25th January || Real Love || Libby Woodward

Feel free to stay in that place of communing with the Lord and

you can ignore me if you can, if you can just stay in that place.

I this is this is not in my notes.

I don't know if any of you watch Michael Mcintyre's big show.

We were watching it as a family last night and OK, sorry, four

of us in our family were watching it last night and we

got into trouble for not waiting for the 5th member of our

family. But there was a bit in the in

the programme where they interviewed a family and the the

youngest boy had had to have life saving medical care in a

hospital. And sorry, my family disagreeing

with me in the story, the detail is not that important.

The the detail that is important is that the when the mum was

explaining the story, she said on his medical notes, it just

said he'd been put into a coma in order to save his life.

And the medical notes just said life saving.

And at the time I welled up, but I was reminded of it in worship

and I, I felt like maybe there's one or two people here this

morning that you need to know that Jesus is the life saving

medicine. He is the thing that we need in

order to be able to live life. So we can.

If that resonates with you, then we we'd love to pray with you in

a moment. I'm kicking off this morning a

miniseries. We're going to be looking at the

three letters of John, 1 John, 2 John, and three John aptly names

creative, right? If you have not read them, then

you might want to do that. If you've got a Bible, Pips

already said if you don't have a Bible, we'd love to give you

one. We've got some on the

information table. If you've got friends that would

like a Bible, then feel free to take one for them.

You might want to download the Bible app, which is free, and

then you can have David Suchet read it to you if you wish.

That's Poirot. For those of you of my

generation that loved watching Poirot, we're going to be

looking at 1 John, 2 John, and three John.

So if you get to the end of the Bible and go backwards a little

bit, they're three very short letters and we're going to be

looking at them in the next three weeks.

They are small letters. They aren't very long.

And if you're like me and you're like ticking off a list, you

could read, you could read them in one sitting and then know

that you've read a book of the Bible in one sitting.

That's quite an achievement in my book.

They are small, but they carry huge weight.

They're not abstract theology. They're not distant doctrine.

They are deeply pastoral, relational and communal.

John, in writing these letters, he wasn't setting out to win any

arguments, but his purpose in writing them was to encourage

and coach these churches that had been planted that he

absolutely loved. They were real churches, full of

real people, and he was writing to them to encourage them to

stay rooted, to stay loving, to stay faithful, and to be

together. And he wanted them to know that

love comes from God. And if you've said yes to Jesus,

if you are a believer, then we need to love God and love each

other, love those around us. We need to put God on display.

And our love towards others reveals real faith.

It reveals authentic Christianity, authentic

following of Jesus. And for us as a church, for

those of you that are new or maybe haven't been around for

very long, you know, loving God, loving people and let's go is

our kind of mantra. That's our vision.

And this year we we talked in October about this academic

year. We wanted our theme to be rooted

together. Looking at being rooted together

in Christ, rooted together in community, His church, and

rooted together for His cause. And so looking at these 3

letters in the next couple of weeks is perfect.

And we can take out all of the goodness that John writes and we

can apply it to how we live. Because I don't know about you,

but we you don't have to look far to see that life can be

uncertain and messy and noisy and confusing, can't it?

Culture feels confusing. And sometimes even church,

church with a capital C and church with a little C can feel

confusing. We're not sure where we fit.

We can feel that we're living in uncertain times.

We are living in uncertain times.

And John was writing to his readers, and we can glean wisdom

from this today because he wanted his readers, the churches

that he was writing to, to know that Jesus is real, that he is

the Messiah, that we shouldn't be lulled into false teachings.

And we need to remember that God is love because by understanding

that God is love, everything else flows from that.

So the question that I think John is helping us answer is how

do we recognize what's real Jesus, what's real faith, when

everything around us seems noisy and uncertain?

So I want to encourage you over this next couple of weeks to

read 1 John, 2 John, and three John.

Not only will you be super prepared when you come back next

week, but there's so much in it that we can't talk about this

morning because we don't have long enough.

Every time I read it, I was like, oh, I could say that.

Oh, I could say that. Oh, I could highlight this.

And I did have on my Bible app David Touchet reading it to me

over and over again, and partly because I love his voice, but

also because I I understand Scripture better if I hear it as

well as seeing it. So John 1 John is writing near

the end of his life. He's not writing as a distant

theologian. He's writing as a spiritual

father, speaking, as I've said, to churches that he deeply

loves. And he's building on the themes

that he talks about in his gospel, which is a bit further,

further to the beginning of the New Testament, the themes of

life, light and love and all three letters.

He keeps returning to these things and he keeps returning to

this. How can we make sure that we

follow Jesus, we have real faith, when so many things

around us are confusing and distracting and look like they

could be Jesus, but we're not quite sure.

So 1 John, it's almost like a poetic sermon.

And if I'd maybe been brave enough, I would have just stood

here and read it to you this morning and said nothing else

because those words carry so much weight.

But I wasn't quite brave enough to do that.

But he it's a poetic sermon and he loops around and he repeats

themes, light and darkness, truth and lies, love and hate,

faith that shows up in real life.

