Love: Defined | 1 John 4:7-10 | September 24 | Derek Neider

Speaker [00:00:12] A recent study by the Journal of Advertising Research discovered that based on Billboard's Hot 100 songs, breakup was the most common theme enjoyed in music. In other words, we like to listen to songs about broken love or heartbreak. We're meant to love were built to love. We are made to be loved. But if that's the case in today's world, why is love so confusing and difficult? The answer to really understanding love is found in an unsuspected place, not music, art or pop culture. The answer is found in the trinity. We're in first, John, Chapter four today. If you need a Bible, raise your hand. If you have a Bible, turn there with me first, John, Chapter four, verse seven and stand with me today as we read. The scriptures together. When you're at first John, Chapter four over seven, say amen. All right. Hey, this is what we're going to do. We're going to read these verses together, verse seven, all the way to verse ten, and then I'm going to pray. None of that's new to you, right? Like I just is all we do all the time, but we're going to read out loud together. All right? So we'll read it as a church, and then I'm going to pray over your life. All right? Like, you know, when when we pray, it's always we. I do just believe today that I need to pray over your life for a fresh experience, for you to have a fresh experience of God's love. And so that's for those in here, those online we're going to read together. Read number seven. The Bible says, Ready? Here we go, beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Speaker [00:02:17] Anyone who does not love does not know God. Why? Because God is love. And this isn't. Sorry, It's. I just told you I ruined it. Here we go. Verse nine. In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent His only son into the world so that we might live through him. And this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Let's pray together, Father. Thank you, God. God. Thank you. Thank you for your love. Thank you that you're not just a religious god who demands heartless rituals from people. Thank you, God, that you are so much greater than that. God, you are so far above the. Father. You are, love. And I pray, Father, today for every person, God, every person within earshot, God, every person that can hear the word that is spoken today. God. I pray that that every heart would be filled to overflowing with the fresh and new experience of your dynamic, life altering love. God, there are hearts in this place that are hungering and thirsting, and they don't even know that they're hungering and thirsting for you. Father, please, God exceed the small offering of teaching today with the presence of your spirit and meet those souls right where they're at. God. May we leave this place today, filled to overflowing? May our lives be dripping with your love. We love you, God, and we thank you. In Jesus name, Amen. You can have a seat today. Hey, you know, we're doing a series called Reaching the Culture, and we're hitting some of the most challenging issues that that our culture is wrestling with. And so I say that today to say to you, like, we're on a journey together.

Speaker [00:04:44] And and no doubt I'm going to be talking about things that are they're going to cause you to wrestle. And and so I'm available after the services in the lobby. And as you're hearing things and thinking through things and chewing on things and God's ministering to you and, you know, maybe there are some things that have a hard time settling in your heart. You know, this isn't just me dropping truth on you. I want to be a part of the journey that God has you on. And so I'm available after the services in the lobby. You know, we have a man on the street. He's his name is Jaxon. He's been so good to be down at UNLV on the campus. And I'm just getting some some feedback from people about key questions that we're seeking to answer. And so he happens to be or he has happened to be on the UNLV campus. He's for sure going to be in other places as well. But he asked some people what they thought love was, and this was their answer. How would you define love? How would you define love? Love? I feel like it's something. Love is what people claim to be eternal, but love can also be temporary. Love is just like any other feeling. Love is like everything else in the world. Everything's temporary, life, love, all your emotions, anger, sadness, happiness. You know, like the. The environment we live in now. Like during fall, during, like, you know, seasons changing everything is temporary. So I feel like love is something that is strong, but it doesn't last forever. I would describe love as freedom because we do everything for love. Like, for example, I'm here because I want to make more money in order to have my family have my family have a better life.

