1 John: God is Love, So Love

So two weeks ago I had an appointment at the US Customs Office down at the uh the airport, the international terminal of the airport.

So I wanted to get my uh global entry.

Is anybody TSA approved or pre-approval or what whatever, the different levels?

And so I was reading through the different levels because I want to skip security.

I'm one of those people that will pay for that uh service, and so I'm really looking forward to skipping security.

And then I read about this global entry, which sounds fascinating because I have a mission trip coming up to Costa Rica, and you get to come like coming back through customs to get your own quick line, and so I'm I'm all gonna be all into this.

And so I'm I do the uh online application and I fill that out, it doesn't take that long, and I set my appointment.

And for your appointment, you have to go down to the airport to the US customs office, which just sounds so official.

Like all of that just sounded really, really official, and I was actually kind of nervous about it.

I parked in the parking deck and walked into the international terminal.

There's a customs office there, and there's just like customs officers with guns, and you know, it just made me nervous.

I have nothing to hide, right?

I've nothing to hide, and still I was a little nervous, and I get called back, you know, behind the counter to the back offices and the officer, very matter-of-fact, he didn't want to kid around.

I tried.

Uh that didn't that wasn't gonna work out, picked up on that message.

Uh he sat me down.

Apparently, this is not a kidding around subject, and so he sat me down and he said, Well, first thing is we're gonna talk about your citizenship.

So, okay, great, preparing myself.

And he says, Are you a U.S.

citizen?

I said, Yes.

And he said, Where were you born?

And I said, I was born at Northside Hospital in Atlanta.

He says, Great, we could move on.

That was it.

It's just actually the end of my story.

So it wasn't a great story.

Uh but the point's actually pretty good.

And the point is, like that is it.

Like the point is that, like, like that's it about citizenship.

Like it's it's actually pretty clear.

It's pretty objective in that way.

Right?

This helps us understand, like, when the Bible says, like, you are a citizen of heaven, like that's a very objective thing that has been given to you.

Um, it doesn't require a lot of questions, right?

Like the the officer didn't like grill me, like he wasn't grilling me.

He didn't ask me, he did not ask me if I felt like an American citizen.

Right?

He didn't ask me uh to what degree are you in love with America?

Didn't ask me that.

He didn't ask me, have you ever done anything or thought anything or had a motive in opposition to American values of freedom and democracy and equal rights for all people?

He didn't ask me any of those things.

He just said, Are you a citizen?

Yes.

Where were you born?

Okay, good.

Very objective in that way.

And the point is, right, especially when we come around these ideas of our citizenship in heaven, or you know, another place where Paul says, you know, you're not orphans, you're sons and daughters of God, or in 1 John, where we've been reading, like God has lavish love for you.

You are the beloved, and all these are images and truths for us to get inside of ourselves that it's like this is an objective thing given to us.

Our belovedness is not subjective in truth with some objectivity.

Our belovedness is objective in truth with some subjectivity.

Now that's just a fancy way of me using bigger words to say you are by his love given to you, beloved, objectively.

And then maybe there's some emotion, right?

Like that's wonderful when there's emotion tied to it.

Don't we love that?

That's great.

I love it when you know I'm at a 4th of July parade and I'm overwhelmed with being an American.

That's a wonderful moment.

And I love when I have emotion tied to my belovedness, but my my American citizenship and my belovedness is objective.

Because there are days.

There are days where my emotions are all over the place.

There are days I have doubts.

And to know that this is objective in its beginning point and its foundation, and the subjectivity comes and goes, that's incredibly, incredibly reassuring to us.

And this is this agape, unconditional love that the Bible talks about and John is writing about.

Agape is that is not conditioned upon anything.

It's given to you.

It's not our love toward him, it's his love toward us.

That's what we read last week in 1 John.

So we're gonna work through verses 11 through 15, I think, this morning.

11 is time back into last week, and we'll kind of bridge our way in.

It's actually a tie, it could be part two of the sermon from last week.

These two could tie together.

Some of it we'll sort of repeat, and then we'll kind of build and dig more deeper into some of the same ideas.

So 1 John 4, 11.

Beloved, so he says the six times, he calls these people beloved six times.

So John is really drilling home his point here.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

So revisiting a point from last week, this is a point that we just say all the time.

Actually, it's point number one.

Your belovedness means you are loved without conditions.

It's not that you have loved God, but that he has loved you.

And then that word beloved means dearly loved, worthy of love.

