"Christianity Is For Lovers" S24e16 1Jn 4:16

Virginia's license plates scream, "Virginia is for LOVERS." 1 John says the same thing about God and the people of God.  Maybe we should get a Christian License plate.

We love the INVISIBLE God by loving the VISIBLE knuckleheads of God. This "obedience" to love people proves an internal, invisible love for God. It is proving something you cannot see by the doing of something you CAN see.

Love is the test of reality.  God's residence results in FELLOWSHIP.  Like God's love is directed at people, so should our's. bewithme.us to subscribe for 2024.  I'll encourage you to love if you sign up, for, "Christianity is for LOVERS"

Transcript

Michael Smith: 0:00

Good morning, my brothers and sisters. Welcome to Episode 16. And the book of First John. Virginia has a license plate that says the little little tagline is Virginia is for lovers. And I'm not exactly sure how they were able to, you know, capture the market on love. But I'm going to steal that today. And if we had a Christian license plate, I think it would not be inappropriate for it to say, Christianity is for lovers, just like Virginia is for lovers. So that's my title today is Christianity is for lovers. We're in a passage today that it's been about two whole chapters, that talks about God's love, God's love for his people, and kind of what we're supposed to do and how it falls down upon us. So the argument that he's making is that God is love, and that God loves his people. And he's, he's sort of the source of this love. He's, he's the love giver, primarily. And then we have the available His Spirit, which is the essence of his love inside of us. And we're supposed to abide in him, and he's supposed to bide in us. And then it's supposed to result in us loving one another. In fact, it's so strong, that loving one another is proof that God is abiding in us and we are abiding in God and we are making each other a home. So please listen in. This is from John, First John, chapter four. And I'm going to start in verse 1212, through 16 tears 12 No one has ever seen God, if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us versus the 13. By this, we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. Verse 14, and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God and abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know, and to believe, the love that God has for us, God is love than Whoever abides in the love of God. And God abides in him. Okay, so point number one is God is love. That's the essence, it's the primary. It's the source, it's his DNA. Second point is that we have available His Spirit, His Spirit, which is, you know, includes his love, and that's come to roost inside of us. Thirdly, and if we abide in Him and foster His abiding and us, we will demonstrate that by loving one another. So we're going to resemble the father and do what he does. So being of him is to act like him, and exhibit this essential quality of God. It's God likeness, if you will, and loving one another is proof of the question, Hey, are you abiding? And God does God live with you? So people who love God, love the people of God. So something happens to our Grinch size hearts, our love capacity increases, as we are possessed by God, and we possess God. So we are doing this sight unseen, kind of, regarding God that is, we don't see God and we, you know, theoretically love him. Well, how do we prove it? Well, we do it by doing the sightseeing part of it, which is the people of God, so we don't directly see God. We do that by faith. And that's belief in something that is unseen. But something we do see is people. So it's calling to love the visible. Why believing and having faith and and trusting in the invisible. So abiding in the invisible by loving, the visible, so love the invisible, by loving the visible, so we prove something that we can't see. So this faith and abiding and interesting in this ongoing, intimate relationship with God, we prove that by the doing of something that we can see, that is loving people. So remember, we have a pretty high capacity. I said infinite a couple days ago, for self deception. And again, this passage, it says back in chapter three and verse 19, and here in verse, verse 13, it says, We know so we're proving this to ourselves. So we have a capacity for self deception. So if we wonder, hey, do I love God? Am I a Christian Christian? The, the challenge would be we'll just show me and how, what criteria do we use? Well, typically love with the people of God is inconvenient, and it's exhausting. So show me something inconvenient and exhausting. Then I'll show you your love for God. So God's God abides in us. God abides in And by this loving each other, we know that he abides in us. So he's giving us His Spirit. And we testify to that by our actions, which is loving the Brotherhood, loving the knuckle hood. And we testify it also by our words. So there's some, some confession with our mouth. But there's also today's big point is confession with our hands. God's residence inside of us results in fellowship, loving the knuckle hood. So loving the invisible presence of God is done by behaviors before the very present church of God, showing his presence to the present. That is the present knuckleheads of God. So God's has primary love, he started at all God has a love for us. God shares it by giving us his son, and then he gives us the Spirit of his Son. So similarly, kind of like God, we demonstrate the spirits love, and of interest, it's the same love so So God's love started this all and our love, we get it primarily from God. So it's the same source. Secondly, it's the same object, so super Jesus to come. It he came, his object was people. The purpose was to make him His people. And then the saint we have the same object, which is the people of God and for us, it's kind of to keep them His people to encourage them. So this is very practical today. So the pie in the sky questions? How can I love God kind of flips and turns and says, How can I love people today? Maybe a word of encouragement, maybe it's a keep doing and, and sure shoring them up, maybe it's a word of admonishment. Maybe it's an act of kindness. Maybe it's an act of service. So today, like Virginia, Virginia is for lovers. Let's go and be a lover today. So let's make the license plate of Christianity say quite loudly, that Christianity is for lovers. Thanks for listening.