Speaker [00:06:34] That's why I'm here. Love is motivation for everything. That's why this one one's about love. How would you define love? Love is God. God is love. Basically, it's even love is because love is. You know, if we can do two aspects in a relationship, I get into it. But love is really just, you know, you're doing things out of the kindness of your own heart, even though, you know, I'm going to do anything, even just loving somebody, They hate you, you know, they love their like it says in scripture. Love, envy doesn't boast, you know, it doesn't get angry like it doesn't do it doesn't do none of that. So love with everything. We should get him to share the message today, Right? You know, I mean, it's good. I was reading The Atlantic and this particular journalist, he said America appears to be the only country in the world where love is a national problem. And I think it was journalistic hyperbole. But I do think for sure that he touched on something that's true. Love in our culture is a battleground. He went on to talk about our bipolar experience of love. And he said this. He said, It is as if the experience of being in love could only be one of two things a superhuman ecstasy, the way of reaching heaven on earth and in pairs on the one hand, or a psychopathic condition to be treated by specialists on the other hand. And I thought, Man, you know what? Sometimes that's true. Like when we love and when we're being loved, we experience contrasts, sometimes as blissful, sometimes as painful, sometimes as satisfying, sometimes as empty. Sometimes it seems really selfless, and sometimes it is the epitome of selfishness. There are high highs with love, and there are really low lows.

Speaker [00:08:26] And this really should be no surprise because when it comes to even the terminology that we use connected to love, like we confused it a lot, I can stand here today and say, Man of all of my Doc Martens. Of all of my Doc Martens men. These are my favorite Doc Martens. And you might say, You know what, man? My wife. We've been married for 50 years. I love my wife. And some of you, you know, when you went to Beyond today and you're like, Man, I'm going to get a flat white and it's going to be made with old milk, and I'm going to drop an extra shot at it. And so you got that and you're like, you took a sip. You're like, I love this flat white, some of your sock people. And so, you know, you got a drawer that's filled with socks and you've got every variety in every style and multiple colors, But you've got that one pair that you say you love. I mean, we love all sorts of things, but love has become a battleground in our culture. On the one hand, we hear people saying, well, love is affirming and supporting a person to be whoever they want to be. And then on the other hand, we hear people say, you know, love is rooted in God's goals for people, not our own. We hear people say love is wanting for others what they want for themselves. And then we hear other people say, no, love is wanting for others what God wants for them. And, you know, I, I almost in my notes, I typed this out. I typed out the statement. Humanity has made a mess of love. Like, that's just the reality.

Speaker [00:10:00] There is so much confusion in the world today because humanity has made a mess of love. But, you know, I retyped it because I think it needs to be personalized. We've made a mess of love. We have really made the issue of love confusing. And, you know, it's should be of no surprise because the way the the thinking of the world goes today, remember the postmodern mindset, this is the accommodated way of thinking is that there is no overarching story or metanarrative that answers the hardest questions in life. Like, this is the way that people think today. There is no story. The biblical story doesn't count, people would say, because there's no overarching story that gives us the answers to the hardest questions in life. And you know, the people who think that would also say, you know, because of that, there's no objective truth. Truth is just something that's personal. And if it feels good and if it feels right to you, then it is right, this type of thinking. Remember I'd said to you comes to the conclusion that tolerance is the greatest virtue and exclusivity or Christian truth claims is the greatest vice. And that is a set up that makes love subjective. That's that's what at the root of the thinking in our culture today provides the philosophical underpinning for people to say, hey, well, you know what? Love is really a matter of your own taste in your own preference and whatever you desire. It's really a subjective issue, which is why today you see catch phrases that really kind of encapsulate philosophical views on love, Catch phrases like Love is love. You see people wearing that shirt, write Love is love, man or love wins. And this type of thinking concerning love, it reinforces three cultural myths that I just want to I want to expose them today.

