God is Love

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so maybe we need to turn this out.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll bring it a little farther with my mouth.

[SPEAKER_00]: The pastor at our old church once gave an illustration to start one of his servants.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he was saying, love, there's so many love songs written.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you look at songs, if you Google songs that have been written about God, there's something like 2 million.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you Google love songs from recorded history.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's like 100 million.

[SPEAKER_00]: So our culture is obsessed with the idea of love.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure if I asked some of you guys, think of some love songs.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could do it immediately.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have Anna from Frozen.

[SPEAKER_00]: She sings about how love is an open door.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what does that even mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: An old singer, Billie Holiday, once said, love is like a faucet.

[SPEAKER_00]: It turns on and off.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's kind of weird.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ed Sheeran talks about keeping his love for some girl in a photograph, and that seems really weird to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Beatles said, all you need is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: According to John Lennon, love is like a precious plant.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to keep watering it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then there's that one Taylor Swift song.

[SPEAKER_00]: How does it go?

[SPEAKER_00]: My daddy said, stay away from Juliet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure all the girls are like, it's a love story.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just say yes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now I know it was for free, so you'll never hear me say that again.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what does the Bible say that love is, though?

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get into that, but first, let's bow our heads and prayer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, thank you for this time that we have together to spend digging into and to just understanding your word.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your holy and perfect love truly is the heartbeat of the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your love is something that we hear so much about in church that I feel like we tend to lose our sense of wonder at how incredible it really is.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I pray that you would help to give the student tonight the capacity to listen with new ears to this age-old subject and that they would all go home tonight with a greater love for you and for your unfailing goodness to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: I pray all this in your name, MN.

[SPEAKER_00]: Alright so what does the Bible have to say about love?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it an open door?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it a faucet turning out on and off?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it all you need?

[SPEAKER_00]: Does God keep his love in a photograph?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's as the Bible say about love?

[SPEAKER_00]: In first-ion for the Bible states that God is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: So just

[SPEAKER_00]: The best that I can explain it is that love consists of two different things.

[SPEAKER_00]: It consists of commitment on one side and affection on the other.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's start by looking at the commitment that goes into love.

[SPEAKER_00]: When your parents love you, in part that means that they are committed to doing you good.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are committed to doing you good, even if that means sacrificing their time, their money, or their comfort, even if it means sacrificing their life.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like I'm the Lion King when we foster sacrifices his life for his son, Simba, he sees the will of the beasts coming, they're about to kill Simba and he knows I might be sacrificing my life right now but I want to put what's best for my son, I want to save my son and so I will sacrifice my comfort and my life for him.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll tell you what is not love is scar when he's like lonely with the king and that he flicks him off the cliff.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not love.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is not scar is not putting Mufasa's best interests above on his priorities.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love is commitment.

[SPEAKER_00]: How are you guys loved in this way?

[SPEAKER_00]: Probably at your stage in life, you see this demonstrated most by your parents, right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: They sacrificed their time to take you to sports practice.

[SPEAKER_00]: They sacrificed their money to buy groceries for you guys, you know, starving and traveling to a little raisin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, like, this is how they are prioritizing your good.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are committed, your parents are committed to what is best for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you were all a baby,

[SPEAKER_00]: Raymond his son is at the stage where he's keeping me up a lot at night and he's crying a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure your parents sacrificed a lot of sleep for you when you were all little, but it's because they love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's because they love you that they're willing to make these sacrifices.

[SPEAKER_00]: So sacrifice and commitment are only one side of the coin, which is love, like if you have a penny and you flip it and you have commitment and sacrifice on one side, the other side is affection.

[SPEAKER_00]: Both sides are important because just think about it this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some people say love is a choice, and that choice is to be committed to someone's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you really don't have affection for that person, would it be love?

[SPEAKER_00]: That would be,

[SPEAKER_00]: And then our game was gonna be sitting in on this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Be like, Gabe, dragging his feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have to buy Emma Flowers.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have to open the door for her.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, he's doing all the right things.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have to pay the bills, but if he's doing it without affection, if he's, you know, I have to give her a hug.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, if he doesn't do the right things for Emma out of affection, that's not love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you get what I'm saying?

