Did you hear the story about the Hot air balloon? This man was traveling in a hot air balloon when he realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am." The woman below replied, "You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."
"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.
"I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?"
"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is, technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip."
The woman below responded, "You must be in Management."
"I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"
"Well," said the woman, "you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault."
Let me ask you, How many of you this morning are the man in the balloon and how many are the lady on the ground; how does it help anyone, if we start blaming people, getting technical, for every disappointment we feel? How many of us have a master degree in history, citing every infraction, feeling every slight as an offence punishable by death? Have you ever said, they did not do this for me, but they did that for George and Sally on their birthdays? How can they forget me? I thought they were supposed to be Christians and love me.
Let’s see what John has to say, 1 John 3:11-24: 11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
John tells us that the oldest message in the world is the message “We should love one another.” And the first person in the world to disobey that message was Cain. We still live in a world where resentments, anger, grudges and violence dominates. Daily we hear stories of people not being loved, rather they are killed, raped, divorced, bullied, sued, terrorized, abused, have road rage and it happens to everyone, whether you are at home, office, school; Christian or not. People are living with hatred, which the Bible equates as murder in their hearts. It seems like our world is overrun with the Cain syndrome despite the fact that churches throughout our country are filled this morning with people. Do we really love one another?
Well, beside the fact that Jesus told us to love each other, John gives us another reason why we should love one another and it is more likely to be one we can all certainly relate too. You might want to underline the first part of verse 20. V20 “whenever our hearts condemn us.”
Have you ever perceived a defect in your life? That is your heart condemning you!
Now I have said many times, "Guilt is from the devil but conviction is from the Holy Spirit."But the truth is that these terms are not in opposition to one another but rather just the opposite: the words "guilt" and "conviction" are very much related, even interdependent at places. In fact it is the description of a sinner before a holy God.
The apostle John writes, "Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4). When we sin we break God's law, fall short of his glory, "miss the mark" of his righteous standard. And because we were made in the image of God to love him and obey him and live for his glory, when we sin we feel guilty. Our conscience condemns us because we have betrayed our selves, lived in a way contrary to our intended purpose. This self-condemnation is good however, and a sign that everything is working properly inside of us when we do wrong. We feel guilty when we sin because we are guilty. We broke the law, we transgressed the commandment, we rebelled against God's rule, we sinned, and we were not created to do any of that. Contrary to what many believe, this is abnormal behavior, it is wrong, and we know it.
John records in his gospel where Jesus said that He would send a counselor. It is He who will expose or bring to light sin in the world, a task He performs in every believer convicting our hearts of sin. In other words, the Holy Spirit shows us that we are sinners. The guilt, then, we feel at a moment like this isn't something artificial and it certainly isn't something from the devil; it is actually a by-product of the ministry of the Holy Spirit! He brings our sin to light, exposing it for what it is: lawlessness, wicked, and evil; and then we feel justly guilty in God's sight as a result. The guilt we feel when we sin contains a call to repent and seek restoration from the One we have offended.
What God doesn’t want us to do with our guilt is sit and wallow in it, Pitying ourselves and walk around with our heads down, Complaining about it to our friends and anyone else who will listen!
What God wants us to see is There are a number of certainties that John points out in our scripture passage that we will begin to become unsure of if our hearts condemn us.
1.(v14) We have passed from death to life. But a person with a condemning heart doubts that kind of assurance!
2.(v19) We know that we belong to the truth. But a person with a condemning heart doubts that kind of accuracy!
3.(v21) We have confidence before God. But a person with a condemning heart doubts that kind of acceptance.
4.(v22) We receive from him anything we ask. But a person with a condemning heart doubts that kind of assistance.
5.(v24) We know that he lives in us. But a person with a condemning heart doubts that kind of attachment.
So what is the remedy for a condemning heart? We find it in vs. 16; 18-20:
v16”This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
v18-20 “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.”
Jesus meant business when he showed us what love is. He was nailed to cross because he was serious about sin, and how it can kill any hope of relationship with people.
We have all broke the rules and Jesus could have spent eternity counting all our infractions, mistakes, every sin – but what did he do instead to communicate love to His family, whom the Father calls His children… Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. He chose to forgive, to love with action, coming and die in our place. So the Bible teaches us in 1 John 2:2 “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”
So how can we become so exacting and calculating, noting every infraction of the law, to the minutest detail of others; carrying a grudge or judging that person until the Kingdom comes? Cain carried a grudge against his brother Abel; it lead to first recorded homicide in the world. In fact the Bible is clear when the hating begins, murder, of some fashion, is the outcome. The experience of love, acceptance and forgiveness is non-existent. As a result, the world’s vision of Christianity is joyless; like Cain, his life became joyless, speaking of rules rather than love “Am I brother’s keeper?”
John gives us A SIMPLE TEST TO DETERMINE IF A PERSON HAS REAL LOVE. V17:
“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”
When you have a condemning heart and find it hard to love yourself go out and find someone else to love.
Instead of pitying yourself have pity on someone else!
It is by showing the love of God to others that we can overcome a condemning heart.
But let us remember that before we can show the love of God we must first know the love of God.
In order to know the love of God I must believe that Jesus laid down his life for me.
When I know that Jesus laid down his life for me I know God loves me!
How do you know God loves you? Jesus laid down his life for you! God did not just say he loves us; He showed he loved us!
He demonstrates His love for us by giving us Jesus and He delivers that love to us by His Spirit.
V24 “And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.”
The Holy Spirit wants to take the love God has for us and put it in our hearts. And take that
same love? Look at the second part of verse 16. “And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
There is the answer for those of us who are wondering how much love we should have for each other.
There are 2 types of people here today
1.Those who need to know the love of God
2.Those who need to show the love of God
Evangelist John Wesley was stopped one night by a highwayman who robbed the Methodist leader of all his money. Wesley said to the man, “If the day should come that you desire to leave this evil way and live for God, remember that ‘the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.’ ”
Some years later, Wesley was stopped by a man after a church service. “Do you remember me?” the man asked. “I robbed you one night, and you told me that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. I have trusted Christ, and He has changed my life.”
How has the love of God affected you? Thank about that this week and share it with somebody!!
I offer this in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of The Holy Spirit… AMEN!!
