Love and the Joy Leverage: 1 John 4:7-21 - Philippians: Joy Leverage

You're listening to this.

Listen to me.

Some of you are not demonstrating love.

And you would say, well, I've been through a lie, so I don't have the capacity to love.

Does the Spirit of God live in you?

Because he has the capacity of love and he lives in you.

And so I cannot allow us.

We cannot allow ourselves to give ourselves excuses about why we can't love.

When the real truth is, beloved, you're loved.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

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We hope you are encouraged by today's message.

Open your Bibles up to 1 John.

1 John chapter 4, starting in verse 7.

1 John 4 · chapter mention

Verse 7 through 8.

It says, Beloved.

And that's really, honestly, truly, we could stay here forever.

Beloved.

Listen to me.

You are loved by God.

You really do.

I would challenge many of you.

Pastor Steve challenged me with this before we came on in the merge.

I don't even remember what spurred it on, but we were around a campfire and he said, Do you know, you know, that you're loved by God?

And I was like, Well, I kind of do.

I intellectually know it, but do I feel loved by God?

Sometimes I don't.

And sometimes, if I'm being perfectly honest, sometimes the work I do tends to be so that God will love me.

Like subconsciously, I serve God to try to be worth loving.

And it's really weird for a pastor to have to do that, to say he does that.

But that's true.

That's true.

And I'm trying to break that cycle, and it's a process for me.

But this word starts out by saying beloved.

He says, beloved, and then he says, let us love one another.

But if you don't understand what he means when he says beloved, the rest of this sermon could be really dangerous for you.

Because I'm getting ready to talk about how you and I should be loving others.

And if what you hear today is, okay, I'm going to start loving others so that I am worthy of being loved, that's a dangerous place to be.

You are loved by God because of his character.

Not because of your character.

Just look on the calendar and let it sink in.

When did God demonstrate his love for you?

Way before you showed up.

Way before you and I came into this earth.

He had already demonstrated the depths of his love.

Can't do any more than die for you.

And he chose to give his life up for you way before you showed up to impress him.

And way before you did those things that you have done that you believe no one would ever love you for.

You cannot love not by God's definition of love.

Because man's definition of love is an exchange.

When man thinks about love, until you have children.

But when man thinks about love, it's an exchange.

You have something that I admire, and I'm going to try to be something that you admire so that you will give me what I admire.

And I love you.

No matter what it is.

My wife and I love going out on dates and playing a game.

We look at other couples and we guess whether they're married or not.

It's an easy game to play.

But the word beloved literally means esteemed, dear.

This is this, I like this one.

Favorite.

I tell people all the time, yes, God loves you, but I'm his favorite.

Worthy of love.

You hear that?

Worthy of love.

How many of you in this room don't feel worthy of love?

Should be all of you.

If we got what we deserve, well then we all would be in trouble.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 48, Jesus sums up his sermon on the mount by saying, Be perfect, therefore, just like God is perfect.

Matthew 5:48

That's the standard.

So God does have a standard for whether you'll measure up, and I'm telling you, you don't.

And it is to be perfect, just like God's perfect.

And if you're anything like me, you can tend to still measure whether you're worthy of God's love.

Listen to me, you are beloved.

You are the beloved of God.

And you have to believe it.

Because that's actually the thing that will tip this in your favor.

When you are loved by God and you know it, then you do walk around with joy.

In Philippians, Paul says, make my joy complete by being like-minded and having the same love.

In other words, he's saying, if you don't love, that will affect my joy.

If you don't have love for your brother, there's no way my joy can be complete.

And so I'm telling you, your capacity, your ability to love, it has to be the first thing you address before you try to go and love others.

Otherwise, you don't grasp of the fact that being beloved is your identity, it's your theology.

You believe you're loved, even though you know you don't deserve it.

But you have to truly believe it.

If you're anything like me, I believe it.

I'm trying to learn to believe it.

I'm trying to learn that God could actually love me, and that could affect the way I treat other people.

Because Scripture says, beloved, let us love one another.

Because love is of God.

And everyone that loves is born of God and he knows God.

And if you do not love, you don't know God.

Because he is love.

And what he's saying here is he came to live inside of you.

He came to give you new life in the spirit.

And if God himself is alive inside of you and love is absent inside of you, then what does that say about God?

It's not possible.

Love lives inside of you.

But just because you are beloved, that doesn't change things.

I heard a young, young, young, young, young speaker one time, really young.