[SPEAKER_00]: But without affection, there is no love.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just checking a box.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, many of you might do this with your Bible reading sometimes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know the Bible's good for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know God gave me this thing to read, but I don't really feel like doing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just doing it to check a box.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm dragging my feet just so that I can check the box of reading my Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have no real affection or love for God's word.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you can't love someone with only commitment

[SPEAKER_00]: and no affection.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the opposite is also true.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't love someone if you only have affection and no commitment.

[SPEAKER_00]: This would be like when the will to be this came through to Trampal Simba if Mufasa just looked at him and was like,

[SPEAKER_00]: I love you so much, kid.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're doing, I sound like Trump.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're doing so great, kid.

[SPEAKER_00]: I love you, Samma.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got so much affection for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if he was like, I only have affection for you, but he didn't care to save him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was like, I'll just let you die.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't really feel like hopping down there and putting you up on the cliff.

[SPEAKER_00]: That wouldn't be love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily for us, God's love is both committed.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's committed and loyal to us, focusing on our best, and it's also affectionate.

[SPEAKER_00]: God enjoys us and truly loves each and every one of you in this room.

[SPEAKER_00]: And first John, four, seven through 12.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says, so you guys can turn there.

[SPEAKER_00]: First John, four.

[SPEAKER_00]: This section is all about our topic tonight, which is God is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're studying the attributes of God and tonight's attribute is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a first-ion for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says, God is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone who does not,

[SPEAKER_00]: Love does not know God, because God is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

[SPEAKER_00]: No one has ever seen God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: So God is love, and He shows it in His nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's my first point, the nature of God's love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love is not just something God does.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a fundamental part of His nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is one of His attributes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Love is an attribute of God, and that's why we're looking into it tonight.

[SPEAKER_00]: God doesn't just have love, he is love itself.

[SPEAKER_00]: love is integral to his very being, but let's look into this idea a little further.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've got four different things that describe God's love.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first is God's love is unconditional and unmarried.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's love is not based on our performance or our goodness as humans, but it is freely given to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: You guys still have a long time before college.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank goodness your

[SPEAKER_00]: where you have to start looking into college scholarships.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a scary idea right now, probably.

[SPEAKER_00]: When that time comes, a lot of the scholarships that there are based on your merit.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, how worthy you are.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, for any of you who've seen Marvel, it's like Thor's Hammer, are you worthy to receive the college scholarship?

[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of times these scholarships are based on how good your grades are or how good of an athlete you are or maybe something else that you're good at like music or if you can prove to them that you're poor enough then you get financial assistance.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of this is probably giver to you guys, but so many people go through life, treating God's love like it's a college scholarship.

[SPEAKER_00]: They think that they are loved by God because they read their Bible or because they go to church or because they pray or maybe they can just convince God that that guy, he's worse than me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then God will love me because I'm not the worst went out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: They think they'll receive God's love this way, but this is not how his love functions.

[SPEAKER_00]: God loves you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You get the college scholarship.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are worthy to pick up the hammer of his affection and commitment simply because he loves you.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for no other reason, God's love is unconditional.

[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to earn it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Romans 324 says, all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus came for us, not when we were faithful, but when we were broken and slaved, ashamed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he didn't just forgive us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He paid the cost to bring us back.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not ordinary love.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's unconditional, retemptive, divine love.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what else is God's love?

[SPEAKER_00]: God's love is also, this is the next one, eternal and unchanging.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know it seems like a while ago with rooted being over the last weekend.

[SPEAKER_00]: But just last week, we heard all about God being eternal from Gabe.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has always been and will always be.

[SPEAKER_00]: That means that his love is the same.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has always loved you and he will always love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just think about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every person sitting in this room, God has always known your name.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's known everything about you and he has loved you for eternity.

[SPEAKER_00]: keep that thought in your back pocket for the next rainy day you have because I find that so encouraging.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Jeremiah 31, 3, God says, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Think back to the rope that Gabe had Evan run around the church last week.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has always loved you and will continue to love you for all of eternity.

