Letters From John - Loving One Another - 1 John 3:11-24

Well, it looks like fun down here, doesn't it?

So anyway, 1 John dot dot is actually.

It's actually 1 John chapter 3, verses 11 to 24 will be our scripture reading this morning.

1 John 3:11–24

It's uh 1 John chapter 3 verses 11 to 24.

1 John 3:11–24

For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning that we should love one another.

We should not be like Cain, who was the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him?

Because his own deeds were evil and his brothers were righteous.

Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.

Whoever does not love abides in death.

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

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

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

Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but indeed and in truth.

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him.

For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.

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

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

Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him.

And by this we know that he abides in us by the Spirit whom he has given us.

This is the word of the Lord.

It's like a continuation, I guess, of first John.

Um, just kidding.

Uh welcome to our church gathering this morning.

Uh glad to be uh together, grateful to be together.

My name is Kurt, Pastor here if you're visiting, checking out our church gathering.

So glad that you're with us this morning, checking things out.

Um and just real quick, just toward this church family, um, on behalf of my family and myself, just want to say thank you for last week.

Um, I felt incredibly, we felt incredibly honored and just cared for and uh appreciated.

So just wanted to say thank you guys for everything.

So um, yeah.

So here's what we've been doing over the past few weeks.

We've been in this uh this journey, this letter of John that he writes to the to the early church.

John is a disciple of Jesus, and we talked about uh this this letter, like that we're you know, we're not the original recipients of this letter, and and that's okay, right?

But um John has allowed us to uh to learn from this and glean from this this letter.

So um John, here's what happens, he wrote to this group of people 2,000 years ago, right?

Uh and and they were in need of a lot of things, a lot of just kind of direction and and correction.

Uh they had some struggles and some confusion, they had just circumstances, right?

And and and so here's the beauty of God's word.

Because uh God's word is directed, inspired by the Spirit of God, right?

Um, those words that that John offers, sure, they translate to that group at that time.

But the beauty is that they translate to us as well, where we sit and some of the things that we wrestle with, that we struggle with as a church.

And we're gonna get into that this morning, and I'm excited for that.

Um, and so here's really the conversation that John's gonna bring up this morning.

It's um it's really something that every human being has um who's ever existed has some sort of familiarity with.

It's this idea of love.

Has anybody heard of that before, right?

Okay, good.

The four-letter word, right?

We sing about it, often we write about it, we make movies about it, we declare it to the closest people, the people closest to us.

We spend just enormous portions of our lives even looking for it, trying to understand it, uh, trying to trying to give it, wondering whether or not we have actually received it.

So many questions come out of this.

Like, am I loved even in this family?

Am I am I loved here?

Right, as we have uh relationships, romantic relationships, like, do you love me?

And and underneath so much of this human experience is this longing to know this that you know, is love present?

Is it in my life?

And I think there's another question though that comes from this whole construct of love.

And it's this this question really that that is is this it's it's well, what is love, right?

Which of course, that phrase lives like rent-free in my head since like the early 90s and 80s, right?

The 90s was like, what is love?

And then maybe anybody remember that?

You guys told me like you're okay with 80s, 90s references, you said that last week.

Um, so that's one of them, right?

That lives rent-free.

And then there's this other one, though.

And this is the one I think that um that John's really addressing here.

Not he kind of is addressing here, but it's this this hitmaker, or hit makers known as foreigner, right?

And they're looking for this.

They say, I want to know what love is.

They're saying, I want you to show me, right?

And and listen, I think that fits really perfectly for what John's doing here.

Like the church is like, John, I want to know what love is.

Now they didn't sing it, but um, but he's not here to like, you know, educate these 80s teenagers looking for like a prom day.

He's right into the church.

And yet, what we've talked about through this series, right, is this is a church that's still, in many ways, in its infancy.

It's it's young, right?

They're learning.

This church is they're developing, they're they're figuring out what it actually means to live as a collective follower and followers of Jesus.

