Love by Ed Pruitt
John 3:16-16
LOVE
SUNDAY AM 11/21/1999
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
1 John 3:1
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
1 John 4:7-12
7 My dear friends, we must love each other. Love comes from God, and when we love each other, it shows that we have been given new life. We are now God’s children, and we know him.
8 God is love, and anyone who doesn’t love others has never known him.
9 God showed his love for us when he sent his only Son into the world to give us life.
10 Real love isn’t our love for God, but his love for us. God sent his Son to be the sacrifice by which our sins are forgiven.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us this much, we must love each other.
12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is truly in our hearts.
Love is both an attribute of God and a description of his being.
He alone is the epitome of divine love and the source of all true love.
His love is unconditional and he consistently seeks the highest good of the one who is loved.
God’s love for all of us is best described by the way that his son Jesus hung on the cross and died for all of our sins.
We all need to know that god was thinking of all of us, us meaning all of us that are here in the service this morning.
Now let’s read in John 10:10
10 A thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy. I came so that everyone would have life, and have it in its fullest.
Today we find that there are a lot of homes are full of unhappiness, because they do not have Jesus Christ abiding in them.
Jesus makes a difference!
It tells us right here in verse 10 that a thief comes only to rob, kill, and destroy.
This thief that Jesus is talking about is sin!
The sin that is abounding in this world today.
Satan has a way of lurking around and making life miserable for anyone that he can.
That is his specialty in life to make it rough for you.
But now we can also see in that same verse that Jesus said that he came so that everyone would have life, and have it in it’s fullest, or as some scriptures tell it life more abundantly!
God gave his son that we should not perish but have life more abundantly!
Now lets break this down a little so that we may better understand where god is coming from.
Home is a place for the living!!
Hebrews 10:20
20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,
Many of today’s homes, that are without Christ in them are little more than a place to eat, sleep, and park the cars.
They are places where no one wants to stay.
A lot of the children don’t want to stay home because a lot of the time both of their parents are spending all of their time working or worse out partying, rather than being home making a happy place for the family.
A lot of the parents are not happy because of what their children are putting them through.
And all of the time, the trouble is caused by the devil being able to worm his way through the lives of everyone in the family.
But glory be to god it doesn’t have to be that way, we don’t have to live a life in darkness, darkness being sins ways.
Jesus Christ can and will make the difference. His presence in the home encourages prayer and direction for a worthwhile life.
I am not going to try to make you think that just because you or your family is not living for Jesus today that all is lost because it is not.
There has to be a starting place and that starting place is for the one that will give their heart to god and pray!
The key word being the person giving their hearts to god.
Praying without god in your lives is useless.
God cannot hear a prayer that comes for a person that’s life is full of sin.
God cannot stand sin and until we come to that place in our lives and give up sin, become sick of sin, hate sin we are wasting our time trying to get god to hear our prayers.
But the bright side of that story is that god will hear the prayers of the one that gives their life to him and will answer prayers and will turn lives around, not only will he turn your life around but he will also turn the life around of the person that you are praying for, if you will get in there and pray!
There is a song that go’s like this ( if you will pray the heavens open god will send the power down ) and friends let me tell you that when you get god on your side things happen.
Parents will see their children turn their lives around, children will see their parents turn their live around.
And let me tell you this it will happen because god answers every prayer that he hears.
And again the key word is hears! God is not able to hear a prayer that comes from a sinner, it just will not happen
But glory be to god when you get your life right with him and decide to live for him you will see things begin to happen.
Christian homes are not places of mere existence, they are places of love, communication, companionship, and happy meaningful relationships.
They are the in place to want to be, they are what we are all looking for the Christian life is what it is all about.
The gift of salvation is free for the asking, it is up to us all we have to do is to ask and god will give.
And let me tell you at he will give you more than you will ever know!
Just like it says in John 10:10
10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Jesus has come that we may have life more abundantly!
Now lets look at this a little more and we find that
( home is a place with liberty )
John 8:36
36 “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Therefore if the son ( Jesus Christ ) makes all of us free by what he did for us by dying on the cross, then we shall be free indeed.
Free, no longer bound by the chains of sin that abound in the lives of the lost of this world but free indeed.
Jesus stands and knocks at the door of the heart of the sinner desiring entrance, and only we can let him in.
But when we let him into our lives he breaks the chains of sin and he forgives us of our sins and he sets us free from Satan’s bondage.
And lets look at
John 8:32
32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
When Christ comes into the home, he breaks down the walls of resentment, hatred, jealousy, and strife. He brings peace, love, and joy.
Home is a place for lifting
Lets look in
2 Corinthians 1:3-4
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
The world is filled with selfishness and self centeredness.
Each person is looking out only for himself.
Everyone needs a lift from time to time, there are just days when we feel that we can no longer go on.
Those are the days that we look down into the sand and only see one set of footsteps and those are the days when God reaches down with his big hand and carries us through the trials and tribulations that life has to offer us.
That is why it is of most importance that we keep god alive in our hearts, that we live for him and not satan.
We need to always keep good first in our lives and then we will always be able to go to him in prayer for our needs.
Christ’s presence encourages practice of this admonition.
Now let’s look in
Hebrews 10:23-25
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
We are told here in this scripture to hold fast without wavering, that is where you get an idea and hold on to it with that bulldog type of faith.
You lock on to the plan that you have and don’t let go, because the scripture tells us that anything that god tells us that he will do he is faithful to that promise.
You never have to worry about that, for whatever god tells us that he will do, you can count on it.
It is going to happen.
Now that lifting doesn’t stop there with god, it needs to be a major part of our lives also.
Not only do we need lifting up when we are low but we must pass along that same lifting spirit that god has given to us to our fellow man as well.
God expects us to grow in the spirit and become more like him.
Now as we go on we need to look at the other aspects of love in our lives.
Our goal needs to be this!
Love in the home!
If there are grown up’s here today that do not have god in there lives then this is the day for you to give your hearts to god and get gods love in your lives so that you will be able to bring your family together
If there are young people here today that do not have god in your lives, then this is the day for you to give your heart to god and let god’s love come into your life.
There has to be a starting place for everyone.
If you don’t come from a Christian family then wouldn’t you like to?
Are you not tired of broken and wayward family life?
Are you not ready to start enjoying the good life?
Let me tell you friends this is the good life!!!!!!!
Let’s look in, 1 John 4:1-21
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them.
6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
19 We love Him because He first loved us.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?
21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
