1. There are so many of us that before you became a Christian, you were a very mean, hateful, & hard person person.
• Of all the words that someone would use to describe you (and me by the way), LOVE definitely wasn’t one of them.
• But all that changed with Jesus Christ. We were born again and what awakened in us was a keen sense of love for others.
• For that I am forever grateful! Because not only did love spark in my life, but it’s grown throughout the years.
• Why? Because the love of God has been poured into our hearts.
NOTE: If you’re a Christian today, that same love is in you too!
• Not just AROUND you, or TO you, but IN YOU!
CHAPTER 5 contains an interesting contrast…
V1-2 – Peace with God, Access to God, Grace of God, Hope in God.
V3-5 – Glory in tribulations knowing that God is producing something through every single of one them in our lives.
• Perseverance, Character, and hope!
V6-11 – The Love of God poured out & demonstrated in our lives.
We live in a rather loveless world. It seems like everyone is out for themselves, trying to get ahead at anyone’s expense.
• They call it a dog eat dog OR every man for himself (VISCIOUS!)
• It’s a society where a person’s word doesn’t mean much any more because it’s become easier & easier to lie to each other.
• Our world promotes sexual immorality & godlessness.
• Leaders are not taking us toward equity & fairness, but they too have taken advantage of their positions…
• Where’s the love in a high school teacher molesting a student?
• Where’s the love in a convenience store clerk being shot?
• Where’s the love in the latest corporate directors being sent to prison for stealing millions from a pension fund?
I’ll tell you… the only place you will find true love is in Jesus!
John 13:1 (NKJV) 1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
THE BIBLE TEACHES US that the Holy Spirit pours out in our hearts the very love of God.
• So that we have this ever increasing joy of His love.
• LOVE, the word used here is “agape”, the selfless, self-sacrificial love of God toward man.
OUR ENGLISH LANGUAGE can sometimes be so limited.
• You know we’ll say, “I love you” to those we cherish and at the same time say “I Love Cheesecake”.
• Of course we don’t mean the same thing, but we only really have one word to describe affection in different degrees.
• Greek, there were at least 4 different words to describe love…
#1 – PHILEO – speaks of a friendly, brotherly type of love.
Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue.
#2 – EROS – Speaks of a sexual, intimate type of love. (Septuagint)
#3 – STORGE – speaks of a fondness, a family type of affection.
Romans 1:31 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
#4 – AGAPE – the selfless, self-sacrificial type of love from God.
John 14:21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
What’s been poured into our very being but the very love of God.
• His nature is love, John tells us and now we have that very love flowing in and through us.
ONE OF THE MOST ASTOUNDING TRUTHS of the Gospel is that our Holy & Righteous God LOVES unholy & unrighteous human beings!
• It’s the very essence of the grace of God. – John 3:16
• So beautiful in simplicity. God loved. God gave. God sacrificed.
• It’s not like we cleaned up our lives and came to God with a airtight case on how much we deserve His love. NO WAY!
• The love of God came to us, without a cause!
SALVATION & God’s LOVE comes to the undeserving.
• It can’t be earned. IT can’t be bought. It can’t bargained for.
• GRACE – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense (jot that down)
• We get the riches of God because Jesus paid the price!
• God looks at me, looks at you as though I never sinned. WHY?
• Because of what Jesus has done.
• It’s not our works… it’s His finished work!
• Flip back to 3:24…
YOU NOTICE PAUL WRITES… ‘BEING JUSTIFIED’.
• It’s here in the original language in the present continual tense.
• It means it’s happening continually. It didn’t end the day after you got saved, but even now as we sit here.
Philippians 1:6 (NKJV) 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
So think with me… you’ve had a bad day. You stepped into the flesh. Didn’t want to. You look back & just feel all bummed out.
• So often we think we’ve given up our freedom in Jesus because of a bad thought, a bad day, a bad week…
• But listen… we’ve been justified by His grace!
NOTE: And so it was God who initiated the relationship with us.
• Flip over to 1 John 4.17-19
• Love came down before it went up. Incredible.
