Love Relationships Built on the Gospel

good morning yeah I like all of you who served in the military if you'd stand for us everyone who served in the military stand up please even if you're not at one of our people if you've served in the military well you're in the military now Diane but you that it we want to give you a hand Jesus said that there's no greater love than this that a man would date lay down his life for a friend and we do appreciate the fact that you've served our country in that way and and protected us and laid down your lives and we are truly grateful I want you to turn with me to Romans chapter 13 we're going to spend the next couple of weeks looking at what Paul says about relationships in Romans 13 the reason I think it's so significant it is it's an application of the gospel to the knit and grit of life the things we really face on a daily basis the most important things in our lives and how the gospel has come to have such a great effect in those areas and how we apply the gospel in our lives in the way we relate to one another the people that got us put into our lives you notice in this passage I'm going to use this if we don't have a power outage and I don't forget to change this will be fine you notice this is the NIV please don't be shocked it reads so smooth I wanted to use this this morning Romans 13 verse 7 Paul writes give everyone what you owe him if you owe taxes pay taxes if revenue then revenue if respect then respect if honor then honor let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt and notice that this is what we will never finish paying the continuing debt to love one another for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law Paul goes on in verses 9 and 10 the commandments do not commit adultery and notice this is the second half of the law this is the part of the law the mosaic law that we that referred to our relationships with each other do not commit adultery do not murder do not steal do not covet and whatever other commandment there may be are summed up in this one rule love your neighbor as yourself love does no harm to its neighbor therefore love is the fulfillment of the law that's quite a statement Paul is saying that all of the laws are many commandments in scripture both in the end of the old covenant as well as under the new covenant many different commandments but all those commandments can be summed up their intent can be summed up in this one word love now this is confirmed to us by Jesus Christ in fact this is where Paul gets this if you'll turn with me real quickly to Matthew chapter 22 in Matthew 22 Jesus is approached by a lawyer that is someone who knows the mosaic law and he's trying to trip him up and he asks him a question in Matthew 22 verse 36 he says to him testing him teacher which is the great commandment in the law and he said to him you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind this is the great and foremost commandment of course this is not one of the ten commandments this is the commandment upon which the ten commandments hang Jesus goes on this is the great and foremost commandment and a second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself and neither one of these are among the decalogue the ten commandments but he goes on to say in verse 40 on these two commandments depend quite literally hang the whole law and the prophets now in Jesus spoke these words this expression along the prophets referred to the entire scripture all that have been written all that have been given to God's people the entire Old Testament is being referred to here and Jesus says that all of all scripture is the intent of that scripture the intent of everything we've been given is this that we love God with all of our hearts all mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself in other words the point is in this appointment we want to talk about this morning the point is that the center of of Christian teaching Christian truth is love now that isn't true of every religion if you look at Islam at the center of Islam is duty at the center of Buddhism is enlightenment and discipline at the center of natural American Indian religion by mostly is the idea of nature but at the center of Christianity is love it's the reason we talk about it so much because it is the heart of the gospel and it's the heart of Christian teaching it is also the center of life the Christian life that's what we've experienced love is the most important thing that we can do for God you may have asked yourself before maybe you've asked yourself this often what is it that God actually wants me to do what is it that God wants of my life what is he want me really to do does he want you to live a very sacrificial life and and give away all your possessions to the poor to lay down your life to be burned what does God exactly want you to do let me read something to you very familiar passage first Corinthians chapter 13 if I speak with the tons of men and of angels that is if God has gifted me in such a way that not only can I speak in tongues as they were spoken on the day of Pentecost and proclaim the great works of God in other languages but even if I could speak in the tongues of angels but if I do not have love I have become a noisy gong or a clanging symbol and if I have the gift of prophecy and they're all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but I do not have love I am nothing and if I give all my possessions to feed the poor and if I deliver my body to be burned but do not have love it profits me nothing you can see the centrality of love the most important thing that we can do for God is to love it's have a relationship with him that can be described as loving him with all your heart soul mind and strength God wants relationship with you that's what he wants from you it's what he asks of you he wants to have a relationship with you there are many other things that will flow out of this when you enter into this kind of relationship with God you will learn what it is that pleases God a person who loves God wants to please him and the Bible gives you all the instructions you need and how to live a life that truly pleases and delights the heart of God but God wants from you is your heart in fact this is the main thing that Jesus tells us in the sermon on the mount Jesus came to unveil to us the intention the target the destination of the law the destination of the law was a changed heart was a heart that lived in a response to God that is characterized by love and not only is love the most important thing you can do for God it's the most important thing that you can do for others nothing and most of you experience this and learn this over time if you've been a believer for a very long that nothing will impact the people around you for Christ like love when you begin to love people the way God has loved you that's the thing that is going to actually impact the lives of the people in your life and nothing will change them like love but not only is it the most important thing in your relationship with God and with your neighbor with others it's also the most important thing for you it's almost ironic but the best thing for you is to enter into the love of God to learn what it's like to be loved by God and to love others alive based on