INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• What is one thing that can change the course for life for a person? What can change one who is selfish and self-centered into a person who loves and puts others first?
• What is something that can change who and what we are?
• What changes the person who is leading a life of destruction into a person who has a heart and passion for Jesus?
• There are a lot of lonely, hurting people in the world who need something that God wants to offer to them.
• People need to know they are loved by God. We need to be the harbinger or the ones who carry that message to the world.
• Love can change people; God’s love can totally change us and everything about us.
• I know the love my wife has for me has changed me in many ways.
• Take a child and put them in a home where they are not loved and see what happens to the child when they grow up.
• I know the love we receive from other people can make a dramatic difference in one’s life; however the love we receive from God is transformational.
• The real change that happens at one’s core comes when one allows themselves to both realize and accept the love God has for them.
• When I gave my life to Jesus, He loved me, but He loved me too much to let me stay the way I was in the condition I was in.
• God’s love transformed me, God’s transformational love will transform anyone who allows it to touch them.
• Today as we continue with our journey through 1 John, we will examine three ways that God’s love transforms us into a new creation! Let’s begin with verse 1.
• SLIDE #2
• 1 John 3:1 (HCSB) Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
God’s transformational love transforms…
I. Who you are.
• God’s love is BEYOND wonderful!
• John begins this section by trying to get our attention. John is saying, “Quick, look” when he says “look how great a love…”
• One of the issues we need to get a grasp on is how great the love God gives to us really is.
• The word “great” signifies amazement, a sense of awe and wonder.
• If we are going to let God’s love have an affect on us, we must first realize how awesome His love is! The love we experience comes from the Father!
• Think about the love the world offers. More times than not it is conditional.
• When we think of the makeover shows, why do these people want to be made-over?
• It is because they do not feel loved and wanted because they are not thin enough, good looking enough, athletic enough to be totally accepted by the world.
• There have been studies that have been done to show that tall good-looking people will get jobs over people who are not so tall and good looking. The love the world has to offer is shallow.
• God even loved you when you were not so loveable!
• SLIDE #4
• Romans 5:8 (HCSB) But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!
• God has loved you from the beginning, when you were not so lovable. God will not desert you when you mess up, He will love you for eternity.
• The first part of the passage tells us that God “has given” us something. That something is His unconditional love!
• If you have ever felt the unconditional love of another, you can get a small taste of how wonderful God’s love is for you.
• God loves us so much that He wants to see us be all we can be. He wants us to have the best relationship with Him possible. God wants what is best for us.
• How many of us want our children not be a failure? None of us. We all want our children to fulfill their potential and destiny.
• IF we want that for them, we will do all we can to help them grow in life. God is the same way. His love is so deep that He does not want us to waste our great potential in Him.
• If we trust God enough to let Him love us, His love will transform us!
• Because of God’s transformational love, He has brought us into His family!
• DO you know why we can be a part of God’s family? It is because of His great love. It is not because we have done anything to deserve to be in His family. It is not like we won a reality TV. Show like, “The Bachelorette,” it is because God loves us!
• The love of the Father brings about a change of who we are, we are now a child of God.
• Being adopted into a wealthy family will afford the person some things in life they would otherwise not experienced, but being a part of God’s family will bring about some things you will get to experience in this life and the life to come that otherwise you would not have been able to experience!
• God’s love changes who you are from the inside out, it is not just some name change. You become a new creation in Christ!
• SLIDE #5
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 (HCSB) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.
• Because of God’s love, we have a new relationship with the Father. We have a natural kinship with God, we have the right as heirs to receive our inheritance from Him!
• SLIDE #6
• Colossians 3:24 (HCSB) knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.
• John finishes this part of verse one with the assurance of the truth he stated concerning becoming a child of God!
• Since God’s love has changed who we are something else has happened.
• The world will not recognize us.
• John warns us that the world will not recognize us since they did not recognize the Son when He was here.
• If the world did not know the Son, why would they know His children?
• The world has no comprehension of what makes the Christian tick until they become a part of God’s family also.
• It should not surprise us that the world does not agree or sometimes even like Christians. Many times things like that happen out of ignorance. If it like not like a certain race of people because you do not know them.
• By the way, this is another reason Christians should not be tied together with those who are not, whether it be by marriage or business association. The value systems will collide and will make a mess of things.