[SPEAKER_00]: His love is everlasting and eternal just like he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it is also, and this is the next one, it is faithful and steadfast.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's love is also faithful and steadfast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even when his people are unfaithful, God remains faithful to his promises and remains faithful to love us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, a lot of you have probably heard the parable of the prodigal son.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for that reason, I did not use it because I feel like a lot of times people just tune it out.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm gonna use a different one tonight that less of you have probably heard.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the Old Testament, God commanded the Prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute named Gomer.

[SPEAKER_00]: This marriage was a symbolic living illustration to represent God's unconditional love and covenant with his people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though she was spiritually unfaithful and chasing after other men,

[SPEAKER_00]: Gomer was to go after her and bring her back.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was mirroring God's desire to redeem his people despite their failings.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's love is faithful and steadfast, no matter how many times we fall or fail or unfaithful to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will never stop pursuing us just like Joseo pursued Gomer.

[SPEAKER_00]: He will never stop loving us.

[SPEAKER_00]: His love is faithful and steadfast, but it is also just.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the last one to describe God's love.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's love is also just.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the one that can be hard for people to hear, since a lot of times, people hear that God loves them, no matter what, and they think that that means God accepts them and affirms them, no matter what sins they're living in.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's love is just, and true justice is either

[SPEAKER_00]: when we repent and believe, or leaving us a parish in hell, if we choose to reject the gospel, that is God's forgivet.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was only through our own human tendency to sin that anyone would reject God's forgivet of eternal life with him, and therefore it would not be loving to give someone something that they have rejected and have not desired.

[SPEAKER_00]: This would be like if a parent gave the child candy every time they grubble about having

[SPEAKER_00]: We all know those kids who are spoiled, their parents don't really love them, they're just giving them stuff to make them keep quiet.

[SPEAKER_00]: Overrooted, there was an absurd amount of red bull and candy consumed in our cabin.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to see which of our guys are here, who know.

[SPEAKER_00]: I saw containers of Oreos, Jonathan Blake.

[SPEAKER_00]: I saw some chips, I saw two liters of soda, there was, you know, red bull, there was energy drain, I saw Lani's, there were potato chips, there was all this junk food, and that's can't food for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But can you imagine eating like that every single day for every new dish you can't for every single meal?

[SPEAKER_00]: It would be awful, your body would become very unhealthy in a matter of weeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: Junk food is like our sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: God offers us protein, he offers us vegetables and wonderful feasts of good food for free.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is his gospel and yet so many times we choose to down three red bowls and eat a pound of candy and vomit on the last night if we were to write it true story.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't eat junk food and expect a healthy body.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't eat filth and expect not to vomit at rooted like that be a lesson for next year.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't choose sin and expect to go to heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just isn't just and God's love for us is just and perfect.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, God's love is all these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Holy and just, but what did he do with all that?

[SPEAKER_00]: How did he show us all of those things?

[SPEAKER_00]: He sent his son to die for us, and that's my second point.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is love, and dying on the cross was the ultimate demonstration of God's love.

[SPEAKER_00]: He shows his love through his sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the demonstration of God's love.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Romans 5, it says,

[SPEAKER_00]: and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

[SPEAKER_00]: For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners.

[SPEAKER_00]: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: while we were still sinners.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before we even loved God, much less chose to follow him, Christ laid down his life for you, dear and humor student.

[SPEAKER_00]: He died on the cross to offer you the free gift of the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 5 of Romans 5 it explains how it is through the act of the Holy Spirit in us that we can experience and feel the love of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says, God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can also find assurance in this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe some of you have doubted that God could ever love you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had a co-worker from my old job,

[SPEAKER_00]: and below it, who came to church two or three Sundays ago, after I've been praying for like a year and a half, and one time while we were working out of conversation with 10 or I was like, do you believe in heaven?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you believe in hell?

[SPEAKER_00]: And he was like, yeah, I believe in God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe in heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: I believe in hell.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, well, where do you think you're gonna end up?

[SPEAKER_00]: He was like, honestly, something here?

[SPEAKER_00]: If I were to die tomorrow.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he visited Redeemer a few weeks ago, I told him the good news of the gospel and urged him to repent and believe in God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't have very much time to talk before he left.

[SPEAKER_00]: But right before he went, he looked me in the eyes and he said, you don't know what I have done.

[SPEAKER_00]: God could never love me after the sins I've committed.