And so John has a very specific reason for answering this question: what is love?

Because he's not interested in some sort of like abstract, existential, like philosophical discussion about love, right?

John is interested in discipling the church.

That's his hope.

He he's equipping these followers of Jesus to understand a very specific kind of love.

And so, what is that kind of love?

Well, it's it's this idea of Christian love.

Of Christian love.

Like, what does it look like when we you're a disciple of Jesus, right?

What is love?

And it's an important question because listen, these people at the early church, like us, we don't come to the church like blank slates.

Every person gathered there and even here already had some sort of understanding of love.

So here's what John has: John has a teaching opportunity in this moment.

And John's gonna do this, he's gonna teach this group and us, right, what kind of love that was even given to him, that was revealed to him, that was modeled before him by, well, by Jesus.

It's a gift to this early church, and I think it's a gift for us even uh today, right?

Because maybe some of us, this this whole um Christian thing might be new, and that's okay.

And we might be wondering like the same question.

I just want to know what love according to Jesus, to the Bible, is like John, can you show me, right?

So 1 John 1, 3, 11 to 24.

And here's how I want to frame this verse, uh this passage for us this morning.

Um John will never call it this, but I'm gonna take a little liberty here.

But it's this kind of section of John's love lecture and lab, okay?

It's love lecture and lab for the church.

Once again, he probably would never label it that, but we're gonna try.

But but here's here's what John's doing.

Here's two things.

He's gonna teach the church and teach us what Christian love is.

That's the lecture part.

And he's actually gonna show us what Christian love looks like when it actually gets lived out.

That's that's the lab.

So, because for John, right, love isn't something you just understand.

Love is something you you practice.

Right?

Now, now here's the thing.

If you're unfamiliar with the whole lecture lab concept, here's what I mean.

Okay, John gives teaching, that's instruction, that's the education about Christian uh love.

That's the that's the lecture.

And then there's this invitation to take what we've learned and actually to test it, to examine it, to practice it, to put it to work.

That's the lab.

Now, here's an interesting um reality.

Where does the lab take place?

I love it.

The lab is the church, right?

The lab is the biblical community.

The lab is you and me, and we're we're learning not just simply how to preach about love, about Christian love, but we're actually practicing Christian love towards one another.

So let's start with the lecture portion here, okay?

John's starting point for Christians understand, it's pretty simple.

Uh it's that love begins with God.

Okay, that's what that's what he says.

See, God designed creation to image something of who he is.

And so let's ask the question.

So, what is God like?

Well, if you do a little advanced reading in this John's letter, John's eventually gonna make this incredible declaration in 1 John 4.8.

He says, God is love.

God is love.

Not merely that you know God loves, not simply that God on occasion acts lovingly.

John says something about the very character of God.

He says, God is love.

And so this isn't something like John invents, though, okay?

Here's the thing, throughout scripture, God reveals himself this way in many places.

Look at Exodus 34, uh, when God is describing his character to Moses, he declares himself to be merciful and gracious, slow to anger and what?

Abounding in steadfast love.

So love belongs to the character of God.

And yet, here's such a beautiful thing.

God isn't simply uh just saying love is something he proclaims.

God's love is something even he practices.

Let me let me give you uh just what what I mean here.

Because even within this mystery of God, you have this: you have Father, Son, Holy Spirit, you have one God eternally existing as three perfect in this perfect, loving relationship.

Right?

Relationships and and and love are woven into the reality of who God is.

And then this relational God, well, puts into practice, creates.

Look what Genesis 1.26 says, then God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness.

Notice that language there.

It's this language of let us make humanity in our image.

And from there, humanity is created to reflect the likeness of God.

So if the creator is loving, relational, and humanity is then created in his image, well, part of humanity's original design is things like relational, is relationships, meaning we it is love.

We were created uh from love, for love, like created to receive the love of God, and then created to reflect the character of God, that love towards one another.

