Transition Video: Dennis Swanberg – Easter Sunday
Series: Find Joy in the Journey in 2019
Thesis of series: Joy needs to be experienced in the journey of life! But Joy, like any other attitude, can come and go. It is not guaranteed simply because we are born again believers. We must put ourselves in the places where experiencing joy is a possibility. We need to go after and find joy in our journey of life. What are you doing to cultivate joy? Remember joy is a choice!
Many get all caught up in our, so called, destinations but in the process, we never enjoy the moments in the journey of life to that destination. But God is more concerned with the journey, than the destination so we need to focus less on the destination and enjoy the journey today – we need to find the joy in the here and now.
Introduction to Series:
Quote from Chuck Swindoll’s book “Laugh Again”: “I know of no greater need today than the need for joy. Unexplainable, contagious joy. Outrageous joy.”
Studying about joy in Scripture, looking at verses which speak of joy, helps build an understanding of how to put ourselves in places where it is possible to find and maintain an attitude of joy in our journey of life. Scripture reveals it is possible to find laughter and joy in living life in a sin-filled world! The Apostle Paul teaches us this can be done!
Scripture Texts for 2019:
Phil. 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!”
Romans 15:13: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
John 15:11 “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
Summary of 1 John 1 – You find joy in the journey through connecting with the Word of Life which then leads you into the Light. The Light will lead you to Love and in this process you will find joy!
Sermon 6: Find Joy in the Journey - Love - 1 John 2
Thesis: The discovery of Love and the actions of love opens up our eyes to see Jesus, to hear Jesus and to touch Jesus, but the action of hate causes us to be blind to Jesus, deaf to Jesus and out of touch with Jesus. Love puts us in the light while hate traps us in darkness.
Scripture Text:
1 John 2:1 (NIV)
1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
1 John 2:2 (NIV)
2He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:3 (NIV)
3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.
1 John 2:4 (NIV)
4The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 2:5 (NIV)
5But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:
1 John 2:6 (NIV)
6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
1 John 2:7 (NIV)
7Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard.
1 John 2:8 (NIV)
8Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
1 John 2:9 (NIV)
9Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.
1 John 2:10 (NIV)
10Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.
1 John 2:11 (NIV)
11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
1 John 2:12 (NIV)
12 I write to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
1 John 2:13 (NIV)
13 I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you have overcome the evil one.
I write to you, dear children,
because you have known the Father.
1 John 2:14 (NIV)
14 I write to you, fathers,
because you have known him who is from the beginning.
I write to you, young men,
because you are strong,
and the word of God lives in you,
and you have overcome the evil one.
1 John 2:15 (NIV)
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:16 (NIV)
16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.
1 John 2:17 (NIV)
17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
1 John 2:18 (NIV)
18Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.
1 John 2:19 (NIV)
19They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
1 John 2:20 (NIV)
20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth.
1 John 2:21 (NIV)
21I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
1 John 2:22 (NIV)
22Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist—he denies the Father and the Son.
1 John 2:23 (NIV)
23No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
1 John 2:24 (NIV)
24See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.
1 John 2:25 (NIV)
25And this is what he promised us—even eternal life.
1 John 2:26 (NIV)
26I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
1 John 2:27 (NIV)
27As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
1 John 2:28 (NIV)
28And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.
1 John 2:29 (NIV)
29If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
Introduction:
When I read our text for today this equation jumps out at me:
• GOD + LOVE – HATE - LOVE OF THE WORLD = Enables us to see Jesus, hear Jesus and touch Jesus which will bring us Joy in the journey.
• I see a paradox – two opposites which lead us down one path or the other – one path is walking in the light while the other path leads us into darkness. The two are Love and Hate! Opposites!
