.

Just kind of go, well, is there something in the Greek here that we could get away from? Is there some way we could twist this verse or maybe a scribe added this later?

Is this in all of the old ancient manuscripts? And let me just tell you that this is a theme.

This idea of getting what we ask for is a theme, not just in John, but is a theme from Jesus.

Jesus said the same thing in John 14, four, in John 16, 23, in John 15, 16.

He said, whatever you ask in my name, it'll be given to you. So there's no wiggling out from underneath this being a theme that if you ask in his name, he will grant it to you.

But in the context of confidence and a proper understanding of prayer and in looking at the context of these other verses where all of this is stated, there's some things that help to clarify this for me.

That's first, is that we're talking about a lifestyle of love that leads to confidence or a lifestyle of hate that crushes confidence.

Okay, so that's the dichotomy of what John is talking about here. A lifestyle that leads to confidence or a lifestyle that crushes confidence.

And I believe that the person lacking confidence does not truly approach the throne of God with faith or boldness.

So if you lack confidence, you're not loving others. You are not following his commandments. You're not bringing honor and glory to him.

Then are you gonna step before his throne with any sense of confidence or faith or trust in him to accomplish?

What's the answer? No. If you pray at all, if you're praying at all, if you lack confidence in your standing before God, are you gonna even approach him?

No, you're running from him. You're going the opposite direction, right? And I would suggest to you that prayer being so central to our faith is one of the disciplines that comes the hardest.

It's one of the difficult things that I rarely meet an immature or young Christian who is really strong at prayer.

It takes time and effort to actually get to the point where I converse with this invisible

God who I don't see and entrust my day and my life and my family and all of the things that I have to him.

You see, it's a little bit easier to wake up in the morning and go brush my teeth and go do the things that I do all day long and then think of God as an afterthought.

You get what I'm saying on that? So prayer is one that comes difficult. And then if you're lacking confidence,

I'm gonna suggest to you that you are probably not praying like you should if you are lacking confidence.

And I can suggest this to you too. I can be pretty sure that I receive nothing from God if I'm asking nothing from him.

If you're not approaching him in prayer and asking him for things, then you're gonna receive nothing.

Are you getting what I'm saying? If you don't ask, you're not getting anything from him. But at times in my life when

I've been connected with God, living for him, loving his people, seeking him in confession of my sins and keeping a short account with him, having accountability with others,

I can personally testify to having seen a significant increase in answered prayer, not because I'm using

God as a genie in a bottle, but because I'm actually talking to him about my day.

I'm actually praying. I'm actually lifting things up to him. Is that making sense?

It's easier to see everything I have from his hand when I am praying to him.

In other words, the same outcome in my life could be credited to God or it could be credited to myself. And John says, the man who prays to God with confidence will see his prayers answered by God.

And that is a matter of faith for us, to step up in faith and say, I believe verse 22 to be true.

So there is a confidence that a life of love brings that will dramatically impact our relationship with God through prayer.

And lastly, we see the commandment of love. It's the last thing. We kind of wrap up this tour of love from John.

John has used the word commandments throughout his letter and I've intentionally not defined it until now because I didn't want to spoil the fun.

What kind of things run through your mind when you hear the word commandment? How many of you get something about Moses in there?

Any of you get Moses in your mind when you think of it? You got Charlton Heston holding the 10 commandments and rah, breaking them and stuff.

And you get this Old Testament image in your mind when you hear the word commandments, right? Well, John here is not referring to Old Testament commandments.

He's not even primarily referring to the 10 commandments. But here he finally defines what commandments he is encouraging us as followers of Jesus to obey.

What is the first command that he wants to bring to our attention? Number one, believe in the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ. What? The gospel is commanded.

The gospel is commanded. Believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And number two, love one another.

Love one another. I'm guessing that when you have considered the word commandments, the gospel is not usually foremost in your mind, right?

You don't really think of the gospel as a commandment. But here John says, commandment number one, put your trust in the name of Jesus Christ, the

Son of God. His name means to put your trust in his name. His name means the anointed one who saves his people.

His name is the gospel. I've said that multiple times. To trust in his name is to trust that he is indeed the savior, the

Messiah, the one given by which we may be saved. And the second commandment is to love one another.

The order, again, is significant. It's like John is saying, rule one, believe the gospel.

Rule two, love each other. You get it? Rule one, believe the gospel.

Rule two, love others. Whoever keeps these two commandments, he says, will remain in God and God will remain in that person.

And if that evidence isn't enough, if you get through the whole book of 1 John and you're kind of like, well, he says, if we walk with him, then he abides in us.

And so you've got all these tests to see if you're in with Christ. I mean, love being one of them, a major one.

But if you get to the end of that and you're kind of like, is there enough evidence here? And you're kind of struggling in your spirit. The Holy Spirit, the spirit of God who has been given to us, lets us know that he remains in us.

Confidence and assurance can somehow be mysteriously communicated to the human soul through the

Holy Spirit. John doesn't tell us how that works. Paul also refers to this, but doesn't tell us how it works.

Jesus refers to it, but doesn't tell us how it works. How does the Holy Spirit of God communicate trust in our spirit that we indeed belong to him?

I don't know, and I can't answer that question for you. The text doesn't tell us. But if the spirit of God is alive in you, he can communicate to you that you are indeed a child of God, that you indeed are in the truth.