In other words, we were designed to image the love of God into the world.

That's the that's that's the hope, right?

Not simply through uh proclamation, but through practice, not simply by saying, hey, God is love, that's true, but by allowing our relationships to become living reflections of that love.

Stated this way human beings exist relationally, they reflect the character of a relational God toward one another in relationship together.

It's it's what uh John says in verse 11.

It says, For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

So here, I love what John's point out.

It says, this isn't a new message, okay?

The message has been there from the beginning.

And and John moves into making a distinction here because there's there's an issue that he's also addressing in this moment, and and it's it has to deal with love, but it's this idea of lacking trust and lacking understanding and questioning the source of love.

Here's what it means when he states this from the beginning.

He he certainly means the message that they've heard from the beginning of their Christian faith, that that has been passed down as disciples from Jesus directly, and and yet it also resonates with something that has been true from the beginning of the biblical story.

You see, you see, creation, right?

Sadly, at the fall, there's this moment where the source of love does this, it comes into question, where love then becomes distorted.

Think about the moment where Adam and Eve they fall into deception, and ultimately it causes them to do something uh humanity has been doing well, I think, ever since.

They begin to question love, specifically God's claim of love.

Right?

The serpent, he comes in the guarded, uses the tactic that he's been using ever since showed up, right, to do this, to question the essence of God.

Essentially asking, is God really loving?

Can you actually trust him?

Does he really have your best interest in mind?

Right?

Deceitfully hitting on this one thing that I'm sure we've all been presented with, right?

If if God really loved you, wouldn't he have given you that thing that you want?

Why would he allow that to happen in your life?

And that's that's really what the serpent is is kind of suggesting, is something like this, like, well, if God was loving, he wouldn't hold out on you.

And because he's holding out on you, right, I don't know, does he does he really love you?

Which I you know, I think it's important just to be honest, like we probably all have had maybe similar moments like that.

Right, but maybe there's something that you wanted, and maybe it seems or feels like is what's best for for for for you, for me, right?

And like Adam and Eve, right?

It's possible that that what you're desiring, however, isn't something that God says is good for you.

It's something maybe that God knows will only bring destruction into your life.

Or maybe here, God just knows our hearts, and he knows that getting that desire will just ultimately become an idol that we worship.

And so, of course, as we're working through that, of course, comes this this tempter, right?

This the accuser, accuser, right?

And saying, Hmm, well, maybe maybe God doesn't really love you.

And here's what I just want to share, church, that tactic is still so alive and well, and and we we need to be aware of it, we need to be on guard of it.

I think one of the things the enemy continually does to seek to do is he distorts our perception of God.

And sometimes it's not some just like dramatic, obvious attack that does happen.

Sometimes it's just simply taking the circumstances of our lives and whispering this question into them.

If God really loved you, would this be happening?

If God really loved you, wouldn't you have gotten what you wanted?

If God really loves you, wouldn't he have answered that prayer differently?

If God really loved you, wouldn't he have worked that relationship out?

If God really loved you, wouldn't your life look so different right now?

And listen, I know that tactic.

I've experienced it plenty in my in my life.

I remember being in a relationship when I was younger, and I, you know, I thought it was gonna be forever, right?

In my young mind, that would that was love.

That person was be part of my future.

And yet, somewhere underneath all of that, there was this assumption like if God loves me, he will give me what I want.

That relationship ended.

Thank God, right?

But at the time, you know, what I didn't do was I didn't do this.

I didn't stop and ask questions like whether this relationship was actually healthy or not.

I didn't ask whether God might see something that I couldn't see.

I didn't ask whether what I wanted was actually what was best for me.

Here's what I did instead.

I questioned God's love.

God, God, if you loved me, you wouldn't allow this to happen.

And and and and I was angry with God and and and sadly and regretfully, I stepped away from him from a season.

And why did I?

Why did I get to that space?