Speaker [00:11:59] The first cultural myth that we deal with because of postmodern thinking today with respect to love is that love is just individualistic. It's this idea, like I've said, that, Hey, you know what you do? You you do, you boo. Like, whatever. Whatever. It feels good, man. Whatever feels good. If it feels right to you, no one can tell you that it's not right. And so you just stand against that. Love is individualistic love. Love is subjective. No one can come and say to you that there is a prescription for love and that you've got a love within these certain standards because there are no standards, those people would say. And so when you come to someone that's judging or coming to someone that's criticizing. The truth is this You just ignore them because love is an individualistic matter. And then others, others would say, which, by the way, I don't believe that that's true. Others, others would say, Hey, you know what love is? Love is is just romantic. It's romantic. And by that, what they mean is, is this mindset that says, You complete me. It's this idea concerning love that, you know, I'm incomplete and I don't have value and something's missing. And if I can just find the right person, that person can supply to me the missing piece that exists within my life. And, you know, the problem with that is, is it turns into idolatry. You know, we're going to we'll talk about it in a minute, but you start looking to people to bring to you what only God is able to bring to you. And then. And then I think that the third cultural myth is the naturalistic myth. So you've got the individualistic myth, you've got the romantic myth, you've got the naturalistic myth, which is the idea based in based in evolution that we're just material in motion.

Speaker [00:13:59] Like really, at the end of the day, that's all that we are. We're just material in motion that love. There's there's really no true source of love. There's really no there is no authority over love. Love is just a matter of chemical impulses in our life that we're drawn to. And of course, you know, naturalism can't define or explain love because it doesn't understand fundamentally what love is. The reality is it's not just the postman or postmaster. The post murder world. I have no idea what that is. You can look it up online later on. It's not just the post-modern world that is confused love. I think that Christians have muddied the water too. And I just I want to say to you, like through this series, the knife is going to cut both ways, right? I mean, we're not going to be dishonest as Christians about areas where we faltered and we failed. And I think as Christians, you know, mean how incumbent is it upon us as we're talking about really understanding true love, as we're talking about being connected with the one. We'll talk about this in a second. Who is the source of love? How encumbered is it, therefore, upon us to be living that out in our lives in a way that the world can see the supernatural love of God flowing through us? And the truth is this We've not always done that well. We've not always done that well. So we've muddied the water. I want to remind you guys, we are made in the image of God. Every human being that breathes air in their lung has been made in the image of God. Yeah, that's right. That's right. That's where our source of value comes from.

Speaker [00:15:47] And because we're made in the image of God, were made to love and to be loved like we have this God given capacity to love and to be loved. And remember, you go back to Genesis, and this is the whole context of creation. Like God created Adam and Eve to be in covenant relationship with him. Covenant relationship, that's the language of love, you know, not just is he what? They weren't just servants. They weren't just stewards. They weren't just minions. Right now, God wanted a love relationship with them. And so not that he needed it, but he wanted it. And so he made them to be loving beings. Not only that, they were given the responsibility to oversee creation is the creation mandate and of course, the most important quality as humanity has been given the responsibility. The mandate to oversee creation is the quality of love. But, you know, when you get to chapter three in the Book of Genesis, that's all been marred by the fall. It's all been marred by the fall. So God created humanity in this beautiful and perfect setting with the capacity to love and to be loved. But the minute the second that Adam and Eve, ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that experience of love and the capacity of love was was marred within their life. And so with respect to love, humanity has been struggling in the darkness, struggling in the darkness, struggling to understand love, struggling to love the right way. Fundamentally, love itself is one of the whispers of God. You know, God whispers to our soul that He exists, that he is. And there are all sorts of ways that God whispers to us. He whispers to us in creation, you know, you go to the Pacific Coast and and you're on the beach and you watch the sunset and there's something inside of you that stirred in your heart.

Speaker [00:17:46] It's a whisper of God. God is saying, Man, there's more to the physical world. I'm I'm transcended. I'm God. I'm here. I'm here. You hold your first baby in your arms. And, you know, it's just an incredible mind blowing moment. Even if you don't know God, you got your hands and those little feet and your hands on those little hands and you're hearing the cooing and you're changing the diaper. Maybe not that part, but but, you know, it's like, man, even if you're not a believer, you know that there's something beyond this world. It's a whisper of God. And I think love, right? The capacity to love and to be loved is a whisper of God. The Bible says in Acts Chapter 17. Paul was preaching to philosophers Epicureans and Stoics. And and he's he's communicating in their language, right? Because Paul wanted to really minister to people in a way where the truth was able to penetrate their hearts. And so he didn't treat these guys like like Pharisees, like Jewish individuals. He came speaking their language. And as he's speaking their language and using their language to reveal God, he says to them, You know what God has done out of one man? God created the nations and God established eras and God created national boundaries with the intention that humanity might feel their way towards him. That's the English standard version. The new King James version says, so that they might grope and discover him or find him. And it gives this amazing picture that that is the reality of humanity. Like we're apart from God, we're in this darkness, right? God is whispered to us. God has given us general revelation. We can see that there is a transcendent being. And so we're finding our way in the darkness.