[SPEAKER_00]: If that's you sitting here today, if you couldn't understand,

[SPEAKER_00]: how God could ever love you, then find assurance in Romans 5.

[SPEAKER_00]: For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die, but God shows his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's saying most people wouldn't even die for a good person and yet Christ died for you when you were wicked.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was out of his great love that when you were still a wicked sinner he laid down his life for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christ loved you even then.

[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore there is no chance he would ever love you and you less now if you are following him.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's love is not a temporary feeling or a mood.

[SPEAKER_00]: His love is steadfast and always looking to provide and do good for his people.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is merciful and gracious and is compassion, leads him to act for our well-being.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, think back to that idea of him working and being committed to our ultimate good in the Bible,

[SPEAKER_00]: God's compassion led him to send Jesus to heal the sick, feed the hungry and forgive sinners.

[SPEAKER_00]: But his work on the cross was the ultimate demonstration of his unfailing love.

[SPEAKER_00]: So God loved us so much that he sent his own son to be sacrificed in our place.

[SPEAKER_00]: But is that it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that the end of the story?

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course not.

[SPEAKER_00]: What do we do with this information?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's good news that God freely offers to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He offers this new life and eternity in heaven with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: God calls or commands us to repent and believe.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've talked a lot about this with our guys and group.

[SPEAKER_00]: We must repent and believe to be saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do this to find salvation, but once we are saved and made right with God, he also commands us to do something.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's my third point.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is our response to God's love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our response to God's love.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's take a look at the next section of John 1-4.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're still there, we'll see.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll start our back on verse 12 of John 4 and then we'll finish out the chapter.

[SPEAKER_00]: First 12 starts out by saying, no one has ever seen God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we love one another, God abides in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And His love is perfected in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because He has given us of the Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God,

[SPEAKER_00]: God abides in Him, and He abides in God.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the title of our sermon tonight.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is love.

[SPEAKER_00]: And whoever abides in love abides in God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God abides in Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence

[SPEAKER_00]: Because as he is so, because as he is so also are we in this world, there is no fear and love, but perfect love casts out fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: For fear has to do with punishment, and lover fear has not been perfected in love.

[SPEAKER_00]: We love because he first loved us.

[SPEAKER_00]: If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.

[SPEAKER_00]: cannot love God, whom He is not seen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is commandment we have from Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever loves God must also love His brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are two words that show up quite a few times in this passage.

[SPEAKER_00]: One is love, go figure, that's what our son is about tonight.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the other is perfect or perfected, and they have a lot to do with each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's look back at where these two words show up together.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at your Bibles at the end of verse 12.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says, his love is perfected in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where else does it talk about perfect love?

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 17 says, by this is love perfected with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And verse 18 says, perfect love casts out fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: And whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what does it mean for love to be perfect?

[SPEAKER_00]: This is kind of a confusing topic.

[SPEAKER_00]: So tune in your listen in the ears and put on your thinking caps.

[SPEAKER_00]: The perfect love that John is talking about here does not mean faultless or flawless.

[SPEAKER_00]: Only God can love perfectly.

[SPEAKER_00]: The original Greek for the word perfected and first-ion four means to complete or to mature.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the original sense is more about reaching a purpose or a goal.

[SPEAKER_00]: As when a work is finished,

[SPEAKER_00]: or a journey is completed, you think about, it's a load of the ring's reference, but you think about Frodo and Sam making it to Mount Doom, their journey is completed, it is perfected.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let's go back and read the passages with that thought in mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Says his love is completed in us, by this is love completed with us or completed love casts out fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, if perfect it means completed, then what does it mean for us to have complete love?

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's look at verse 16 again.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says, so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is love, and whoever abides in love, abides in God, and God abides in Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this verse starts out with talking about God's love for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have come to know and believe that the love that God has for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: God loves us.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is where His work is started when He loves us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Through His eternal perfect and just love for every single person in this room.

[SPEAKER_00]: But where is His work finished?

[SPEAKER_00]: If it started when He loves you, God's work is completed or perfected when you in turn love others.

[SPEAKER_00]: John is saying here that if you've experienced God's love, you haven't experienced it in full until you love others.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is love-perfected or completed.