Because I allowed this, I allowed my circumstances to define God's character instead of doing this, instead of allowing God's character to help me understand my circumstances.

And and maybe maybe somebody needs to hear that this morning.

Maybe you're walking something similar, right?

Don't let your circumstance become the definition of God's essence, right?

Let the revealed character of God become the lens in which you walk through your circumstance.

And listen, we're human, this is hard, I get it, right?

But but God claims something, he claims that he is love.

And and John, he actually gives us an example of one who allowed the circumstance to define essence.

And it's an example, once again, he says from the beginning.

He talks about Cain.

And John writes this, he says, we should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

So let's ask, why does John suddenly just bring up this character, right?

Where this random character into the conversation about love?

Well, because Cain becomes one of Scripture's earliest pictures of what happens when humanity confuses God's love.

Here's what takes place.

We have two brothers.

We have Cain, we have Abel, and uh brothers who they give, they both give an offering to God.

However, Cain sees his brother's offering has been received favorably by God, but his offering not so much.

Now, instead of Cain allowing God to maybe correct his heart, maybe Cain reminding him that he's loved in spite of his circumstance, here's what happens: anger takes over in Cain's life.

And God even warns, warns, He says, Listen, look what Genesis 4 says.

And if you do not, if you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door.

Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.

And this is an incredible image.

Sin is crouching at the door, Cain.

Sin is waiting there for you, right?

And you're listening your circumstance, it didn't go the way you expected.

I know you're angry, I know you're disappointed, I know you're wrestling here, but and it we're but here at the door of disappointment, there's something that's wanting to take hold of you.

It's sin.

And God tells him you gotta rule over it.

And Cain, though, he allows sin, sin to rule.

And it's devastating.

The consequences are just tragic.

But it raises an important question for us, I think.

How do we not fall prey to the way of Cain?

Right?

In our moments of disappointment.

How do we rule over sin when disappointment, even anger, even envy, even rejection, jealousy, frustration, whatever it is, starts starts knocking.

And I think um I think part of the answer is just more and more learning to trust the character of God, even when we don't understand the circumstances in our lives.

To remain rooted in what we do know about God, what we know through his word.

And his word it declares hey, God is good.

He says, God is faithful, God is just, God is love.

Romans talks about God is for us, not against us.

And and Cain has a choice.

He can trust the character of God, or he can allow circumstances to reshape his heart.

And unfortunately, Cain chooses sin.

And in this letter, here's what John does: he offers two directions, two ways before the church.

When it comes to this idea of love, trusting in God as love, right?

There's there's the way of Cain, and then there's this way of Christ.

There's a way that's shaped by patterns of this fallen world, things like envy, strife, hatred, self-interest, rivalry, death, and then there's the way of Jesus, which is this sacrificial, it's righteousness, it's self-giving love, it's life.

It connects with what we talked about even like last week, right?

This idea of this old family line where we had Adam and sin and death, right?

Where we might have called that family of origin as the more like or sin.

That doesn't really work, but um, that's pretty terrible.

I tried.

But but but just stay with me because because John is writing to people who now belong to a different family.

It's a new family, and that family resemblance is supposed to do this, supposed to look different.

Supposed to look different.

Yet, how often does the enemy look at that family and the enemy try to go after that family?

And I think about that, that's such uh just a truth that the enemy has such a um, it's just so after this, this idea, this attack on things like the family, right?

The family as construct, right?

Family as an institution.

I I've felt this even the past few weeks.

My wife and I have just like recognize like you know, I think our family is is kind of maybe under some sort of heavy opposition, right?

And I can imagine many.

Of you have have felt that as well, right?

The enemy desiring to bring destruction to this institution that's called family.

And especially trying to do it in God's family, right?

Attempting to convince the children of God that maybe the Father maybe doesn't have the best for them.

Maybe the Father doesn't actually as loving as he says.

But here's the thing about the enemy.

Do you ever notice this?