He said, What you believe about God does not change God at all.

It only changes you.

So if you believe that you are loved, then you're changed.

If you don't believe you're loved, guess what?

You're still loved.

It doesn't change the truth.

You're still loved.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life.

What a tragedy to be loved but not believe.

My kids like watching this show.

It's like a kid's show, like a Disney show.

And there's a boy in the show that gets invited to go out on a uh to a dance with this girl.

But his brother said, You doofus.

He said, You understand?

Look at you and look at her.

Do you really think she's inviting you to the dance?

This is a prank.

This is not real.

So he shows, he's like, Well, I'll show her.

And he shows up to the dance in a plexiglass box.

And he can talk outside the box, but nothing can hurt him.

Nothing can touch him.

You can't drop water bombs on his head.

You can't do any pranks to him.

He's in here.

And they roll him into the dance.

And the girl comes out and she's like, What's up?

He's like, I know what you're up to.

I know what you're trying to do.

You're trying to prank me.

And she said, No, really, I just wanted to go to the dance with you.

And she walks out.

Beautiful girl.

And he's not.

So he's not, he's not attractive at all.

But so she walks out and he stands there, and in that moment, wrapped in a safe box, he realizes this was real.

Somebody really wanted to love me.

And some of you handle, some I as well sometimes can handle our faith that way.

If God really knew me, he wouldn't love me.

So if he's saying he loves me, I'm going to somehow protect myself against getting hurt by God.

And guess what?

God just wants to dance.

He just wants to walk with you into some great and glorious things that He has designed from the foundation of the earth because He loves you.

And what a shame that you and I are wrapped in a plexiglass box so that we don't get hurt.

But you can't dance in a plexiglass box.

So what a shame to be loved but not believed.

Scripture says that God demonstrated his love that while you were sinners, Christ died for you.

While you were sinners, he died.

And then in 1 John 4.19 it says, He loved you before you ever loved or served anyone, because he says, we love because he first loved us.

So as I begin to dive in and talk about loving and serving your neighbor, if you think, yes, I'm going to do that to get God's love, you're missing the whole point.

We can't love until he loves us.

We can't love until we accept his love.

And you can't love others and make God love you.

But because God loves you, because God loves me, we begin to express ourselves by loving others.

You just can't help but do it.

So let's look at verse eight.

It says, He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

And then in verse 9 it says, In this, the love of God was manifest towards us that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him.

He's beginning to say, this is God's view of love.

This is how God sees love.

God sees love by sacrificing for others.

It says that he sent his son into the world that we might live through him.

True love looks out for the best interests of others.

Even if you have to sacrifice to do it.

That's what God's definition of love.

Man's definition of love is an exchange.

Well, I think she's pretty.

I hope she thinks I'm handsome.

I'll try to impress her.

And uh, you know what my wife and I did for Valentine's this week, last week?

We got Chinese, and I brought it home, and then we we did some cleaning.

We did some cleaning, we did some prep work, so I got uh some Chinese food, but just because I knew she had had a long day and she probably didn't feel like cooking, it wasn't romantic.

I didn't come in with flowers or nothing like that.

Y'all think I might should, but I'm telling you, I know my wife.

And when I walk in with flowers, she's like, How much was that?

How much was that, and how long till those things start dying?

And she's very practical.

So I come in with Chinese food, and my wife actually, we got a call, and uh, we had a family uh member die on her side of the family, died on Valentine's Day.

And so I wound up just being super quiet and sitting beside her and putting my hand on her shoulders.

My my kids cleaned the house, and we all talked about let's let's like not have a bunch of chatter tonight, and everybody just kind of loved her to kind of get through that.

That's why she's not here today.

She's she's in Indiana with her family.

But we just kind of like just jumped in and just loved her, and it doesn't have to be showy, and it doesn't have to be romantic, and it doesn't have to be dramatic, it has to be steady, and it has to be for the other person.

Like your love, whether it's for your spouse or whether it's for your church member or whether it's for someone in Guatemala, it has to be because you truly care about them.

And you're just doing a sacrificial act for them, even though it might cost you something.

And then it says in verse 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.

And again, he's saying, you didn't have anything to offer God.

You still don't have anything to offer God.

There's nothing you can do to win God's favor.

You you don't have anything to offer God.

He just loves you because that's his character.

And so love doesn't calculate whether or not it's worth it or not.

Love just loves because God loved us.

And then it said, beloved, if God so loved us, we, I like this, we ought to love one another.