Now, I'm going to ask you to do something. I know this is a little crazy, but I want you to raise your hand. Man, this is going to be scary.

Raise your hand if you are a sinner. If you're willing to admit you're a sinner. My hand is up.

Okay, you can put your hands down. I don't want anybody to see you. But I think almost everybody in the room raised their hand.

We are sinners. And yet, as I raise my hand and answer that question, I have confidence that I am in with Christ.

That he is my savior. He is my Lord. And I'm going to go and be with him again someday. And he's going to fully and completely save me in the end.

How can we have that kind of confidence? When we just raise our hand and say we're sinners. If we raised our hand and said we're sinners, then oh no, have we done something that's got in the way of God?

And we haven't demonstrated, we haven't been. His spirit is able to communicate in our souls that despite the fact that we are sinners, despite the fact that we know that we've broken his law and we've broken his commands, we have trust that it is through Christ and his spirit communicates with our spirit that we are indeed his children.

So we've seen a contrast of love through Cain, the character of love through Jesus Christ, the confidence of love through prayer, and the commandment of love through the gospel.

It's obvious that love for others is defined by willing self -sacrifice, like the cross is supposed to be a big deal for each one of us.

And so let me suggest three questions for you as we go to communion this morning. The first is, how does my view of church mesh with the centrality of love that is being issued here?

In other words, everybody sitting here has some kind of viewpoint, some kind of thoughts about church and gathering together, and we've got a variety of different things.

And I want to suggest to you that in our culture even in our Christian culture, excuse me, the world and a lot of people in the church have adopted a laissez -faire attitude about congregating together.

Like as if to say, you know, it's just as good if you get up in the morning, you know, shuffle down, pour yourself a cup of coffee, sit down at the computer, listen to one of your favorite preachers on there.

Maybe go ahead and just take a little juice and a little piece of bread and take communion by yourself and listen to your favorite worship

CD, and boom, you've got church, right? You don't even have to leave your house. You didn't even have to brush your teeth, right?

And so does that sound like, you know, is that church? How could we possibly practice the things that John is telling us are essential to our growth and to our life of loving one another in that context?

Do we need something more than that? The New Testament authors had no room for isolated spirituality without community.

Love requires connection with others. How many of you know that the church gets messy?

And some of you in this room have been burned by church. I get that. But does that mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater and say, you know what?

I despise the bride of Christ. I'm going to have nothing to do with her anymore. I would love to help you if you've been, if you've been abused by spiritual abuse or if you've been, had to work through, you know, past at churches and you are shy.

And I get that. I understand that. But I would love to sit down and talk with you and work through that. We are all fallen.

We are all messed. And recast has a potential to break situations too. But it's a commitment to be together and work through this like a family in love.

Second thing, how is my confidence in prayer? Ask that question to yourself. It's possible that something in your life is interfering with your communion with God.

Do you have unconfessed sin? Are you lacking love towards others? Is there an unloving relationship that is getting in the way of confident relationship with God?

Think about that. And lastly, ask yourself this question. Is his spirit speaking peace and confidence and assurance in my heart that I am indeed on the side of truth?

That I am indeed in his family. That I am a child of God through Jesus Christ.

It's possible that you're here and you have no confidence or peace with Jesus Christ. And if that's you, please come and speak to me at the end of this service.

A life of forgiveness and restoration can be yours through a new start with Jesus Christ. We're about to pass some juice and some crackers, not because it's snack time, but because this is a ritual.

This is a ritual that Jesus instituted. I know some of us are already thinking about food, but we're gonna go just a little bit longer here.

He instituted a ritual to his followers and said, do this. And he wanted us to do it often. He actually said that.

Do this as often as you get together in remembrance of me. And so if you're here and you're a follower of Jesus, take this cup of juice and contemplate the central definition of love.

Let that picture of divine love fill your mind as you consider the blood of Jesus poured out for us.

If you wonder what should I be doing while the song is playing, I mean, you can certainly think about the words of the song as Josh is playing them.

But I'd encourage you, I mean, at some point during any time we take communion, there should be in your mind the image of the son of God lifted high on the cross for you and me.

The immense pain and suffering that he went through because of love. He loved us.

Not that we're all that in a bag of chips and he thought, well, I gotta go do this for them because they're so awesome. No, as a matter of fact, he did it because we're vile sinners who are depraved and disgusting and broken and messed up, and there was no other way.

And yet he loved us so much that he did it. So there's a striking, the balance right there and the midpoint of between humility and awesome value.

That's what we find at the cross. Let that picture settle in you as you take the cracker and remember his body that was broken for you and me.

He was crushed in our place and he suffered intensely, willingly out of love for you and me.

Let's pray. Father, as we have an opportunity to reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, I'm so aware of the fact that I'm not worthy of it and simultaneously so grateful for your love poured out.

Father, I pray that the cross would move us and we would become a more and more loving people, not because we're scared, but because we're delighted and rejoicing in the love that has been poured out on us at the cross.

Father, even as we have an opportunity to take this juice as a reminder of his blood and the cracker as a reminder of your son's body, crushed and scourged for us,

Father, would you ignite a passion within us for loving each other and for loving the world, loving those who have not even experienced anything like love before.

Would you help us to keep our definition robust and strong and centered that our love in our families and our love as we drive and our love for our children and our love for our coworkers would flow out of a recognition of the cross and let your cross fill our vision even now,