Notice what usually doesn't happen.

When the enemy like stirs up lies, here's what the enemy doesn't tend to do.

Doesn't spend a whole lot of time clearly presenting the alternative.

The alternative of the offers of love.

This alternative of the love of God, right?

Like, oh, okay, you're saying God isn't really this loving father.

Well, okay, well, what's the alternative?

Imperfect love?

It reminds me of like, since we're in election season, right?

The approach reminds me a little bit of like the familiar campaign strategy where sometimes a candidate will just spend so much time, so much energy telling you everything that's wrong with the other person, attacking them, creating a narrative around them, telling you why you shouldn't trust, that you eventually have to kind of step back and say, okay, but but what are you actually offering?

Right?

And spiritually, that's an important question.

Because the enemy continually accuses the character of God.

But when you you examine the fruit of that way of the enemy, right, what does it produce?

You see things like this, sin, you see brokenness, you see separation, you see death, you see ultimately you see judgment.

That's not the way of love.

Jesus offers the way of love.

Look at this way.

It points to the Father.

And it points directly to him.

Jesus is uh tells us about this in John.

It says, No one has ever seen God, but only God who is the Father's side, he has made him known.

So the Son makes the Father known.

And Jesus says, if you want to know what the Father is like, hey, look at me.

Look at how I love, look at how I forgive, look at how I pursue, look at how I serve, look at look at how I sacrifice, look at the cross.

Because eventually, Jesus goes so far in revealing the Father's love that he gives us, he gives up his own life.

And so you put these two ways together, right?

John is putting these two ways before the church.

It's the way of Cain and the way of Christ.

There's one, it's a way of death, yet the other one is this way of life.

The way, it's one that's a way of hatred, there's one that's a way of love.

And the ways of this world out there, here's what's happening, John's talking about.

They want us to, the world wants us to raise Cain's.

And John's saying to the church, we're called to raise Christ.

And no offense to that tasty chicken place, okay?

Um, but but Christian love belongs to this new life that God has given us.

It's like Paul talks about in Colossians, he says, and you, whom were dead in your trespasses, God made alive together with him, forgiving us all of our trespasses.

So there it is, it's the way of Christian love.

And the way of Christian love is sacrificial love.

It's the way of Jesus.

It's not the it's not the way of just trying to become nicer people, try harder.

No, it's transforming, it's coming, it's going from death to life.

So that's what we've looked at for this lab.

It's the way of Jesus.

That's that's the love.

Now, here's the um the point here.

It's it's looking at Jesus, right?

Marvel at Jesus, appreciate Jesus.

John says, Jesus laid down his life for us, and he says we ought to do the same for another.

And so that's where Christian love moves from, this idea of just something received to something that's responsive.

See, we receive the sacrificial love of Christ.

Amen to that.

But then we respond by becoming people who sacrificially love others.

This is why John immediately makes this whole thing painfully practical.

He says, But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes the heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

And that moves us into this idea of the lab, right?

Not simply, hey, do you understand the theology of love, but what happens when you see someone in need?

Right?

Christian love isn't just someone who's uh speaking like the words, right?

Yes, sure, I love you is amazing, right?

Affirm affirming people matters, right?

Encourage people matters, words do matter.

But John says Christian love moves also towards works.

That if I have something and my brother and sister is in need and ask, well, well, what can I what can I give?

Right?

I have to ask myself, maybe maybe they need, I don't know, provisions, maybe they need a meal, transportation, maybe they need time, maybe they need prayer, energy, maybe they just need people just to show up.

But but here's the thing: before we can think sacrificially, think generously, I think we might have to just really dive into something that's that's kind of hidden in John's statement here.

John says, if anyone sees his brother in need, do you want to know what that assumes there?

It assumes that you actually see your brother or sister.

You actually see uh them, right?

And it points out a challenge to, I think, for for not just our church, but the church in this time.