Now let me explain something.

This whole scripture to me is a little bit weird.

Here's why.

Because he's telling you, beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God, and he that does not love does not know God because God is love.

You know what he's saying?

If you are a believer, if you are a follower of Christ, you don't have a choice.

You will naturally love.

And so I'm wondering why is he making such a big deal about it?

It's like teaching a seminar on breathing.

And we can all do it.

But here's the deal.

Here's the deal.

Just because it's in you doesn't mean you don't have to learn to walk in it.

So it is natural that followers of Christ love in a sacrificial way.

It's already in us because the Son of God is in us, the Spirit of the Lord is in us, it's natural.

But it still has to be taught and modeled in order to pull it out.

So any of you who have ever coached a sport, ever coached a kid, you know, you know that no amount of coaching can put something into a kid.

It can't happen.

That's not what coaching does.

What coaching does is see something that is already in a kid, and that kid doesn't realize it yet, and then you pull it out of them.

That's what a coach does.

A coach says, I see something in you, but you don't see it in yourself.

So I'm gonna pull that out of you.

I'm gonna put you in situations so that you will become who you already are.

I know because I've coached kids year after year after year after year, and some kids, you get in their face and you tell them, hey, you can do this.

Other kids, you just give them a twinkie, give them a hug.

Ask them if they have fun, because there's nothing in there.

But I'm watching my son play basketball yesterday, and man, he is doing great.

He's going after it.

And I'm like, I'm like, come on! And the other guy's like looking at me like I'm weird because I'm not the coach this year.

And I'm just like, man, if our coach only knew what some of these kids were capable of, he would call them to rise to the occasion.

Listen to me.

Some of you are not demonstrating love.

And you would say, Well, I've been through a lot, and so I don't have the capacity to love.

Are you born again?

Does the Spirit of God live in you?

Because He has a capacity of love and He lives in you.

And so I cannot allow us, we cannot allow ourselves to give ourselves excuses about why we can't love when the real truth is, beloved, you're loved.

Let us love one another.

Love is of God.

And everyone that has the ability to love in the way that God's describing it, it's because they're born again.

The one who is not capable of loving like that, it's because you're not born again.

So if you were to say, I'm not capable of that, I would say, either be discipled and let the word of God and a mentor pull that out of you, or give your life to Jesus.

You're loved more than you know you're loved.

That love should be overwhelming you because you're swept away by it.

I remember the day that I was at my dining room table and Christ came into my life and I became a born-again believer.

I was completely different the next day.

My bus driver saw a visible difference the next day.

The Spirit of God, I just got, I was changed.

And it's because I realized I have peace and I have joy because now I know that I'm loved by God.

And if you were to say, I'm I cannot love, then give your life to the Lord.

Just accept his love, for God loves you so much.

Just accept his love.

You'll be transformed.

If you say, I've already accepted his love, then I would say, then walk in it.

Walk in his love.

Learn.

Because just like it's natural to be loved, Paul still taught them how to love.

He had to pull that out of them.

You still have to walk in it.

So let's look at verses 12 through 16.

No one has seen God at any time.

If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love has been perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he has given us his spirit, and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

And we have known and believed the love of God has for us.

God is love, and he who abides in him, and he who Who abides in love abides in God and God in him.

Listen, you want to know if you're walking in the spirit?

The gift of tongues is not the measure.

The gift of prophecy is not the measure.

How much you serve is not the measure.

None of those things will tell me whether or not you are in the spirit.

Because there can be people in this room that are filled with the Spirit of God, but just don't have a prophecy.

You know, when you told us, you said, hey, stick around, and if you have a word for somebody, you feel like God's giving you a word right here, then just whisper it in their ear.

And I didn't have anything.

So I made something up.

And I I did.

I leaned into one of the wives' ears and I said, I'm just kind of getting a word from the Lord.

And do with it what you will.

Because that's what people say when they're.

I said, do with it what you will.

But God said, You're supposed to make me a cake or something.

I said, I said, I said, I don't really know.

And she said, Did he say what kind?

I said, I said, no, he didn't specify.

I just, I don't, I don't have complete clarity on this.

But I feel like whatever you do, he'll be pleased.

Whatever.

Whatever it is.

Listen, I don't have the gift of prophecy.

I remember sitting in a chair one time and people were trying to pray over me so that I get the gift of tongues.

Like they're they're going at it and they're passionately wanting me to have this.

And I could tell this mattered more to them than it did to me.