And by no way was John when he was writing to his original

readers, also to us, no way was he wanting to condemn.

He wanted to reassure. He wanted to reassure Jesus's

followers that they can know that they belong to God.

He was writing to us to say, do you know that you belong to God?

Not because we're perfect or we've hit the mark, but because

we trust in Jesus. We can trust in the life of

Jesus and the life that He promises us.

We can walk in the light of Jesus and we can know His love

for us and for each other. So, being rooted in God's love,

how do we recognise real faith when life is noisy and

uncertain? Firstly, it starts in

relationship and not performance.

Real faith begins rooted in God's love.

Real faith, the way of Jesus, is rooted in God's love.

And that's where faith, real faith, begins.

John doesn't start with introductions.

He doesn't start listing off a whole load of things.

What he does is he starts by talking about his experience and

you might notice a similarity between 1 John 1 and John 11.

He starts with his eyewitness account of the life, ministry,

death and resurrection of Jesus. It says this in one John, one

one that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,

which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at

and our hands have touched. This we proclaim concerning the

word of life. He's seen it, he's touched it,

He's telling us his experience. He has lived this.

He walked with Jesus as he walked the earth.

This isn't theory. This is lived faith.

And John is saying, I'm not passing on to you ideas, I'm

passing on to you my lived experience.

I'm passing on to you life. You know, real faith, Christian

faith isn't, doesn't begin with our behaviour.

It begins with a relationship. It begins by being rooted in

God's love and having an experience of that.

And when we realise, when we really grasp that we belong to

Him, either through maybe a direct encounter with the Holy

Spirit or through being part of a community of faith, we can

know that we belong to Him. So we know that faith is real in

a noisy and uncertain world when it's rooted in relationship, not

performance. I think one of the most freeing

verses in this letter is 1 John 1/8 when he says if we claim

that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.

None of us are perfect and it's OK to admit that.

We don't have to pretend to have it all sorted, to have it all

nailed together. Pretending doesn't produce

maturity in US. Pretending for approval or to

look good or for the sake of our reputation isn't ever what Jesus

had in mind. And John is trying to encourage

us and Jesus followers when he was around that performance.

Pretense is deceptive. Following Jesus starts in a

relationship. Pretending doesn't produce

maturity. Honesty does.

So being rooted in God's love and being rooted together as a

community of faith doesn't mean that we're flawless, doesn't

mean that we have to put on a pretence that we've got it all

together. It means that we can be open and

humble and walking with Jesus together, picking each other up

when we stumble. We're not trying to be

impressive Christians. We're trying to be real ones,

authentic ones. Real faith begins when we stop

performing and we start trusting.

When we press into relationship with God and each other, that's

being rooted together. So how do we recognise real

faith when life is noisy and uncertain and confusing?

It starts with relationship, not performance, and it shows itself

in love. Real faith is evidenced by our

love, one for another. This is a theme that John

returns to again and again and again.

And in one John 47, he says, dear friends, let us love one

another, for love comes from God.

And I think this is the heartbeat of this letter.

John doesn't say love proves that you're nice or love proves

that you're emotionally mature. He says love proves that you

know God. If we ever experience love, it

proves that God is involved somewhere.

Loving God and loving people are inseparable, and we can't be

rooted in God and in God's love if we're disconnected from

people. That's never been God's design

for us and for all of humanity. Being rooted together in the

church, in his community, was his intention, is his intention,

and John is deliberately strong here.

He goes on after he's said that, he says in one John 420, whoever

claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar.

No beating around the Bush. He says it's straight and

potentially that sounds harsh, but yet it's deeply pastoral and

he's trying to make a point. John isn't about shaming the

church. He's not about shaming US as

Jesus followers, he's trying to protect us from self deception.

I wonder whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or

sister is a liar. I wonder whether you hate

anybody, Or maybe you hate lots of people.

Maybe not necessarily a blood brother or sister, an actual

sibling, but a fellow believer, a fellow Christian.

And yet I would argue that every single human being is made in

the image of God, and so God doesn't want us to hate any of

them either. Oh, I'm stuck.

Thank you. Thanks, Russ.

As I was writing this, I was trying to, I was, I was doing a

bit of self reflection and this whole, you know, whoever says

they love God, which I claim I love God a lot.

And if I hate anybody, then I'm a liar and I don't ever want to

be called a liar. We were having a conversation in

our family this week about how truth telling is a very high

value in our family. And so if we come across if

someone lies to us or lies about us, we find that very tricky.

I say we collectively talking as a family, but do I hate anybody?

Do I have any strong feelings of a negative nature towards

people? And as I was reflecting, I was

thinking actually the strongest feelings, negative feelings I

have towards people are generally people I don't know,

celebrities or politicians or people that put stuff on social

media that I disagree with. That's when I go and I'm like

Libby, like I don't actually know them.

I don't I get sound bites or snippets or what the media

chooses to give me. Like I can watch a game like

traitors and think, well, I don't like them.

Do I know them? They're playing a game like, Oh

my goodness, this self reflection in me this week made

me think, Libby, you need to deal with some of this stuff.

