Text: 1 John 4:7-21
Title: God’s kind of love
Introduction
Illustration: An eight year old wrote about the difference between love and true love. Love is when Daddy reads me a bedtime story. True love is when he doesn’t skip any of the pages.
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Today we want to look into the subject of God’s kind of love? The kind of love God has for us.
1.God’s kind of love is sacrificial (v7-13)
2.God’s kind of love is saving (v14-15)
3.God’s kind of love is secure (v16-18)
4.God’s kind of love is sanctifying (v19-21)
1.God’s kind of love is sacrificial (v7-13)
a.By sacrificial we mean God’s kind of love
1.holds nothing back
2.is totally undeserved
v9-10 describes how God first shows his sacrificial love among us
“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. This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
How sacrificial is God’s kind of Love? His Son for our Sins! God holds nothing back. God sent His one and only Son.God’s kind of love is totally undeserved. This is never about us loving God first.
God’s sacrifical love also extends to Him giving us His Spirit (v13)
He gives the Son to the world (believer and non-believer) He gives the Spirit to the Church
Without the Spirit we cannot be Born again or Know him
2. God’s kind of love is saving (v14-15)
“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.”
We need to see that God’s kind of love is a saving love.
John 3:16 (TMSG) 16“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
1.God’s kind of love saves us from our sins (v11)
“He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
Jesus Christ satisfies the demands of the wrath of God
2.God’s kind of love saves us from fear (v18)
“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.”
God’s kind of love saves from the inside out. God is in you.
Jesus on the inside, working on the outside. Oh what a change in my life.
3. God’s kind of love is secure (v16-18)
“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 him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment, because in this world we are like him. 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.”
Question #1 Will God ever stop loving me? No because God is love! For God to stop loving me would mean that God would stop being God.
Question #2 Can we rely on the love God has for us? We know we can rely on the love God has for us?
1. We know we can rely on the love God has for us by faith (rely = faith)
2. We know we can rely on the love God has for us from experience
“Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39)
Quote: “When I cannot trace his hand I can always trust his heart.”
Question 3 What about on the day of Judgment?
“we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment because God’s kind of love has done the necessary work in our lives. And that work? In this world we are like him.
Question 4. What about my fear of being punished by God?
There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear.
4. God’s kind of love is sanctifying (V19-21)
“We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
A.Sanctifying = God’s kind of love is changing us.
You can’t say you love God unless you can testify to a change in your attitude towards people you once used to hate. The proof that I love God is that I also love others.
You can’t change your attitude towards people you once used to hate without letting God love you first. ”We love because he first loved us.”
By first finding out just how much God loves me I will be better prepared to love difficult people.
How do I find out how much God loves me? By looking at the Cross!
Richard Dobbins likes to remind us "Remember the cross is a demonstration of God’s love for his enemies. So how much does God love his children? MORE THAN THE CROSS!"
How else can I find out how much God loves me? By looking at the Word!
Examples: Psalm 23; Romans 8; Ephesians 1
None of us have ever seen God. We do not have any idea what he looks like. God is spirit. However would it not be helpful in loving others to picture God looking like someone we might hate for no good reason. How many marriages could be improved if we pictured God looking like our spouse.
Conclusion
This is all about the kind of love God has to give everyone of us here
1.Acknowledge our need for God’s kind of love
2.Believe God wants to give us his kind of love
3.Commit to showing God’s kind of love to others