Charles Salmon notes this about our chapter: “Love is a very popular idea in today’s world. We distort and misinterpret it, but it is on everyone’s lips. Many of our most popular songs, books, and movies are about love. There are enough to fill a library. We often forget love is truly a Christian idea. It is seen in its fullness only in Christ. Love originated in the mind of God, of whom it is written, "God is love." But, often what the world calls love is vastly different from what God in Christ revealed love to be. The world describes love as a feeling, an overwhelming passion. God says it a guiding principle of moral of life. Love is the light by which the Christian makes the moral decisions of His life. I sometimes sit back and get very frustrated with the views of the world’s residents. I watch what is promoted on most of the TV shows of today and I say, “What is wrong with those people?” I even comment, “That is not the way of the Lord!” Then I have to be gently reminded by the Holy Spirit that those people are blind, lost, and have distorted lens that they look through. Why? Because they do not have true Love in their lives. They don’t know God or His ways therefore they do not have the ability to see clearly.”
It’s like I said last week many are lost in a dark cave with no flash light and they cannot find their way out without the light of Love coming into their lives.
T.S. – We need to make sure that we choose the Word of Life – The Light - The Love – We must Remember God is Love. Since God is the author of love we are to reject the ways of The World? The Hate? The Unforgiveness! Their re-definition of the word love.
I. Love is the path God has called us too walk down and when we love we see more of His light on our path but when we hate we are trapped in total darkness.
a. When we choose the path of love the light illuminates our way but when we choose to hate we then stumble around in the pit of darkness.
i. We are warned that hate is not a part of those who walk in the light.
1. Hate is defined – to feel intense or passionate dislike for (someone or thing).
a. With this action of hate comes the Bait of Satan – unforgiveness.
i. “Trials in this life will expose what is in your heart—whether the offense is toward God or others. Tests either make you bitter toward God and your peers or stronger. If you pass the test, your roots will shoot down deeper, stabilizing you and your future. If you fail, you become offended, which can lead to defilement with bitterness.” ? John Bevere, The Bait of Satan: Living Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense
ii. “Love forgets wrongs so that there is hope for the future.” ? John Bevere, The Bait of Satan: Living Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense
iii. “Bitterness is a root. If roots are nursed—watered, protected, fed, and given attention—they increase in depth and strength. If not dealt with quickly, roots are hard to pull up. The strength of the offense will continue to grow. We are therefore exhorted not to let the sun go down on our wrath. (See Ephesians 4:26.) Now instead of the fruit of righteousness being produced, we will see a harvest of anger, resentment, jealousy, hatred, strife, and discord. Jesus called these evil fruits.” ? John Bevere, Bait Of Satan: Living Free from the Deadly Trap of Offense
2. Hate – it’s fruit of unforgiveness, bitterness, anger is not characteristic of a person who has accepted Jesus.
a. Rodney Pickett makes this observation, “Love is the identifying mark of Christianity. In a world of hate, envy, and anger, love sticks out like a healthy thumb. When anyone walks away from an encounter with us, that person should remember our love, not our convictions.” Contributed to sermoncentral.com by: Ritch Grimes
b. What do you portray in your life love or hate?
3. Jesus modeled and commanded for us not to hate but to love.
a. The cross Luke 23:34:
i. Jesus words on the cross -- 34Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
1. He chose love not hate!
b. John 13:34: 34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
i. He tells us we must choose the path of love!
c. Mark 12:33 Jesus Greatest commandment:
i. 33To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
ii. It is better to have acts of love for God and for others than to sacrifice yourself in His service and never love others!
iii. This was the fatal flaw of the religious people of Jesus day and Jesus hated that they did not love!
1. Why? Because Jesus knew that the power of love is what would defeat the dark side.
a. Only love can defeat the dark side!
2. Luke 11:42: 42“Woe to you Pharisees, because zyou give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.
iv. Love is the only thing we will take with us into Heaven – nothing else – actions of love go with us into Heaven! But degrees, money, fame, fortune will not – actions of hate and unforgiveness will be banished from Heaven.