Now, if you remember the context here in this letter, John is writing to a church.

Remember this?

And there's been a group of people, and this group of people have decided they don't believe the core things that the church believes about Jesus, and so they are leaving and they're going off and they're headed out, but along the way, they are causing chaos, they are being difficult, and John is not excited about this.

He is very emotional about his writing is emotional.

You can feel his emotion about this.

He is fired up about this.

These people are causing deep problems and a lot of problems for a lot of people.

But his concern is, even in those problems, John's concern very clearly, because this is what he's aiming at in his writing, is that the church isn't loving those people who are being difficult.

This is really good stuff for us and Marietta in 2019 because your spouse, don't nudge them, your neighbor, your coworker, your friend, certainly your children, will not always cooperate with you.

They just won't.

Somebody's gonna turn on you.

Maybe it's already happened, or it's a matter of time.

Somebody's gonna turn on you, it's gonna really hurt.

And then what do you do?

Do you find a way to still love them?

Maybe you have boundaries, maybe you have all that.

That's fine.

But do you find a way to still forgive?

Do you find a way to still love them?

Now John's not saying we don't feel that.

John's not saying that we don't have opinions, right?

We've been talking about that.

John's writing is very clear.

He he has feelings, he's fired up.

He has feelings and he holds opinions, but he is resolute that if God so loved us, ought we to stay in the faith and ought we to love each other?

Right?

I mean, Jesus himself, love your enemy.

And John's just hammering away through this chapter.

The way to live out the mission to love is to rest perpetually in the love we already have from God.

It's the way it's carried out.

It's not something we move on to do.

It's something that if we rest fuller in our belovedness, we are empowered to love.

Verse 12 No one has ever seen God.

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

So that means that the love is flowing through us.

Not that it wasn't complete before, it's complete, but the love has a flow to it, a byproduct.

That's the word I read this week in the commentary on this section.

I love that word.

That's point number two is love for others is a byproduct of belovedness.

So let me show you a few pictures.

I love playing these games now that we have screens.

If you haven't picked up on it, I'll show you a few pictures.

I'm gonna show you a picture.

When I show you a picture, we will guess the byproduct of the image, of the thing in the image.

All right, so here's the first picture.

And what is the byproduct?

Here's the first picture.

This is a cow ice cream hamburger, ice cream, creative answers.

I'm thinking a little bit more reduced that.

Milk, thank you.

Thank you.

We didn't have to kill the cow.

We didn't have to.

So the cow doesn't try to make milk.

Right?

The cow's not trying to make milk.

The milk is a byproduct of a cow being a cow.

Okay.

Picture number two.

What is the byproduct?

Picture number two.

We're gonna get some smart answers.

Alright, what's the byproduct?

Oxygen.

Thank you.

I was looking for like two by four.

Somebody says a two by four.

Oxygen.

The tree doesn't try to make oxygen.

The oxygen is a byproduct of the tree being a tree.

Last picture, what is the byproduct of don't answer.

We're not gonna answer.

We're not gonna answer the byproduct of her.

There's all sorts of answers.

I don't want to know the answers, right?

Chaos, crazy, artistry.

I don't know.

I don't know, actually.

I was just looking for a picture of like who knows what the byproduct of her is.

We don't know.

Here's the point.

You don't have to keep staring at that image, by the way, we can take that down.

Soiled all of you for the day.

Y'all can relax, by the way.

Y'all got uptight with that one.

Here's the point.

Belovedness has a byproduct.

Stuff has byproducts.

Miley Cyrus has a byproduct.

A cow has a byproduct.

Tree has a byproduct.

Belovedness has a byproduct.

You are loved.

You are loved.

The more you rest in that, the more you know that, the more you set your soul, the very core of who you are, not in your work or in your children or in your and how successful successful you are, status, or what you look like, the more you rest your soul in your belovedness of how loved you are, that you're already loved.

Love becomes a byproduct.

Here's what we said last week.

We said this.

We said, as we are already beloved, we don't have to judge people as to feel we are better than them.

Isn't that freeing?

That's amazing.

Our judgment can be transformed into compassion.

That's how this works itself out.

Christy and I ate lunch Friday at the Marietta Market.

We got our food and we sat out there on that front deck.

You know, the front deck.

There's a front deck and a little bar, and you look out over just a beautiful parking lot and highway.

It's a very serene place to have lunch.

So we're out there watching traffic, having a you know, a real date moment.