Paul also says that God’s love has been POURED OUT in us.
• This doesn’t refer to a trickling, or a portion…
• God’s love isn’t measured out in incremental drops…
• But God’s love has been LAVISHED ON US in abundance!
Acts 2:17-18 (NKJV) 17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy.
Titus 3:5-6 (NKJV) 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
Zechariah 12:10 (NKJV) 10 “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.
Remember during the Feast of Tabernacles when Jesus stood right there in the middle of the Temple… - GO back to John 7:37-39
And it would totally be awesome as Jesus right here, at this very moment, Jesus voice cries out… if anyone thirsts!!!!!
• Jesus was with no uncertain terms saying He was the Messiah!
• I can & will quench your thirst if you come to Me!
NOTE: Jesus is talking about that deep, spiritual thirst.
• That universal thirst that every person has in their heart to be right with God, their loving Creator.
• Deep down inside we need God.
• Our lives cannot and will not be complete without Him.
BUT MAN is trying as hard as he can to live apart from God.
• We see all over people trying to satisfy that thirst with physical things. This dissatisfaction is the fuel of Madison Avenue.
• Hey this is what you need to be happy.
• If your hair was this color, wow would things be great.
• If you drive this car, how could you not be satisfied.
• If you took this course, and made this much money, perfect!
But… You don’t have to drink from the wells of this world.
• You don’t have to drink from the wells of success.
• You don’t have to drink from the wells of popularity.
• Jesus offers you living water… flowing not just into you but out of you.
I LOVE THIS: He who believes in Me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
• Remember, we’ve learned before, the living water in our lives is to be shared through us, not hoarded for us.
• It’s a flowing river of life. A flowing river of love. A flowing river of evangelism and concern and help!
• This is the ongoing work of God’s Spirit in our lives.
• And there is that deep flowing, rushing river of God’s love inside of us!
TRUE LOVE is never passive… it’s always active.
• Love is always looking for an outward demonstration, an outlet.
NOTE: Over the years I have seen many marriages go downhill.
• They come to a point where they don’t love each other any more and openly verbalize that…
• But it wasn’t all that long ago that they exchanged their vows and pledged a love for a long time… till death to us part.
• Love often goes downhill because there isn’t this outward demonstration… this continual outpouring.
• There is an end to the LAVISH SUPPLY that once was there.
• Turn that love back on in that relationship.
Why? Because God so lavishly supplied His love and poured it abundantly in to our hearts. We love, because He first loved us!
OH BUT I CAN’T LOVE HIM… HER…
• Listen, nothing is impossible with God. NOTHING.
• One of the marks of Jesus presence in a church, in a home, in a believer is this very love that He has supplied!
• This love displayed… forgiveness, grace, mercy, love
Galatians 5:22-25 (NKJV) 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Whenever I start to think I can’t, the Holy Spirit takes me back to Luke 6:6, the man with the withered hand… Let’s turn there.
NOTE: In those times when your love has withered up…
• When you are paralyzed and struggling, know this:
• As Jesus enters in, He is always drawn toward the one who is hurting the most. His love draws near.
• So opposite at times of us. We tend to seek out friends, and people that we know…
• The ones that are doing the best, the happiest, the ones we have the most in common with. NOT JESUS!
• He found the one that was hurting the most…
V8-10 – Stretch out your hand.
• This guys, was an absolute impossibility.
• He just didn’t have the capacity on his own to do this.
• He had sent this signal from the brain to his hand a million times before wanting it to move.
• He could have said NO WAY Jesus, you don’t understand I can’t!
• But friends, because God’s commands are His enablements, the moment he DECIDED to obey, he was ABLE to obey!
• As you purpose in your heart to obey the Lord and love with the very love poured out lavishly in your heart… you will!
YES… The Love of God is foundational… the love of Jesus is unquestionable.
• It’s unquestionable and foundational.
• He’s the good shepherd who laid His life down for the sheep!
• Everything is happening then, and now for the glory of God!
• This is huge in our spiritual lives… Jesus says come to me, believe me, obey me and you will see awesome things!