4. Over the long run, love’s power to forgive is stronger than hate’s power to get even. — Lewis B. Smedes
a. LOVE MY ENEMIES
Richard Wurmbrand, who spent fourteen years suffering in a Communist prison, reminds all believers with less than ideal circumstances that “if the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ, and if the heart loves Him, you can resist all tortures.” He says, “God will not judge us according to how much we endured, but how much we could love.” The love of God demonstrated in the lives of his people is potent. Wurmbrand gives an example: “A Christian was sentenced to death. Before being executed, he was allowed to see his wife. His last words to his wife were, ‘You must know that I die loving those who kill me. They don’t know what they do and my last request of you is to love them, too. Don’t have bitterness in your heart because they kill your beloved one. We will meet in heaven.’ These words impressed the officer of the secret police who attended the discussion between the two. After he told me the story in prison, where he had been put for becoming a Christian.” SOURCE: Michael G. Moriarty, The Perfect 10: The Blessings of Following God’s Commandments in a Post Modern World, pp. 141-142. Contributed to Sermoncentral.com by: Joel Smith
5. Love has the power to over come evil and hate if we let it be the master of our lives and of our values.
a. Another Illustration of the power of love to break people free from the bondage of hate.
i. ILL. Listen to this true story. Rabbi Michael Weisser lived in Lincoln, Nebraska. And for more than 3 years, Larry Trapp, a self-proclaimed Nazi & Ku Klux Klansman, directed a torrent of hate-filled mailings & phone calls toward him. Trapp promoted white supremacy, anti-Semitism, & other messages of prejudice, declaring his apartment the KKK state headquarters & himself the grand dragon. His whole purpose in life seemed to be to spew out hate-ridden racial slurs & obscene remarks against Weisser & all those like him. At first, the Weissers were so afraid they locked their doors & worried themselves almost sick over the safety of their family. But one day Rabbi Weisser found out that Trapp was a 42-year-old clinically blind, double amputee. And he became convinced that Trapp’s own physical helplessness was a source of the bitterness he expressed. So Rabbi Weisser decided to do the unexpected. He left a message on Trapp’s answering machine, telling him of another side of life…a life free of hatred & racism. Rabbi Weisser said, "I probably called 10 times & left messages before he finally picked up the phone & asked me why I was harassing him. I said that I’d like to help him. I offered him a ride to the grocery store or to the mall." Trapp was stunned. Disarmed by the kindness & courtesy, he started thinking. He later admitted, through tears, that he heard in the rabbi’s voice, "something I hadn’t experienced in years. It was love.” Slowly the bitter man began to soften. One night he called the Weissers & said he wanted out, but didn’t know how. They grabbed a bucket of fried chicken & took him dinner. Before long they made a trade: in return for their love he gave them his swastika rings, hate tracts, & Klan robes. That same day Trapp gave up his Ku Klux Klan recruiting job & dumped the rest of his propaganda in the trash. "They showed me so much love that I couldn’t help but love them back," he finally confessed. Folks, if that could happen in Lincoln, Nebraska, what could happen here in our community, in our neighborhoods, if we truly began to live lives that showed the love of Jesus to those around us? Contributed to sermoncentral.com by: MELVIN NEWLAND
ii. Luke 6:35: 35But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
6. Illustration: Show video of One Race! The power of Love!
a. Press Feb 17th we are pushing love – releasing love and stomping on hate – invite people out to this it will change your life and their life – do you want to be apart of God’s movement of love and revival make it priority to come out next Sunday at 6pm!
b. The power of love will be released in this place and within our lives if we choose to come. To me this event is a must for our day and for such a time as this!
7. Quote from Developing The Leader Within chapter 5 – John Maxwell
a. PEOPLE WHO MAKE PROBLEMS WORSE
i. When some people face a problem, they can make it worse. I used to tell my staff that all people in an organization carry with them two “buckets.” One is filled with gasoline, the other with water. When they come across the “spark” of a problem, they choose which bucket to use on it. Will they dump gasoline on the spark and create a real fire, or will they throw water on it and put it out? How do the people around you react to the sparks of life? Are they fire lighters who blow things up, or firefighters who calm things down? Anyone who enjoys throwing gasoline on the fire is a liability to you and the organization.