Eventually the parking lot filled, and then it did get pretty fun because you've been, maybe you've been there and you've gotten there after the parking lot fills.

There's about 15 parking spots in that parking lot for us.

And you pull in, once once you're in and it's full, one row's a dead end, and then the next row has a little loop, and you come back out, and then you have to make the decision: am I gonna go pay for parking?

Am I gonna circle around again?

Am I gonna like camp out and wait?

Uh everybody's have a strategy.

And so we're sitting here eating, and then we pick up on like this is fun.

Like, we are watching people's strategies play out in front of us because some people camp out, some people are looping, some people do one loop and they bail, and then Sam pulls in.

Sam and Rachel pull in, and this was awesome because now we get to watch somebody, we get to judge somebody that we know.

And so they pull in, and Rachel's telling him stuff.

We were picking up on that, by the way.

She had some she had some things to say.

And so they pull in and he pulls down the dead-in row, and we're like, all right, we know, like right away, we're like, there's no spots, and we're spotting if people are walking out, getting in their car.

Nobody's in their car.

He's not missing anything.

We're like, he's he's dead, he's got nothing.

Pulls in, dead in, nice three-point turn, by the way, because there's no space down there.

Most people take like 17 cuts, and he really clean turnaround, and we're going like, hey, he's good.

That's very good.

Uh, Rachel has some things to say on the way back.

I'm not sure what.

Loving, encouraging things for how to park in a busy parking lot.

And then Sam he comes and he he drops uh Rachel and little Samuel off there at the curb.

We thought that was very sweet, by the way.

Um we don't know whose idea it was, but it looked to be really sweet.

While he's over there, like six people walk out to go get in their cars.

We're like, oh, he's gotta circle back around.

And like we're waiting for him to circle back around, and then this other lady pulls in and she comes down, she's in her SUV, she gets to the dead end, she decides she's not doing any cuts, she's gonna reverse all the way back out with people all over, and she's not gonna reverse.

And we are laughing at her, not with her, she's stressed, we can see it.

We're laughing at her.

Eventually, she hits a curb, she runs her car up on a curb, and then finally, Christy and I, we just look at each other, and by the way, Sam got a parking spot.

He did a great job.

We could just say, good job, Sam, he did great.

We're but we're busy laughing at the lady who puts her car up on a curb because she can't reverse, and we just look at each other and say, like, this is a lot of fun.

Like sitting in judgment over people and just talking about them and laughing at them.

This was so we I we were really enjoying this.

Right?

And you know what I'm talking about because you've done it some a little bit.

And part of what I loved about it was it's like when you're in that position, like you don't have to think about any of the ways you're not perfect.

Right?

Like, I've never at once did I say, you know, it is really difficult to park in this parking lot.

Like, I I really feel for that lady.

I I'm gonna go down and help her.

Like, no, no, not ever a bit.

Like, I we're just in, we're just laughing, we're having a great time because when you're in judgment, you're not considering all of your imperfection.

Right?

You you've passed that burden off.

Like you're just you're laughing at the other person, you're in judgment over the other person.

Now, here's the problem with it.

The problem with it is if we are becoming judgmental people toward others, eventually we come back and judge ourselves.

And on top of that, compassion is impossible when you're sitting in judgment.

Maybe you've kept up with the shooting and the death of Botham Gene in Dallas.

Do you remember this?

It's it's been a while because the court case is was going on for a while.

Uh it was the off-duty police officer, the lady who walked into, she she claimed she walked into the wrong apartment, and then she saw uh him.

He was eating ice cream on his own couch in his own apartment, and she said she missed took him for an intruder and she shot him and she killed him.

Uh, two weeks ago, she was convicted of the murder of Botham.

And then I as this video came out, I think it was this week or last week, and I I saw it.

It was his little brother.

So his big brother was shot and killed.

And this is the little brother, he's 18 years old, and this is what he says when he gets on the stand uh there in the court.

I can speak for myself.

I I forgive you.

And I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you.

And I don't think anyone can say it.

Again, I'm speaking for myself, not even behalf of my family.

But I love you just like anyone else.

And I'm not gonna say I hope you rot and die just like my brother did, but I see I I personally want the best for you.

And I I wasn't gonna ever say this in front of my family or anyone, but I don't even want you to go to jail.

I want the best for you.

Because I know that's what that's exactly what both of them would want you to do.

And the best would be give your life to Christ.

