May 28th, 2000, Sunday Morning

"Understanding God's Love"
To love: the right way... and the wrong way

OPENING: 1 John 4:10-12, KJV


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Animals don't love like people do. They reproduce and nurse their young but they don't "love." They don't have that emotional component people do.

We see people cry out all over the world because they want someone to love them.

Psalm 4:2: We love the wrong things and do so in the wrong way.

#1 OF 3: GOD'S EXAMPLE OF LOVE

• 1 John 4:10: The first example of God's love is God Himself. Love is not that we loved God but God loved us and sent his Son to die for us. RELATED FICTIONAL ANECDOTE
  
  
  • Some believe God will not intervene in the affairs of man and love--that God is impersonal. Wrong. Re-read 1 John 4:10; THAT is the height of intervention
    
    
  • 1 John 4:7-8: Love IS God. Therefore, if you do not love then you do not know God.

#2 OF 3: SACRIFICE OF THAT LOVE - giving something of yourself

• Isaiah 64:6: This verse describes the kind of people (all of us) that God loved so much that he saved. Would you do the same as He did?
  
  
• 2 Corinthians 5:21: That God put together every sin of this world and put it in his Son that all people may be righteous before God.
  
  
• Hebrews 10:9-14: Here's the proof that no man but only God can take away sins; every priest in the world can offer sacrifices to God every day for the rest of their life but it can't take away even a single sin. God sent his Son, Jesus, as a single sacrifice that paid for every one of your sins for the rest of your life. It's futile to proceed without God
  
  
• 1 John 4:11: It's not enough for us to accept God's love. It's our duty to one another to sometimes correct, encourage, and give gifts to others even if you're uncomfortable with that other person. We do this to love one another
  
  
• Matthew 22:36-40: Jesus Himself says that loving God is the "first and great commandment." and the second, like unto the first, is to love thy neighbor. Just because you don't like something someone else does doesn't mean you should lessen your commitment to love them
  
  
• James 2:8-9: If you think to respect another and not love them is enough, realize that that is the same as not loving them which is sinning
  
  
• Ephesians 2:8-9: So does this mean that doing good works (charity work, fundraising, help the homeless, etc.) everyday of your life to show your love will get you into heaven? No. This verse kills the conventional theory that only doing good will get you into heaven. It is my faith you are saved. Doing good unto others has nothing to do with being saved because doing all the good works of the entire world will not forgive you of one sin of which is enough to sentence you to eternity in Hell
  
  
• Luke 18:10-14: Some acts of love need to be done in secrecy. Jesus told a story of a sinning tax collector ("publican") and a Pharisee--both praying. The Pharisee would stand and pray and be thankful about how he was better than other people while the publican, who would no lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, would condemn himself a sinner and ask for God's mercy. Just as the first shall be last and the last be first, "every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Don't look to be credited or recognized for your work. What is the praise of man worth compared to God? For you can hide no secret from God--so he'll know everything you do for others that no one else does. And THAT is better than everyone else knowing.
  
  
• If you want to do something for another, you should be motivated to do so because it is pleasing to God. Why you do what you do is far more important that what you do.
  
  
• Separate yourself from the pleasures of this world. If you love God, why do you watch the movies, listen to the music, or have the dirty magazines you do (if you do)? Whenever you do/watch/speak/listen to something, ask yourself, "Would Jesus do the same as I?"
  
  
• If any two places should be clean for the Lord, it's your home and the church. Do you really love God? If so, remove those things He would not approve of. Have a clean heart. Have affection in the right direction.

#3 OF 3: GOD'S EXPECTATION OF LOVE

• 1 John 1:2: God wants to manifest His love through us that we may love others.
  
  
• 1 John 4:12: In our current bodies, we can never see God, but if we love each other, God lives inside us.

CLOSER

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We are a living, breathing "witness mark" to this lost world. This country is conceiving thousands of unborn babies because of sexual sins every Friday and Saturday night. This world doesn't know how to love.

We need to witness out of duty but more importantly out of desire.

A true story to close this sermon: A Salvation Army worker encountered a homeless woman on the street. He invited her into the mission for food and shelter but the woman refused to move. The Army worker said, "Woman, come in where you will be welcome. Jesus loves you." The woman was unconvinced and refused to move. Then the Army worker reached down and kissed her on the cheek and said, "Come in where you will be welcome." Now the woman got up and went into the mission with him. She said she went because many have told her they care for her. But that worker was the first person to ever show his love to her.