Speaker [00:19:36] And that's what the culture is doing with love. There's something special about love. Out of all of the qualities and attributes given to humanity, out of all of the things that we experience in life. And, you know, this is true because well, because so many movies are about love and so many songs are about love and so many books are written about love. And your mind is thinking so consistently about loving and being loved. There's something about love that connects us to the transcendent. Some have called it cosmic in a way. Victor Hugo, a great French philosopher, he said it like this. He said, To love another person is to see the face of God. Now that theologically I might have some issues with that. But what he is saying is simply what I've been saying to you. Love connects us to the transcendent. But it is listen to me. It is a confused pursuit. It's a confused pursuit. There's an inward desire and longing to be connected. Did to the transcendent God, but we just don't know how to go about it. Augustine said it like this. He said, Every man that rings a bell at a brothel is unconsciously searching for God. Every man that rings a bell at a brothel is unconsciously searching for God now. Like, don't think that Augustine is advocating that you go search for God in a brothel, right? Guaranteed. Someone's going to be like, Hey, Pastor, you said it, man. You know? Guess what I'm doing after the service. No, you're not. Cut it out. Cut it out. What are you saying? Is this man. There's an inner drive, right? There's an inner drive. There's a deep drive within us under all these different layers. That ultimately is a drive that is compelling us to pursue God.

Speaker [00:21:27] And yet the pursuit is like groping in the darkness. It's like feeling our way and not really understanding where we're going. That's what I would say to you today. We will never understand love until we have the right starting point. We will never understand love until we have the right starting point. I'm going to make an argument to you today. I didn't make this up as Jesus' argument, so I know I'm in really good company and I'm going to give you the argument and then I'm going to unpack it. Okay? And this is how it goes. There is a divine order to love. We can't know true love until a second order loves are brought into the first order, love. I'll explain what second order and first order love is. We can't know True love, until second order loves are brought into the first order. Love. Second order Loves are romantic love and familial love and friendship and community Love and love to our neighbor and love to the stranger. Like this is life. I'm talking about life. This is. This is how we express love and experience love. But we will never really understand true love until all those loves are brought into the first order. Love. You say, Well, what is the first order, love? The first order. Love is God and God's love. It is receiving God's love and choosing to love God above all other things. Timothy Keller. Timothy Keller said it like this is up on the screen for you today. He said. He said. Well, he didn't say anything. We're going to go back to the video. I'll tell you what he said. He said, here we go. He said, If you love anything in this world more than God, you will crush that object under the weight of your expectations.

Speaker [00:23:26] That's good, isn't it? A solid. You know what it means. You're like, I don't know, Pastor, but it sounds really good. It means that you can't expect something to give you what only God can give you. You can't. Look, if God's not first, If God's not first, you're going to approach your wife. You're in approach your husband. You're going to approach your children. You're going to approach your ambitions, dreams, Your job to supply to you is something that only God can give. And then listen. What that will do is it will set up expectations upon them that they will never be able to fulfill. Now, I got to I got to tell you, like this whole concept, connecting love to God was was foreign to me a long time ago. People would talk about God being a God of love and like I had no framework for it. The last thing I would have ever done would have would be to connect love to God. Because for me, I thought God was it was just a bunch of rules. I thought about God. I thought rules. I thought about hell. I thought, you know what? If there is a God, I for sure am going to hell. And then my thinking to that was, But you know, I'll just party with my friends when I'm there. And so we would play AC DC Highway to Hell and we'd have this vision, you know, of like hell being this great big place where there's an everlasting, eternal party, which for sure is not the case. I thought God was nothing more than a fable or fairy tale. And then I gave my life to Jesus Christ. And I discovered that it is all with God. It is all about love With God.