ii. HOW DO THE PEOPLE AROUND YOU REACT TO THE SPARKS OF LIFE? ARE THEY FIRE LIGHTERS WHO BLOW THINGS UP, OR FIREFIGHTERS WHO CALM THINGS DOWN?
iii. Illustration: Story of Uncle Chuck and can of gas and pap’s truck.
b. PEOPLE WHO BECOME PROBLEM MAGNETS
i. When you have people who focus on problems, collect them, or multiply them, they also tend to attract other problem seekers. It’s an example of the Law of Magnetism from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: “Who you are is who you attract.” 4 Such people often eventually become the problem. If you’re someone who sees nothing but problems, guess what you get in life: more problems. If you see nothing but possibilities, guess what: you receive more possibilities. The first law of holes says, “When you are in one, stop digging.” As a leader, can you help someone to stop being a problem magnet? Can you take the shovel away from him and stop him from digging his own grave professionally? The answer is yes, but the person has to want to change and may need a lot of support to change the way he thinks.
1. THE FIRST LAW OF HOLES SAYS, “WHEN YOU ARE IN A HOLE, STOP DIGGING.”
b. Hate let me define it it in more detail SO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY God wants you to have nothing to do with it: Tennyson’s Dictionary Information:
i. Hate verb
1. To have a great aversion to, with a strong desire that evil should befall the person toward whom the feeling is directed; to dislike intensely; to detest; as, to hate one's enemies; "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." 1 John iii. 15.
2. To be very unwilling; followed by an infinitive, or a substantive clause with that; as, to hate her!
3. To love less, relatively. Luke xiv. 26.
ii. Hate noun
1. Strong aversion coupled with desire that evil should befall the person toward whom the feeling is directed; as exercised toward things, intense dislike; hatred; detestation; -- opposed to love. "For in a wink the false love turns to hate." Tennyson
iii. Synonyms -- To Hate, Abhor, Detest, Abominate, Loathe. Hate is the generic word, and implies that one is inflamed with extreme dislike. We abhor what is deeply repugnant to our sensibilities or feelings. We detest what contradicts so utterly our principles and moral sentiments that we feel bound to lift up our voice against it. What we abominate does equal violence to our moral and religious sentiments. What we loathe is offensive to our own nature, and excites unmingled disgust. Our Savior is said to have hated the deeds of the Nicolaitanes; his language shows that he loathed the lukewarmness of the Laodiceans; he detested the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees; he abhorred the suggestions of the tempter in the wilderness.
c. If you hate others you will stumble and fall because you are in darkness and you do not have the ability to see clearly because love and hate don’t dwell in the same heart.
i. When You are consumed in hate you will not see Jesus, hear Jesus or touch Jesus.
d. When people fall into hate they are confused and trapped in their chains of hate.
1. The pitfalls of hatred
a. Hate and its fruit never heals
i. Hate will never heal a broken relationship
ii. Hate will never heal a broken heart
iii. Hate will never heal a life
b. Hate and its fruit always hurts
i. Hate always causes more suffering
ii. Hate always causes more pain.
iii. Hate actually thrives on pain and suffering
iv. Hate will break and wound others
1. I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. ~James Baldwin
c. Hate and its fruit erodes hearts
i. Hate will erode away a heart for others
ii. Hate will seer away a conscience for others
iii. Hate will break a part people’s hearts
d. Hate and its fruit distorts minds
i. Hate will destroy your rational thinking
1. Reference: Shootings in Rice Lake years ago during hunting season.
2. Reference the comments in the store by another individual who then wanted to kill all Cambodians.
ii. Hate will lie to you about what is right and wrong
iii. Hate will distort the truth in your mind
iv. Hate will cause you to do stupid things filled with bitterness-resentment-anger.
e. Hate and its fruit breeds hate
i. Hate leads to more hate which leads to deeper and more rooted hate.
ii. Hate is a bottomless pit of despair for all involved.
