Do You Know Love?

Do You Know Love?

Pastor Glenn Newton, February 16, 2014

1 John 4:7-21

God’s Love and Ours

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 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.

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Do you know Love? The reason I ask is because that important word is thrown around a lot today, and it’s used in lots of ways…in fact, so much that the word can lose its meaning if we are not careful.

I could say things like this and really mean it…maybe you have too:

I Love my Dog…. I Love my Car….I love my Wife….I Love Tacos! All four of those statements could be true…but do they all mean the same thing?

Is my love for my Dog the same idea as the Love for my Tacos? Or my Wife? Of course not…and God’s Word teaches about the different kinds of loves….there is love for your there is Agape Love….God’s Love for You and Me.

Romantic Love is what causes a person to go out and buy flowers, candy, and Teddy Bears for their loved ones on Valentine’s day….it’s a feeling kind of love…butterfly kind of thing…

it’s the fire starter, it’s like the liquid lighter fluid that you put on the charcoal right before you light it…

Romantic love is fun and exciting, but it’s not what makes a relationship last, even though I listen to people talk all the time about how they have lost the “feeling” and now wonder if they are out of love……those folks don’t understand what True Love is all about…they are trying to live on a temporary high….that first burning flame when you light the match….but as you know, that fire always burns out and that real heat starts when the coals start to burn….no flame you can see…just that constant burn…it’s not flashy…but it’s what gets the job done…

Nothing wrong with Romantic Love…..My wife would tell you that I could use a refill on that…But God’s Word helps us understand True Love, and it gives us the Key to Lasting Love.

Let’s take a look.

1. True Love Starts with God in your Heart. V. 7-8

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Have you ever watched someone try to play a game, but they didn’t know hardly any of the rules? For me, it’s really hard to watch. We have been having inside recess for what seems the last month at school, so when it’s too cold outside, we let the kids play board games during recess time, so I have tried to watch these kids play chess…but I can’t hardly watch because they make up their own rules, their own moves to the point that the game doesn’t really look anything like chess….I just have to walk away before I go into a Chess Instructional Tirade…