Speaker [00:25:07] It is all about love. You know, you read the scriptures and what you discover is that love is the theme that runs through the scriptures like a thread, and it ties everything together. And not only does love tie everything together, but love drives the story. It drives the biblical narrative. I mean, for goodness sakes, we're talking about statements that Jesus made that were so significant and all encompassing, like for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And so I say that to you today to say this we are the source of love. God is the source of love. We are not the source of love. God is the source of love. I was reading a story that illustrates this In 1919, after the Paris peace conference, Prince Feisal and his staff, they joined Lawrence of Arabia. You probably are familiar with the character on a trip to London. They were staying at the Ritz Carlton, and when they got into their rooms, they were amazed that there were these faucets that had running water that had constant access. And so they thought, you know what we need to do? We need to remove these magic faucets, take them to the Arabian Peninsula, and then we'll have these faucets so we can just have instantaneous cold water and hot water if we just turn the handles. And obviously. Right, right. They did not understand that the faucets weren't the source of the water. They were connected to the source. And that's important for us to realize that that we're not the source of love. We don't generate love. We've been given the capacity to love. But that's just because we've been made in the image of God. The Bible says here in verse John, chapter four, verse seven, that God is love.

Speaker [00:26:55] In fact, let me reread Get Your Eyes on the Scriptures today. Let me reread what John says. He says, Beloved, let us love one another. For love is. Where is it from? Say it like you mean it today. Where's it from? Yeah. And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God. Because. What is he saying? Say it loud, Daddy. Because God is love, right? I mean, he's dealing with the Christian culture or he is dealing with people who are in the Christian culture saying that they know God, but they are full of hatred. They're not full of love. And so John says, hey, listen, don't y'all don't sit here and say to me. It's my paraphrase today. Okay, Y'all don't sit here and say to me that, you know, God, while you have all this hatred in your heart, all this hatred in your heart, like your your life is filled with hatred. And and, you know, you don't care about your neighbor. And the fact is this You can't say that you know God, because the person who really does know God is filled with God's love. Because love is from God. And love is from God because God is love. Like, that's the connection. Love is of God because God is love. Now, today you might be thinking. You might be thinking, Well, listen, how can God be a God of love when eternally He had no one else to love but himself? Because that's not really love. To really love you have to have someone else to love. Otherwise it's not love. And the answer to that question is a great question, by the way, is the Trinity. God is able to have eternal love because he is one God in three persons the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Speaker [00:28:43] And they have shared eternally unconditional love with one another, unconditional non contingent love, you say, Well, what in the world does non contingent mean? It means that God didn't need to create anything to demonstrate his love. He was able to love eternally because the father, the son, and the Spirit have dwell eternally together. That means that God did not make you because something was missing in the heart of God that He had to have fulfilled in you. And maybe you've been told that you're like, You know what? God. Poor God. Poor God. You know, a poor God. He was he was missing something. He needed something to love. And so, you know, what he did is he made you. He made you. And it's like, you're not that good. I love you, but you're just. You're just not that good. Like, look in the mirror. Are you really the answer to God's problems? No, I don't think you can't answer your own problems. No, listen, it's better than that. God. God created you not because. Not because he needed you, but because he wanted you. Man. Not that that's such a higher level motivation. The Trinity is a community of love where love is given and received. The Trinity is a community of love. I'm talking about source here. The Trinity is a community of love where love is given and received. There's unconditional. There was and is the unconditional self-giving love that is shared between the father, the son, and the spirit. Jesus said it like this. He said in John 17:24. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you've given me. Because listen. Because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Speaker [00:30:32] Yeah, that's true. And then you remember the story. Jesus was being water baptized by John to baptizer, and he came up out of the water. The Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove, and there was a voice from heaven that said, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And so when Christians teach that God is himself love, we are saying that true love itself has its origin and essence and God. This is this is so important. Listen, because if we start with ourselves, if we start with ourselves as the source and essence of love, then we can make love be whatever we want it to be. But that's not the case. The source and Essence of love is the Triune Godhead. No trinity, no love. And then I could also say K N O W. Know, the Trinity, know love. He is not only the source, but he is also the essence. In other words, he sources love. But there are things that love is and love isn't. There are things that love is and love is. And you know that, right? You know that that's the case. There are things that you can say, Ah, absolutely. Absolutely not, love. You're driving here to church and your husband is doing something and it's. Well and, you know, and it's getting on your nerves. Maybe he's doing something right now and, you know, on your way in, you're like, what the heck babe? That's not love does not love. And he's like, Honey, listen, love's subjective. Love's subjective, man. You know what you do? You boo when we are good. That's just the way that it is. And you're like, Really? Let me show you the way that it is. And so you slapped him across the face, right? He's got, you know, four finger mark right there on his cheek.