1. Share story from the Insanity of God.
iii. Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat. ~Henry Emerson Fosdick
2. Hate and its fruit is a choice.
a. I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. ~Booker T. Washington
b. Illustration: A Rattlesnake, if Cornered will become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is - a biting of oneself. We think we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves. ~E. Stanley Jones
i. Hate cause you bite yourself with deadly venom.
e. We must obey the Lord and walk in love like Jesus did. Jesus refused to allow himself to hate!
i. Jesus’ commandments
1. Love the Lord
a. What does Jesus mean when he says love the Lord?
i. It means we choose to live the life of Love and we do that to please our Father in Heaven.
b. When we have a love relationship with the Lord Love will drive out the hate in our lives.
c. God’s love will always say no to hate and its fruit bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, strife, and such!
d. If we love God then we will grow stronger in Him and see that love is the greater and more powerful way in this life.
2. Love your neighbor
a. What does Jesus mean when he says love my neighbor?
i. “We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” -Sam Keen, from To Love and Be Loved
b. Love will always choose to look at people through the eyes of love rather than at their imperfections.
i. Love looks past the flaws of others.
c. Love for others means we choose to care for them even if we disagree with them. It means I choose to act like Jesus to my neighbors.
T.S. -- The Love of God is the key to walking in the light of life but the love of the world and it’s ways sets us up for the fall.
II. Do not love the world or it’s seductive pleasures!
a. Is John contradicting himself he tells us to love then he says but don’t love the world?
i. If you love the world (it’s sin filled ways) then you do not love the Father because he represents everything that is in opposition to the world’s way of thinking and acting.
ii. Acts of the world:
1. Cravings of the sinful nature
a. The lusts of the flesh: Galatians 5: 19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.
i. Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Long-suffering is love enduring. Kindness is love’s touch. Goodness is love’s character. Faithfulness is love’s habit. Gentleness is love’s self-forgetfulness. Self-control is love holding the reins.
Donald Grey Barnhouse
Contributed to Sermoncentral.com by: Richard McNair
2. Lust of the eyes
a. Envy of others
b. Materialism
c. Lust for other’s sexually
3. Boasting of what one does and has
a. Pride in Self
i. Look at me! See how great I am!
b. Pride in Stuff
i. Look at my stuff! See how great I am!
iii. The result of this type of living is it passes away- it disappears it dies-it comes to an end.
1. Why? Because we never drew the attention to the Lord only to ourselves. We rejected love and all this stuff outside the realm of love will not go with us to Heaven.
b. We need to instead love God and His ways and draw the attention to the one who deserves it.
i. Because this will lead us to eternal life and joy in the journey.
ii. We need to make sure that we remain in the Love and the Truth.
1. This will keep us from falling into the trap of hate and darkness.
2. This will keep us from falling in love with the world and its destructive sin filled ways.
iii. This will bestow on us the anointing (Holy Spirit)!
1. The anointing is spoken of by Jesus in John 14: 15“If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—17the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
a. He Will teach you how to live!
b. He will lead to a life filled with purpose and meaning and joy!
c. He will lead you to truth not lies!
d. He will lead you to eternal life! The life that matters for all eternity!
Conclusion:
John ends his chapter reminding us that the anointing is real not fake – there is a real anointing that can take root in our life if we connect to Love!
So therefore, we need to be confident in what the Lord has given us LOVE! Love will serve us well in this life! But we must choose the way of love over the ways of the world. It’s our choice to make! Choose love not hate!
If we choose the Word of Life – we find The Light which leads us to The Love – when we love we will see Jesus, hear Jesus and be touched by Jesus – love is the way to finding joy in the journey! Love and its actions is all we will take with us to Heaven – so we need to walk and abide in love.
Rejecting hate and a love for the ways of the world will help us discover joy in the journey!
John 15: 9“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”
1. What do we need to know today from this message? Answer: Choose love – reject hate!
2. Why do we need to know this? Answer: Love brings joy to the journey and lights up our world – hate will rob you of joy, laughter and lead you deeper into the darkness.
3. What do we need to do? Answer: Cultivate Love – connect with the Word of Life – Follow His Light to Love.
4. Why do they need to do this? When you connect with Love – do the actions of love then you will see Jesus – Hear Jesus and be touched by Jesus!