And I'm sitting in the chair and they're like, just start speaking.

And I was like, dear God, they were like, no, no, no, no.

In a different language.

I was like, this is the only one I got.

I don't have any other other language.

And so I'm like, guys, it ain't working.

Thank you for the prayers, but it didn't work.

Didn't work for me.

But here's what I do have.

I love you.

I love you.

I love God.

I feel like the Spirit of God tried to convict me that I wasn't loving others.

I feel like I would try to get right and love them.

That is your measure.

That is your measure of whether or not you are walking in the Spirit of God.

Is do you love?

Verse 17 says, Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment.

Because as he is, so we are in the world.

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.

We love him because he first loved us.

This is super appropriate that verse 19 would be in the middle of this section.

He's saying there's no fear.

There's no fear here.

Are you afraid of God?

I'm not talking about a holy reverence where you honor him, where you worship him, and where he is the Lord and you follow that.

I'm saying, are you afraid of him?

Do you think he's mean?

Do you think he's out to get you?

I remember having a lady one time pointed her finger at me.

She said, God's gonna get you.

He's gonna get you.

And I was like, he already got me.

You poor lady, you walk like you really believe that every day?

You feel that way?

Oh my goodness.

Perfect love cast out fear.

And then verse 19 says, We love him because he first loved us.

He went first.

He already died, he already did it.

There's not nothing else he can do.

You ever wonder about your kids?

Like, what else I gotta do to show you I love you?

No, you can't have a cell phone.

But I do love you.

What else do I have to do?

I love you.

God has to be thinking that 10,000 times more.

What else do I have to do?

I've died.

Like I died.

What else do I have to do to show you?

I love you.

The jury's not even out on the I'm I I love you.

I died, I rose again, I wrote a book, I love you.

Read it.

And then he says in verse 20, and we're done.

If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.

For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God who he has not seen?

And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must also love his brother.

So listen to me.

In those last two verses, I want to challenge you.

Love your brother.

If you pulled out that app or that page on your phone again, not only can you sign up to go on a mission trip and love kids in Guatemala, but you can sign up right here to help people restore homes.

Restore homes that are falling apart.

We're right here right there on our website.

Just go and say, Yeah, I want to love my brother in that way.

You can serve the homeless.

I think it's March 31st, but it's on the website.

March 31st, we'll get a crew of people and we're gonna go and we're gonna serve the homeless.

We did that uh last month or month before.

Had a blast.

There's a group of ladies here who sew these.

I think they're awesome.

I came home with this just because I think they're awesome.

And my wife, I was like this right here.

And my wife said, Why do you have a burp cloth?

Listen, there's ladies that come here on the first Thursday of every month and sew these for the Crisis Pregnancy Center.

It's on our website.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So bring your sewing machine and come have a blast.

There's a uh family uh in our church, they have an organization called Leitzis, and this year they'll have probably 30 teenage or college-age students that will give up their uh spring break and come here and they do coding on the computer.

I don't get it.

I can hardly do email, but they do coding.

And they just need people to say, I'll take two of those students and they can sleep in my house for a week.

That's all it takes.

Uh Greg and Dorinda are here somewhere, but it's on our uh webpage.

All you have to do is just go and say, Hey, I want to love our neighbors in that way.

Somebody here started a ministry where we give socks to homeless people.

That's on our website.

You can just show up here with a pack of socks and say, hey, I want to love somebody.

But let me tell you, while all of that is important, I hope you go to our website and look at that because those are needs that need to be met.

It's also important that you hug your son.

It is also important that you look your wife in the eye and you tell her, Hey, I love you.

And next to God, you're first for me.

It's also important that somebody asked me to come to their house yesterday and said, uh, hey, I heard your family was going through a lot.

I heard your wife is out of town.

Why don't you come to our house and eat?

It's also important that you have harmony in your home.

You've got to love first in that house.

Look, I think it's weird to pay$2,000 to go to Guatemala when you won't put your arms around your brother in the church.

But I also think it's weird to put your arms around your brother in the church when people in your home don't feel loved.

Guys, it's just, it's not about missions.

It's just about being loved and loving your brothers.

Let's pray.

Father God, we love you.

You loved us first, and that compels us to just love you out of gratitude, out of the new nature that's in us.

And Father, I pray that you bring that new nature out, Lord, that you help us to be enamored in love with you, God.

Help us to love others, but help us to not do it in order to prove ourselves to you.

Help us to just do it because we truly realize we're loved.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

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