Speaker [00:32:23] And he's like, What the heck, man? That's not love. He's like, Hey, you're like, Hey, baby, love is subjective. You know? You do. You know, that's we know. We know that there are things that love is and there are things that love isn't. You know that as a Christian. You know that as a non-Christian. Where does that come from? It comes from God. It comes from God because God models love in the Trinity. In fact, if you go to a wedding, whether the people being married really love God is Christians or whether they are a secular, as you possibly can imagine, most likely you still will run into first Corinthians chapter 13, verse four, and the Bible says this Love is patient and kind. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. Or rude. Right? Or rude. It Check this one out, man. This one got me. It does not insist on its own way. Oh, man, it does not insist on his own way. It is not irritable. Or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing. But listen, it rejoices with the truth. It rejoices with the truth. I just want to ask you, whose truth is that? Who is truth? Is that like we're not talking about subjectivity, we're not talking about individualism, we're not talking about romantic love that's become the idolatry of our society. We're certainly not talking about talking about naturalism and love being boiled down to chemical impulses. We're talking about God being the source of true love loving according to God. And, you know, the thing is this God's true love has been revealed. You might be thinking today, Well, that'd be great if I could see it, but I haven't seen it.

Speaker [00:34:21] Let me tell you, God's true love has been revealed and it's been made available to everyone. Yeah. And so it's all like eyes back on, eyes back on the Bible. Today, verse nine, the Scripture says this and this The love of God was made manifest among us in this. The love of God was made manifest. It was revealed. It was made clear to see. And so you're thinking, Well, yeah, how did that what was that about? That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him? Check this out. In this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent his son to be their propitation. That means the atoning sacrifice. It means that when Jesus. Look, look, love here is being directed to pointed to a particular act that Christ committed a particular thing that Jesus did. You know, you're like, Yeah, you know, I love Jesus, too, because he healed so many broken people, like blind people, sad and lame people walked in. Lepers were where were cleaned up. Right. I love that too. And that was a demonstration of his love. But that that's not the demonstration that the scripture always points to. You say, well, what does the Bible always point to as like the ultimate manifestation of the love of God? It is the sacrifice. The crucifixion is the propitiation, it's the substitution. Is Jesus hanging in our place Like this is the unconditional sacrificial self-giving love of God. That's what we're talking about. And I love this. I love this verse. He's like, Listen in. This is love. And I don't want to I want to make sure you understand here in This is love. Everyone's talking about love.