It's this, you know, is it possible to actually see the need of another person if we're never meaningfully interacting with them?

If we need to spend like we need to spend more time than like one hour a week next to them.

That's why the church is supposed to be more than just people sitting in the same room just uh you know, 60 minutes a week.

The church is a community, church is a family.

It's a people who are called to know one another.

And so here's the first piece of the lab that we're working through.

It's this be intentionally present.

Intentionally present.

Maybe even today.

Maybe identify, I don't know, two or three people in this church community who you're just gonna intentionally choose to see beyond Sunday morning from 9 to 10 o'clock.

And listen, we have opportunities for this uh throughout the week, additional times.

We have we have a men's connect group on Wednesday, we have a women's group that meets every other Thursday, we have we have youth ministry on Sunday nights, and I'll just be just be transparent for a moment.

I I don't know if this season as a church, those opportunities are being well utilized.

And I understand that maybe you know the the those days where you know the challenge is our schedules, right?

And I get that, right?

But but here's the challenge.

If the church is called prioritize these times of gatherings, well, here's the thing.

Ask God to help us prioritize and see what he does, right?

I have a feeling these spaces become, if they become a priority, right?

He will gladly shift our schedules.

He will allow these spaces to open up for us.

Now, now here's the thing: uh being connected in the church isn't just offered through church-centered activities or opportunities, right?

Maybe it's this, maybe it's simply just grabbing coffee, maybe it's inviting another family into your home.

Maybe it's just simply reaching out during the week and saying, hey, how are you actually doing?

Because here's my concern.

We could run this Christian experience of Christian love, and we could say uh that conclude the the lab it work, if the lab work failed, right?

But but the truth is that it wouldn't be John's teaching that was wrong.

It's rather just a strong chance that the possibility of just ignoring his methodology, right?

How are we supposed to see a brother or sister in need if we never see a brother or sister?

Now, I I know that might feel uncomfortable for us, some of us, right?

Some of us, you look, we just kind of don't really, I don't know, have a desire to do that, but but some of us have this rhythm.

Maybe we just want to come here, sit down, worship, listen, head out, right?

I get that.

But John's vision is so much richer, so much just invitational, right?

It's this vision of Christian community that it requires more than just proximity, it requires presence.

And that's a gift.

And that takes us to part two of the lab here.

Because being present is one thing, but being attuned is is another.

Here's what I mean by that.

Christian love doesn't just simply ask, like, Am I around people?

Christian love asks, am I paying attention to people?

Do I recognize when somebody is struggling?

Do I notice when something uh just seems off?

Do I know enough about someone's life to realize that they may be carrying something really heavy?

I don't know, maybe you know that Bill's car is busted, he's struggling financially, trying to figure out how he's gonna get to work, and yet you're sitting, you have a car sitting in your driveway, you're not even using, right?

Christian love looks at that circumstances and asks, God, how you've entrusted me to become part of this meeting, this need.

And that comes from just attuning and knowing.

This term in psychology is often used when talking about uh things like attachment or childhood development, it's attunement.

It's that healthy parents aren't simply physically near their children, they are attentive to them, they're present, they're observant, they're they're learning their needs, they're sometimes even uh recognizing a need before that child has the language to communicate it.

And I think there's something that helps us like understand Christian community.

We shouldn't just exist in proximity with one another, we should become increasingly attuned to one another.

That's that's part two of this lab, and just asking, are we intentionally connecting with people?

And are we paying attention?

What are they carrying?

Where are they hurting?

What might they need?

Is there something that God has entrusted us with that could be an act of love towards them?

Now, of course, we aren't doing this as anyone's savior, right?

We can't meet every need, right?

You know, we're not supposed to.

Only Jesus carries that title of savior.

But but the fact that we we can't meet every need should never be an excuse to just not seek out me to meet any needs, right?

Because Christian love asks this.

It says, What has God put in my hands that maybe I can sacrifice offer to others?

