I absolutely love what God is doing at a2 Church! Yesterday the church “gathered” for worship and renewal, so that we could “scatter” to make a difference in our world. The entire worship experience was about love – experiencing God’s love and sharing it with others.
Here’s the run down on all the action… The worship set was smoking and included the following:
Praise Is The Offering by Gateway Worship
Our God Is Love by Hillsong
How He Loves by John Mark McMillan or Kim Walker
a2 Student Ministries Pastor, Darrell Garrett gave us a glimpse of God’s activity in the life of a2 Student Ministries during their recent missions trip to Cincinnati where they participated in “Week of Hope.”
The band continued worship with:
Like An Avalanche by Hillsong United
The message notes are contained below. We closed out the worship experience with a call to love and Caley covering, To Make You Feel My Love, a song written by Bob Dylan and most recently performed by Adele. Wow! The song provided a perfect backdrop for the extent to which love will go to reach out to and connect with people that matter to us...
I’m pumped about seeing what God continues to do in and through us as the love we “feel in our hearts” moves to our hands, feet, calendars and wallets.
Love one another!
LOVE TEST 1.0 Extended Notes
Proof of Life – Part 8
1 John 3:1 (NIV), See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
NOTES: John is describing the idea of adoption… Adoption is a premeditated act of love… God looked at us and said, “I know your hang-ups… I know your hurts… I know you pain… I know your past, but I choose you to be a part of my family…”
ILLUSTRATION: 1 John 3:10-24 describes two kinds of hearts… One is soft, pliable and even playful… One is hard, cold and frozen to the purpose and plan of God…
1 John 3:10 (NIV), This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
1 John 3:11 (NIV), For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
John 13:34-35 (NIV), “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must lone one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
1 John 3:12 (NIV), 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.
Envy is “resenting God’s goodness in other people’s lives while ignoring God’s goodness in your own...”
NOTES: In this text, Cain represents at least two things:
• He’s a type of the world and how hearts that are cold, calloused and frozen respond to hearts that are soft, pliable and submitted to God.
1 John 3:12-13 (NIV), 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 and sisters, if the world hates you.
• Second, Cain is a type of religious people who forget about what’s really and ultimately important.
NOTES: The rift between Cain and Abel started over worship and how they ought to worship…
It’s interesting that the word John uses for “murder” actually means “butchered” or “slaughtered.” It’s a word that sometimes gets used in the Greek Version of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) to describe sacrifice…
According to Gary Burge in The NIV Application Commentary on the Letters of John, this word “…implies a religious butchering – a slaying wed to piety – (religiousness), murder laced with prayer.”
1 John 3:14 (NIV), We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
1 John 3:15 (NIV), Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
Love in 3-D:
Acknowledgement: This outline was borrowed from Mike Breaux in an excellent message on 1 John 3:10-24 from a series titled, “Love That Lives Next Door.”
1. Love is a decision.
1 John 3:11 (NIV), For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
1 John 3:14 (NIV), We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other…
A Definition for Love: “Love is willing self-sacrifice for the good of another that does not require reciprocation or that the person being loved is deserving.” — Paul Tripp, What Did You Expect?, page 188.
2. Love is a demonstration. It acts.
NOTES: Love isn’t really love until it gets demonstrated…
1 John 3:16-18 (NIV), 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 and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
“Love calls you beyond the borders of your own wants, needs, and feelings. Love calls you to be willing to invest time, energy, money, resources, personal ability, and gifts for the good of another. Love calls you to lay down your life in ways that are concrete and specific. Love calls you to serve, to wait, to give, to suffer, to forgive, and to do all these things again and again.
Love calls you to be silent when you want to speak, and to speak when you would like to be silent. Love calls you to act when you would really like to wait, and to wait when you would really like to act. Love calls you to stop when you really want to continue, and it calls you to continue when you feel like stopping. Love requires you to lead when you would really like to follow, and to follow when you really want to lead. Love again and again calls you away from your instincts and your comfort. Love always requires personal sacrifice. Love calls you to give your life.” — Paul Tripp, What Did You Expect?, page 188.
EXAMPLE: The Good Samaritan
NOTES: “…He had compassion on him…” (Luke 10:33) is the same word John used for “pity” in 1 John 3:17.
It’s the Greek word, splagchnon. The KJV translates it “bowels of compassion” in 1 John 3:17… It’s that feeling that hits you in the gut when you see a need and it compels you to take action…
IMPORTANT: The Good Samaritan saw a man lying unconscious, stripped, bleeding and left for dead and it hit him… His love for this unknown guy got into his hands, his feet, his calendar and his wallet…
3. Love makes the difference.
1 John 3:19-22 (NIV), This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that 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 keep his commands and do what pleases him.