Speaker [00:36:17] Everyone's writing about love. All the movies are about love. And everyone's an expert on love. And he's like, No, no, no. In this is love in this is love. Not that we love God, Not that we love God. You know, He's like, it's not it's not about you and it's not what you brought to the table. It's not about the divine spark within you. It's not about your capacities in your good works and your philanthropies and your financial giving. It's not about your morality. It's not about your morality. Because no matter how long you live, you could never solve the issue of sin in your life like you could have all the time in an eternity and you'd never be able to fix how broken you are. And so what did God do? God was preemptive. God took action. God made the first move. That's what God did. God planned before the world was ever made. The Father, the Son and the Spirit conspiring together in love according to the good pleasure of their will. The Bible says in the book of Ephesians that the son would come and be a sacrifice, that the son would come and lay his life down while humanity was offending him. Right. While we had raised our fists against God with a heart of rebellion, we determined no way, no how. Not yielding, not surrendering, unwilling to give up our ways, unwilling to. To humble ourselves and allow God to be the master of our destiny. The captain of our ship. And in that rebellion, while we were offending God, while we were offending God, he loved us so much. God looks at the heart that's hardened against him. And maybe this is your heart today. Maybe today you've determined, you know you're here today, but you're here begrudgingly and you're like, Man, when's it over, baby? I can't.

Speaker [00:38:07] I can't wait to get out. And you've come in with that heart of rebellion against God. I want to say to you today, God loves you. God loves you. He loves you. He loves you. Not so that you can continue in sin, but God loves you to forgive you and free you from your sin. You are wayward and prodigal and broken and unable to love the way that God wants you to love. And so what does he do when you put your trust and faith in Christ? He takes you in your spiritual blindness and causes you to be able to see. He renews you with his love. Look, I did not understand love until I came to Christ. And when you put your faith in Christ, this is what God does. He fills you to overflowing with his love. The Bible says in Romans 5:5. Hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And if you're reading the new King James version, I like it a little bit better. It says, because God's love has been shed abroad into our hearts. That's what you've been longing for. That's what you've been longing for. You know, you've been ringing the bell on all sorts of things. And you you don't even know what you're doing. Your pursuing something in the dark, as it were. And what you're pursuing all along is a person who loves you. I was listening to, I was listening to someone share their testimony. And his name is David Bennett. We've had David here with our our students before. David was a very hardened gay activist and a gay man. You know, he grew up same sex attracted.

Speaker [00:39:55] And he really began to have a lot of conflict with the church for all sorts of different reasons. And, you know, he's telling his story about how God touched his life and and, you know, so he made it his life's goal to be like the activist for the gay movement. And, you know, he'd happened upon this young lady who was very successful. She was in her twenties. She is a journalist. And she got into all of these she got into all these rooms, right. All these places with all these people without really much of a portfolio. And so being a journalist himself, he's like, man, I got to meet her and I got to find out like, how did she do this? How did you get to a place where, you know, you found yourself connected to like the who's who in the culture of journalism? And so he met her at a pub and, you know, they they sit down to talk and he's like, Hey, I just got to ask you, like, how how did this happen? How did it happen that you, being so young, found yourself connected to so many amazing people? She's like, Well, you really want to know? He's like, Yeah, I really want to know. She's like, You really want to know? He's like, Yeah, she. She said, God. God. God. You know, and not not not not necessarily all his words, but it was something like this. It was like he was irate. He was full of anger. Like it just rose up within him. He's like, I can't believe it. I can't believe she just said that, you know, he was so mad. And she said, You know what, David? This is just the craziest thing.

Speaker [00:41:27] I feel like I need to pray for you right now. I feel like I need to pray for you. Can I pray for you? Because what you have been lacking is an experience of God's love. This is what your heart has been longing for. And he's he's he says, you know, he's talking about the story is like, how can you say no to that? He's he's like, I wasn't just going to say no. He's like, I don't believe in your God and I don't want you to pray for me. But he felt bad saying no. He's like, Yeah, you can go ahead and pray for me. And as she's in the pub now. Some of you are like me and you know, a pastor I've always felt called to have a ministry in the bar. No. No, no. As she is praying for him, he says the love of God, he's like The love of God was poured into my heart. The love of God was poured into my heart. And God began to speak to him and he's relating all the things that God said. God brought him to a place where he confessed his sin and put his trust in Jesus. And his life has been radically transformed. You know, that is the power of the love of God. Brothers and sisters, I want to remind you, of course, the world is confused. Of course the world is confused. Of course the world doesn't understand love. Do you really expect people who have never experienced the love of God to be able to understand love like you do? That's not going to happen until they themselves experience God's love. I just have to say, maybe today you've never experienced the love of God. I'm not here today just to give you information or to convince you.