Because actually the reality is, is I think people that I know I

couldn't. I don't think, I don't think I

hate anybody and I've I did grow up in a family where if I said I

hate them, my mum would go Libby.

Hate is a very strong word which clearly I must have said because

it was quoted back to be my one of my children this week.

So hate is a very strong word. But I think John has a point.

If we say that we love God and yet we hate people or we hate

somebody, we are of them. It's not OK.

That is not what the Lord wants. If love proves that I know God,

as John says in his gospel in chapter 1335, if I say I love

God yet hate others, how are the world going to know that I love

him? We will be known, John says,

quoting Jesus. By our love, one for another.

What does that look like in our daily lives, in the people that

we encounter at home, on our street, who we people we work

with? Real faith grows outwards.

If real, if our faith, if our love for God doesn't touch the

how we how we treat people, then the roots haven't gone very

deep. You know, if you follow Jesus,

if you come to church, if you pray, you might go to a small

group, you might read the Bible, you might even fast, but yet

still ball out someone because their customer service is bad or

cut someone, shout at someone when they cut you up driving.

I think Jesus is inviting us to look at our hearts because real

faith must begin in love and be reflected in how we treat

people. If we say we love God and we

aren't rooted in community and we don't love the people around

us in our thoughts, words, and actions, then our faith won't be

recognized in a noisy and uncertain world.

So how do we recognize real faith when life is messy,

confusing, and noisy? Well, it starts in relationship,

not performance. It shows itself in love and it

moves us to action. Real faith is an active faith.

God's love in US moves us towards people and action.

And I think it leads to probably one of the most Vineyard shaped

verses in this whole letter, 1 John 318.

It says, dear children, let us not love with words or speech,

but with actions. And in truth, how does our love

show up? How do we actively show our

love? That's, you know, when we talk

about our vision as a church, we talk about love.

God, love people. Let's go.

It's the let's go bit of our vision.

You know, this is great. Having dinner together

afterwards. I love it.

This fuels me for my week ahead. But actually, we can't stay as

this holy huddle. We exist for the sake of those

who are not yet here. That's the point of the church,

to love those who do not yet know Jesus, as well as to

worship Him and to spur one another on.

Active faith shows up, moves towards people.

And it will cost us something, you know.

Do we notice one another? Not just people in this room,

but people that we come into contact every day in our lives.

Do we carry one another? Will we respond in love when we

notice something or we sense a nudge from the Holy Spirit?

You know, will we look outside of ourselves?

You know, I love the fact that in the last month I know of four

families who have had babies. And as a church, we have

provided meals for them. We have looked outside of

ourselves. We've gone.

Do you know what? These people might appreciate

it. And many of you have cooked

meals before Christmas. We small groups created hampers

for infant smaller families who might not get the treats that

they that they would have liked over Christmas.

You know, I've heard of people checking up on elderly

neighbors, on shopping for a friend who was poorly, of

praying for a friend who has who was injured, and of giving a

word of encouragement to a colleague who was struggling.

Real faith moves us to action, not to earn love, God's love,

because we have that already, but because our response to his

love is to act. If God is love, which John says

he is repeatedly, then wherever love is, then God is.

And I think that's worth bearing in mind.

So how do we recognise real faith when life is messy and

noisy and uncertain? Real faith starts in

relationship, not performance rooted in that relationship with

God's God and his love. Real faith shows itself in love,

and real faith moves us to action.

So I think the invitation today is simple.

Simple, but profound. Are we allowing God to root us

more deeply in His love so that the world can see His love

through us? We don't want shallow faith.

We don't want performative faith.

We want real faith and real love.

So I just want to ask you some questions.

Where is God inviting you to love more deeply?

Where might your faith need to move from words to actions?

And what would it look like for me to be rooted more deeply in

this community, to be known, really known, and to get to know

others when life feels uncertain, noisy and messy?

I think the only thing we can cling to is God, the only

person. Cling to him and his love for

us. I'm just going to read I am

going to read some of John, so you might want to close your

eyes. We're going to pray in a moment.

I'm just going to read 1 John 4 and I'm going to read a few

verses. So sit comfortably, but maybe

ask the Lord to speak to you. These are these are words that

are in the Bible, so they carry way more weight than anything

I've just said. Holy Spirit, would you speak?

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from

God. Everyone who loves has been born

of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not

know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love

among us. He sent his own one and only Son

into the world that we might live through him.

This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and

sent his Son to us and an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one

another. No one has ever seen God, but if

we love one another, God lives in US, and His love is made

complete in us. We know that we live in Him and

He in us because he has given us his Spirit.

And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent his Son

to be the Saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that

Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in in love lives

in God and God in him. In this way, love is made

complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day

of judgement, because in this world we are like Him.

There is No Fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear

because fear has to do with punishment.

The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because He first loved us.

If anyone says I love God yet hates his brother or sister is a

liar. For anyone who does not love his

brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen,

and he has given us this command.

Whoever loves God must love his brother.

If you're able, why don't you stand?