I'm not gonna say anything else.

I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that both of them would want you to do.

Again, I love you as a person.

And I don't wish anything bad on you.

I don't know if this is possible, but can can I give her a hug, please?

The one who is offended, the one who should be sitting in judgment.

I mean, if anybody should be sitting in judgment, it's that little brother offers compassion.

And he gave her a taste, right?

He gave us a taste just watching it of what redeeming love is.

I mean, the scriptures say while we were sinners, Christ died for us.

So while we were deserving of judgment, we receive the grace of God known in God and his love for us.

This is what and who Christ is.

That our sin is put upon him on the cross, and his righteousness is given to us that we might be the beloved of God, and that is secure, not because of our love for him, but his love for us.

That in our imperfection, we should have judgment.

But we have no judgment because all of the judgment was handled within God Himself, Christ on the cross.

Verses 12 and 13, no one has ever seen God.

If we love another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

So we just read that, tying that into verse 13.

By this we know, so by that, what we just said, by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit.

So point number three is this loving others helps us experience what is already true about us.

God abides in us.

And that's fascinating.

Right?

That the call to love is an empowerment from your belovedness, and at the same time, it helps us actually experience in some way what is true of us, that God is in us.

Let's keep reading verses 14 and 15, finishing out the passage.

And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent his son to be the Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is a son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

So last point is this: you are secure solely because you confess Jesus is Son of God.

So the gospel is not get good enough or be good enough or know enough or get enough enlightenment or enough self-improvement.

Anytime you sniff that out in a message, that is not gospel.

That's something else.

We are secured not because we're strong and perfect.

We're secure because we confess that we're imperfect.

We confess we are in sinners in need of grace.

And that there's a love for us.

Isn't that relieving?

There's a love for us that's not conditioned upon anything except God's grace to us.

Now, were any of you aware that it was Fat Bear Week?

Anyone up on that?

Okay, a couple of you are up on Fat Bear Week.

Let me fill you in because this was a pretty big deal, apparently.

Uh this is up in Katma National Park in Alaska.

So what they do is the rangers up there, there's about 20 bears that live in this area and they all feed from the same river, and so they're fattening up through the summer, moving into hibernation.

So they have a bracket, looks like March Madness a little bit, and they're tracking these bears.

They use cameras and different stuff to kind of track their weight, and so it's different bears against different bears, and as they gain weight, they beat out the other bears.

Well, championship was this past week.

Lefty the bear versus Holly the Bear was the championship round.

It ended on Tuesday, October 8th.

And Holly the Bear, she won.

Okay?

Now here's a picture of Holly on July 12th.

This is a picture of her on July 12th.

This is a picture of her on Tuesday.

On Tuesday.

Holly the Bear won, right?

Like Lefty had nothing.

Like Lefty had no chance at all.

But those are real pictures, by the way.

Got them from CNN.

Has to be real.

The Ranger said this.

The Ranger said it was nearly impossible to get a picture of Holly the Bear because she spent all of her waking hours submerged in the river looking for, looking at, and eating fish.

Right?

Like Holly the Bear knew something.

I'm gonna tie this in.

It's gonna take a little work.

Get there.

Holly the bear knows something that lefty and all the other bears, they're losing out on.

And that's this.

When something is lavish, you don't move on.

You just keep fattening up.

Like that girl was beholding, like we've been talking about, behold the lavish love of God.

She was not moving on.

This is why John just keeps saying six times, beloved, beloved, beloved, beloved, beloved, beloved.

He just won't move on because he knows in all of your calling to love, all of my calling to love, and all of our failure to live up to that calling with perfection, you have to know you're loved.

My brothers and sisters, give yourself grace.

Give yourself grace for a little bit of time to rest more in the lavish love given to you that you might be empowered to live out the calling to love.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace and mercy.

Thank you that love is not static, but it is dynamic, that it has a byproduct and it empowers, it rescues, it relieves, and it empowers.

Thank you that all of our sin has been handled, all of our guilt and all of our shame on the cross, that Jesus is enough, and that we know this grace of God objectively true for us in history and the person of Christ, that you did not leave it up for debate, you did not leave it up for us to wonder, but we have something secured objectively in reality.

God, thank you that our position with you is secure.

Even while our love for you is not as strong as we would like, and our emotions come and go.

Help us to rest more and more in your love for us, not our love for you, that we might be empowered to love you more and be empowered to love our neighbor.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.