Speaker [00:43:07] With. With. With. With ration or reason. Today you're going to hear the Word of God, which is living and powerful. And you have the opportunity. Because God is present in this place. Because God is present in this place. God is love. God's true love has been revealed and made available to everyone. And God's love is rightly ordered and elevated. You know? So, Jesus, this is what Jesus does in Matthew chapter 22. You know how the story goes. The lawyer comes to him and says, Hey, what's the greatest of all commandments? And this is what Jesus does. He establishes order. He establishes order. Jesus was not just giving a theological answer so this guy could write his dissertation to the Rabbinical School of theology. He was giving he was giving an answer to the most important question in life. What is life about? What is life about? Is there a God? And if there is, what do I do with that? And then what do I do with everything around me? Because this is fundamental to humanity. And so Jesus says, This is it. I'm going to tell you how it goes. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first command. First order. Love Jesus does not start with love your neighbor as yourself. He starts first and foremost with loving God, with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind. This is the first and supreme command. And I just want to say to you, when you take that step of faith and respond to Christ in his gospel and the love of God, the love that God has for you, as He's been relentless, knocking on the door of your heart, shaping circumstances around you to get your attention, to realize how much he loves you, sending Christians into your life, to minister to you.

Speaker [00:45:04] Like make no mistake about it, this is not just this is not just coincidence. God is at work. God is pulling you to himself with bands of love because he cares that deeply for you. And when you put your trust in faith in Christ and you make God priority where He is the first order of love, he sets everything right. He sets everything right. You know, for me, I've seen this is kind of like the solar system. You know, there was a Copernicus revolution where Copernicus popularized the idea that really the solar system did not revolve around the Earth, but that it revolved around the sun. And I think this is this is what happens when you put your trust in faith in Jesus Christ. You discover that the world does not revolve around you, doesn't revolve around you like it's not like everyone else or there there are a bunch of planets, you know, and that their purpose is to meet the needs that you have in your life. Like, no, that's not the way it is. That that life will be a life of toxicity and chaos and frustration, frustration and disillusionment. And you will put expectations on people that will crush them because God is the only one that can meet the need in your heart. And when you put your trust and faith in Christ, you stop being the center of your universe. And and now the son is. The son is. And he orders everything. He orders everything. He orders everything. Because. Because the issue of worship is. Is settled in your heart. You're not worshiping yourself. You're not worshiping someone else. You're worshiping God and God alone. You can sincerely answer the question, What am I living for? You can say I'm living for God.

Speaker [00:46:46] He sits on the throne of my heart. Right? You're able to say, you're able to say with the issue of identity. Who am I? Like, that's the biggest question right now. Right. This is what really the postmodern mindset revolves around. It revolves around identity. Who am I? And the answer for the Christian is this I am loved by God. I'm loved by God. I'm a child of God. You're able to come to a place where you can honestly and sincerely say that there's nothing missing in your life. You belong to God and He has filled your heart. There's a wholeness. There's a wholeness. You're not looking to other things to like. Like a piece of a puzzle to fit what's missing. Because you're filled with the love of God and the presence of God and the power of God's Holy Spirit. And even if you had nothing else, you would be fully satisfied in him. And then. And then listen, the issue of what do you have to look forward to? Like, what does the future have for you? The answer for the Christian is this Your future is framed by the promises of God. You have a life of flourishing. You have a life of a flourishing. When your life is ordered like this. Now out of the overflow, out of the confidence, out of the strength, out of the stability, out of the wholeness, out of knowing who you are. You are able to love others. You are able to love your neighbor as yourself. You're able to love God's way, true love, whether it's romantic or familial or friendship or community or stranger or neighbor. Because you've started at the right place, you've started with God and God's love. And now God's love has become it flows through you like water flows through a pipeline.