Rediscover Love Series

Rediscover Love

1 John 4:7-16

Good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to 1 John 4. While you are finding 1 John, let me tell you a story.

There were once two old farmers. Their farms shared a property line, and for generations their families had lived next to one another. Both farms benefitted from a freshwater spring that lay on the property line, providing water for both their fields.

One day, the farmers got a letter from the county surveyors office. It informed them that there had been an error in the way the property line had been drawn, and the spring actually lay entirely within the property of one of the farmers.

And so a bitter feud began. The farmer that now owned the spring dug an irrigation ditch along the property line, rerouting the spring creating a barrier that couldn’t be crossed. But foolishly, he spent so much money on digging the ditch that he didn’t have enough to hire workers to bring in the harvest.

The other farmer decided to fight. Day after day he spent hours in town, meeting with lawyers, researching property law, filing suits. His fields lay neglected, and he spent all his money on the legal battle.

One day, a carpenter came through the area looking for work. He knocked on the door of the second farmer, and the farmer said, “Well, if he’s going to try to divide us up with that ditch, then I might as well finish the job. I don’t even want to have to look at him!” So he asked the carpenter to build a fence all the way across the property, a nice, big, tall fence.

The carpenter said, “Well, if you’ve got the wood, I can do the work.” So the farmer showed him the wood that was stacked up in his barn, and the carpenter went to work.

Well, the carpenter soon found that there wasn’t enough wood to build the kind of barrier the farmer had in mind. But when the carpenter pointed this out to the farmer, the farmer said, “Well, I can’t afford anymore wood. Every spare dollar I’ve got is going to the lawyers. Just do what you can with the wood I’ve got.” And he left to go back to town to file another lawsuit.

That farmer came driving back down the dirt road to his home, but when he looked across the field, he didn’t see any fence going up. Instead of the barrier he’d wanted, he saw that the carpenter had built a bridge across the ditch. And no sooner had he pulled into his driveway than here came his neighbor came walking toward him with his hand outstretched. “You’re a better man than I am, to make the first move and build that bridge” he said. “Can you forgive me? I realized that God’s the one that put the spring there. We’re the ones that drew the lines.” The first farmer promised to re-route the irrigation ditch so his neighbors field could be watered. In turn, the second farmer sent his sons across the bridge to help his neighbor bring in the harvest.

All because a carpenter built a bridge instead of a wall.

As a quick recap, this is the season of Advent, a word that means “coming” or “arrival.” and the season is marked by expectation, waiting, anticipation, and longing. Advent is not just an extension of Christmas—it is a rediscovery of Christmas. It’s meant to remind us of how the Jews were longing for the coming of the Messiah. Advent offers us the opportunity to celebrate His birth, and to reflect on what it means that Jesus came in to the world.

So our Advent series is called Rediscover Christmas. We’ve talked about how Christ gives us hope in our uncertainties. How he brings us peace in our struggles and joy in our discouragements. And today, we are going to look at how Jesus brings us love despite our differences, and how the story of Christmas is really the story of the gospel.

So if you’ve found 1 John, I’d like us to read 1 John 4:7-16. If you are physically able, please stand to honor the reading of God’s Word.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.