QUESTION: Could some of our unanswered prayers be a result of our failure to love?
1 John 3:23-24 (NIV), And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
NOTES: That’s the TRUTH TEST… Do you believe the irreducible core truths about who Jesus is and what Jesus has accomplished?
1 John 3:23-24 (NIV), And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
NOTES: That's the LOVE TEST.
1 John 3:24 (NIV) The one who keeps God's commands lives 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.
NOTES: All of this is made possible by the Holy Spirit!
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (NIV), If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
NOTES: Paul said, “If I don’t have love, I’m nothing but an obnoxious noise… I’m absolutely nothing…”
1 John 3:11 (NIV), For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
EXAMPLE: Kenneth Scott Latourette
“By what steps did [Christianity] win against its admittedly formidable rivals?”
“Against these competitors Christianity seemed to have little chance. The state cults had the support of the government and the latter sought to stamp out any serious dissent.”
“Christianity’s success is to be found in its absolute inclusiveness. More than any other of its competitor religions it attracted all races and classes. The Pagan deities, for example, were often tied and confined to certain regions and nations. Even in the days of its most active proselytizing activities Judaism never overcame its racial boundaries because its converts had to become culturally Jewish. Christianity, however, gloried in its appeal to Jew, Gentile, African, and Barbarian. The philosophers to Greece and Rome, on the other hand, appealed to the educated only and could never win the masses. It was one of the charges against Christianity that it drew the lowly and uneducated multitude that its essential teaching was so simple that anybody could understand. Yet Christianity also developed a philosophy that converted some of the greatest minds in the society. Christianity too was for both sexes and women were active in its work while two if its main competitor religions were almost exclusively for men. Finally, the mystery religions were mainly for the rich and initiation was very expensive. There was no other religion that took in all groups and all strata of society.”
Latourette then asks: “Why did this idea of unprecedented radical inclusiveness appear in Christianity in the first place?” In other words, “Where did Christians get the idea to love like this?”
Latourette’s answer: “The one tenable explanation of Christianity’s inclusiveness was probably its teaching of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. For if Jesus was not a teacher showing the way of salvation, but the Son of God who accomplished salvation, then members of both sexes and all races, the learned and unlearned, the high and the low, the able and the non-able, might all be able to share in the salvation made possible in Christ.” — Kenneth Scott Latourette (Quoted in a message by Tim Keller titled, The Marks of a Christian on 1 John 3:10-18 preached at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Also researched on-line and quoted in several on-line articles.)
HOMEWORK:
I’ve included 12 Characteristics of Love that Paul Tripp mentions in his book, What Did You Expect? I want to encourage you to walk through those characteristics… Apply them to your relational world… Ask yourself, “How am I doing?”
What Real Love Looks Like:
Adapted from Paul Tripp’s book, What Did You Expect?
• Love is being willing to have your life complicated by the needs and struggles of another person without impatience or anger…
• Love is actively fighting the temptation to be critical and judgmental, but instead looking for ways to encourage and praise…
• Love is the daily commitment to resist the needless moments of conflict that come from pointing out and responding to minor offenses…
• Love is being lovingly honest and humbly approachable in times of misunderstanding, and being more committed to unity and love than you are to winning, accusing or being right…
• Love is a daily commitment to admit your sin, weaknesses and failures and resisting the temptation to offer up excuses, shift the blame or rationalize your sin or mistakes…
• Love is being unwilling to do what’s wrong when you’ve been wronged, but looking for concrete and specific ways to overcome evil with good…
• Love is being willing to ask for forgiveness when you’ve blown it with a friend and always being committed to granting forgiveness when forgiveness is requested…
• Love is a commitment to say no to selfish instincts and to do everything within your ability to promote real unity, functional understanding and active love…
• Love is treating people with appreciation, respect and grace, even in those moments when they don’t seem to deserve it or are unwilling to reciprocate it…
• Love is being unwilling to make any personal decision or choice that would harm a relationship, hurt or wound a friend, and weaken a bond of trust…
• Love is refusing to be self-focused and demanding, but instead looking for specific ways to serve, support, and encourage another individual…
• Love is admitting to yourself, to others, and to God that you can’t love like this without God’s grace rescuing you, His love transforming you, and His Spirit empowering you…
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