• Let turn to verse 2.
• SLIDE #7
• 1 John 3:2 (HCSB) Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.
• SLIDE #8
God’s transformational love transforms…
II. What you will become.
• God’s love will not only change who we are but also what you will become!
• Our relationship with the Father will change what you are in the present.
• We have already spoken of the fact that in the present we have been adopted into God’s family. This changes everything for us. In verse two, John uses the word “now” to signify the present relationship of life with God.
• Do you realize how wonderful it is to be a part of God’s family?
• People will do family trees, and when they find that someone who is famous is a part of their family tree, they tell others with pride about this.
• We should not have to search for significance in life if we are a child of God, which in itself is very significant!
• Being in God’s family gives you true purpose in life. It is so good to see people involved in serving the Lord!
• Our relationship with the Father will change what we will become in the future!
• Verse two tells us that it has not appeared as yet what we will be…
• What this means is that God has yet to display publicly the full glory that belongs to His children.
• Something inconceivably wonderful is waiting for God’s children, even more glorious than what they now possess. Christians have been born into God’s family, and they presently enjoy God’s kindness and blessings through Christ. But in the future they will also fully share in his glory. Believers have a vision of it now, but it will be reality when their bodies are resurrected. (Life Application Bible)
• One of the things we do know is that when Jesus appears, we will be like Him! This implies that we must work on being like Jesus.
• SLIDE #9
• Romans 12:2 (HCSB) Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.
• We do our part and God does His wonderful work!
• SLIDE #10
• 2 Corinthians 3:18 (HCSB) We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.
• During this life we are being transformed into what we already are in God’s eyes through Jesus, we are being transformed into the image of Jesus!
• We are called to look like our Lord!
• SLIDE #11
• Romans 8:29 (HCSB) For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.
• Notice we are told we will be conformed to His image; this is not the same as saying we will BE Him. We will never be the same as Him, we will be in His image.
• Let’s turn to verse 3
• SLIDE #12
• 1 John 3:3 (HCSB) And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.
• SLIDE #13
God’s transformational love transforms…
III. What you are called to do.
• We are called to fix our hope in Him!
• Verse three tells us we are to have our hope FIXED on Him.
• Hope is the confident expectation of something in the future. Fixed means to anchor to something.
• I have said this before, but you take children in the inner city and give them no hope of success, you will raise future gang members.
• You give them hope they can succeed in life, the sky is the limit.
• When times are good or bad, you need to fix your hope on Jesus!
• If our hope is fixed in Him, then we need to strive to purify ourselves!
• A few minutes ago I touched on this a bit. If our hope is in Jesus, then the natural thing for us to do is to purify ourselves!
• Notice it tells us we are to purify ourselves?
• God sees us a pure and holy through the blood of Jesus, our life is about trying to obtain that position.
• Then when our life is over and we have not reached it, which we will not, God’s grace makes up the difference for us!
• Pure means something close to holy, the verb tense denotes a continuous action on our part.
• God will not clean us up without our help, He will not make you be holy and pure, you must decide to do that and the Holy Spirit within you will help you get there.
• Each day we are faced with the choice of being pure or being not pure. God will not make you be what you do not want to be. It is a lifelong pursuit for those who love God!
• SLIDE #14
• Hebrews 12:14 (HCSB) Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness —without it no one will see the Lord.
CONCLUSION
• Love changes things, God love will make the ultimate change in us if we will allow God to love us like He wants to.
• God loves you so much He does not want to leave you as you are; He wants you to have the best relationship possible with Him.
• God wants you to make the most of with what you have. Too many of us think we have nothing to offer to God.
• There is a story in 2 kings 4 of a woman whose husband had died. She cried out to Elisha for help. He asked her what she had in her house, she was about to loose her sons to slavery to the creditors.
• All she had was a jar of oil. Elisha told her to borrow empty vessels from her neighbors. When she did, she poured that one jar of oil into enough containers that she was able to sell the oil to get out of debt and for them to live on!
• SLIDE #15
• 2 Kings 4:7 (HCSB) She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go sell the oil and pay your debt; you and your sons can live on the rest.”
• You may be just a small jar of oil, but in the hands of the Lord, you can do wonders!
• God love will change things, let it happen!
• BLANK SLIDE #16
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