[SPEAKER_00]: God loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we in turn love God and love others.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Bible says here in 1st shot for that perfect love casts out fear of the day of judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: Students hear me on this point.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you have felt the love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit working in you, if you believe in the work that he did on the cross, and in turn love him and love those who he created around you, if you have that perfect love, then you have nothing to fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: perfect love cast out fear for you will meet God in heaven one day, and you will see him face to face.

[SPEAKER_00]: How can you, dear Redeemer student, love those in your life today?

[SPEAKER_00]: What does it look like to love as a Christian?

[SPEAKER_00]: What would John have been thinking of when he talks about loving others?

[SPEAKER_00]: This might be something that you guys can all discuss in groups tonight.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's flip back to chapter three of first John and see what he has to say there in verses 11, 13.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning.

[SPEAKER_00]: that we should love one another, we should not be like Cain, who is of the evil one, and murdered his brother, and why did he murder him, because his own deeds were evil, and his brothers, righteous.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do not be surprised brothers, that the world hates you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.

[SPEAKER_00]: Whoever does not love abides in death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone who hates his brother is a murder and you know that no murder has eternal life abiding in him.

[SPEAKER_00]: By this we know love and he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, he closes his heart against him, how does God's love abine in him?

[SPEAKER_00]: Little children let us not love in word or talk, but indeed in truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: right there in verse 18.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is one way that all of you here tonight I can love those around you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can love them indeed and in truth.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does it mean to love indeed and in truth?

[SPEAKER_00]: It means to demonstrate love through your actions, to your loving and what you do, and through your sincere intentions.

[SPEAKER_00]: So why you do it?

[SPEAKER_00]: What's the drive behind doing the things you do every day?

[SPEAKER_00]: True love is not just shown with words.

[SPEAKER_00]: Authentic love is shown through tangible acts of service, sacrifice, and consistency rather than empty promises.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you tell your little sibling, if they're like, oh, hey, will you play with me?

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, yeah, I'll play with you, I'll play with you, I'll play with you, I'll play with you, but you never do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you love them?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or are you just saying stuff that is meaningless?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or if they come up to you and they're like, hey,

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you go, you know, push me in the swing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you go play, like, goes with me and you're like, yeah, sure you do it, but inside you're grumbling the whole time.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I wish I wasn't like, we used to play pioneers when we were growing up and there was like two little kids in our homes book group who were just like, they were little or they couldn't keep up and so we'd always be like, yeah, a bear just killed you.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to lay in the woods for the next two hours.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was not loving of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We did not care to love them by letting them spend time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bear killed you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go sit in the woods and be dead for the rest of the game.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not love.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you have experienced the goodness of God's love and have taken part in the joy of loving others, then you should have no fear of hell.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some of you need to hear this today.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are all born as sinners, rebelling against God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're born this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: We do not come into this world with assurance of our salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: One day, God will judge everyone who has walked this earth.

[SPEAKER_00]: Will you have assurance on that day?

[SPEAKER_00]: perfect love, cast out fear of judgment.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you have been loved by God and in turn, if you now love others, it says right here that God abides in you and you have nothing to fear.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you've never felt God's love, or even if you know that He loves you, but you have no desire to follow His example and in turn love others, to serve others with a joyful heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you have not given over your life to Christ, then you should be scared of judgment day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at verses 20 through 21 and first John four.

[SPEAKER_00]: It says, 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 cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this commandment, we have from him, whoever loves God also must love his brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that you, dear student?

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you come to church and say, I love God?

[SPEAKER_00]: And you don't love your siblings at home?

[SPEAKER_00]: You grumble and groan when your parents ask for help.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you only choose to hang out with kids at youth group?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because it's convenient for you or it makes you seem popular.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you love your friends at youth group?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, Christ has loved them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like he's always loved them for eternity.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you do not, if that's you, then I would call you to repent tonight before Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe there are some of you who have never felt the Holy Spirit inside of you, warming you with the abundant love of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: If that is you, then I would call you to repent as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Repents of your sins and belief in our Savior are holy, triune, God, who out of the abundance of His overflowing love sent His only Son to die for each of our individual sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: He loves you Redeemer's student.

[SPEAKER_00]: So go forth and glorify Him by loving others.

[SPEAKER_00]: You guys are dismissed.