And and so here's here's here's one part of the lab, it's to be present.

Second is to be attentive, attuned, and and here's the last part.

And this we could, I would say, is probably the most one of the most challenging ones.

It's it's the the value in our culture to not want to present our needs.

We live in a culture that doesn't particularly enjoy admitting needs.

We celebrate self-sufficiency, independence, having it all together.

When somebody asks, hey, how are you?

Right, automatic response, I'm good, brother.

Right?

Meanwhile, you're absolutely not good.

And and and there's a problem with like pretending we don't have needs.

Because it's just simply not true.

Here's why we are created beings, and created beings created automatically means that we rely on limit, we have limitations.

Limitations means that we have needs, right?

We depend on things outside of ourselves simply just to remain alive.

Think about it, right?

You need oxygen, you need food, you need rest, you need relationships, you need God ultimately, right?

Neediness isn't some sort of like weird uh defect of like humanity, right?

Dependence is part of the human of the human experience.

Now, look, the level and types of needs they vary.

I get that.

One person might generally just need transportation, while another might actually have uh plenty of things materially, but they desperately need like companionship.

Maybe someone needs prayer, maybe they need accountability, right?

Maybe some might need to just help carrying the burdens they've they've quietly just carried alone for years.

And so the church, we're called to care for uh the needs of the church.

We also become a place where we can share the needs of the church.

That's that's part three, right?

We can intentionally just be honest about something that we need.

And maybe it isn't financial, right?

Maybe it's just someone to pray with you.

Maybe, maybe you need someone to check in on you.

Like I'm really struggling with this sin.

Can you can you just be present?

Can you check in?

Maybe you're maybe you're lonely, maybe you're exhausted, maybe you're you're grieving, maybe you simply need to just someone to just to know that that you just you need to to to have connection.

And and and so here's the thing, we we all have needs, and yet there's ultimately one need that every human being shares.

It's this made to this need to be made new, this need to pass from death to life.

It's the gospel, it's this is the need of being reborn into the way of love, the need to receive new life in Christ.

Because that's the deepest offering of Christian love.

It begins with this Jesus laid down his life for us, for me, for you, for anyone who desires to receive his work on the cross, his sacrifice for our sin, the reality that he's restored this relationship to the Father.

And that's that's the heart of Christian love.

It's sacrifice.

It's it starts from the gospel, it starts from this love that we receive.

And as we receive that love, we respond through love.

We don't love people to try to get something out of them, right?

We don't love them to earn something from God, right?

We don't we don't uh love so that maybe God will love us more.

We love because we've already been loved.

God loved us first, we receive that love, then we respond.

And we show that love not only through the words we speak, but I but I think it's also through the the joy of allowing to be in community and give ourselves to one another.

Maybe, maybe the simple way is to say it this is just because God loved us, we love him in response.

And one of the primary ways we love God in response is loving the people who bear his image.

So maybe when we ask what is love here, the the ultimate answer is just simply it's it's more who, and it's Jesus.

And it's simplest and somehow is the most profound reality.

Christian love is Christ Jesus, the one who loved us, the one who laid down his life for us, and the one who teaches us how to lay down our lives for one another.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for giving us the model of Jesus.

We thank you that, Lord, you have called us uh to be present in our lives, Lord, as you have um have pursued us to be in relationship with you and restore relationship with you, Lord.

You send us out to be in relationship with others within the church, Lord, and even extend that invitation, Lord, to those who might not know you yet, God.

And I just pray, God, you would just stir up and even in this community here, Lord, just the desire to be present, Lord, desire to just know the needs around us, and even the desire, Lord, that we can be transparent, honest about what needs we have in just areas where we might be struggling.

We need people to walk with us, God.

Uh, we thank you that um we don't have to walk around with some sort of abstract understanding or try trying to um just figure out what love actually is.

But Jesus, you you've declared that, you've shown that, Lord, to us.

We have a model for it.

And we thank you and pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.