biblical love is a full life in fact God created you with the need to be loved and he created you with the ability to love others and if your life isn't characterized by that then you have a broken life because that's what you were created for a person who doesn't enter into the love of God and doesn't love others is living a broken life and in fact that's why Jesus Christ came to call men and women boys and girls into this new sphere of life a sphere of life which is characterized by the love of God now what we want to do is as look and see what the Bible actually says about love if we're going to understand the biblical teaching on love we have to understand that it's based on certain personal relationships this is what the Bible teaches about this the obedience of these commandments having these commandments fulfilled in your life they are wrapped up in certain relationships that we have not only with God but with other people and my my argument this morning the thing that I want to drive home to your heart is that Jesus Christ can enable us to love more deeply than we've ever experienced before that the truth of the gospel will bring you to the place faith in Jesus Christ will bring you to the place where you can experience God's love in a much deeper way and where you can love others now we all know that it's true that you don't have to be a believing Christian to love all of you know people that are not believing Christians who love they love their wives or family the children other people they can love but the thing about Christianity the thing about the gospel is in Christianity we have a unique basis for love that's what we want to look at we have a unique basis for love a unique power that takes love to a different sphere it takes it to another level God has given us the Holy Spirit to empower us to energize us and producing us a desire to love others the way God has loved us the reason people go to other parts of the world to take the gospel and risk their lives the reason people choose to lay down their lives they choose to suffer for the gospel is because of the love of God nothing else would keep you in a dangerous place at work for the gospel then the love of God which is in Christ Jesus George Barnett who's a sort of a statistician a Christian writer wrote a book a few years ago called what Americans believe you wrote some interesting things I don't put a whole lot of store in these kind of surveys but he said some things it rings true when you hear them listen to what he said sociologists who conduct transitional studies have suggested that Americans are among the onlyest people in all the world unfortunately America is a nation in which the yearning for strong friendships far exceed their existence the majority of Americans feel that they do not have close friends they have friends but when they describe what a close friend friend is an intimate friend a friend that you can trust absolutely most people say they don't have that kind of friend on the one hand we feel that love is essential for life and happiness and fullness in this world and yet on the other hand we painfully feel the lack this the lack of those kind of relationships in our life in the Bible has something to say about this issue the Bible speaks to this issue it tells us how to have real deep significant relationships they're characterized by the kind of love that we would call Calvary love the kind of love that God has for his people when he sent Jesus Christ in the world to die for us and to bring us into a living relationship with him there's three things I want you to even jot down if you have a pencil there write down these three points the first is the person relationships begin with God they begin with God because God is a personal being if you look out at the universe at this creation when you look at it you look at the source of it the origination of it what we see is not just a material thing or objects floating out there in space we see a person this universe has the marks of a personal being upon it because the one who created the universe is a personal being a being that's not simply the product of switches that are being flipped by his environment a being that doesn't just bark or hum or vibrate but a being who communicates and it communicates in a significant and real way of a being who has feelings and makes decisions and thinks and most of all has relationships that's what a person is it's someone who has relationships and the the mark of his hand is upon this universe this universe is the product of a of a person a personal being and you know an impersonal process the reason that Christians stand against this concept of an evolutionary theory is and in personal evolutionary process could not create personal beings only a personal being could create personal beings and in that very sense we have the image of God and printed upon us God is a personal being and he created this universe to express that but secondly he made us to be personal beings because we were created in his image and that's the beginning point when you look at another person you're not just looking at an object you're not just looking at a bag of bones you're looking at another person who has feelings who has a mind who can relate who can have relationships who was made for relationships every person that you ever meet they were created to have loving relationships because they were created in the image of God and every person that you deal with is going to alas for all eternity even when his soul and spirit leaves his body he's going to continue to exist in a personal reality in personal relationships that's the horrible thing about health that it's described as a place where there is no fellowship it's a place of absolute isolation away from a personal God and other people and the glorious thing about heaven is the fact that in heaven we will experience a depth of relating to God like we've never experienced before in a personal level turn with me to first John chapter four and first John Paul our John rather who wrote first John John speaks about the character of God the nature of God and its implications for allies and notice how he begins the section first John chapter four verse seven beloved let us love one another why because love is from God if we are children of God John says we ought to love each other because love is from God and everyone who loves is has been born of God and knows God in other words one of the characteristics of being a person who is known by God and who knows God is he's a loving person she's a loving person that is the mark of having a relationship with God he goes on a verse 8 the one who does not love does not know God for God is love that's a strong statement God is love we could say a lot of things about God we could talk about his sovereignty we could talk about his omnipotence and his omniscience his holiness his righteousness and justice there's so many characteristics of the sovereign Lord of the universe the creator of all things and yet John says in the most unique way God is love now he doesn't mean that's all he is he has other characteristics but it's the heart it is right at the center of who God is that God is love and therefore he says those who know God love that's a characteristic of knowing God it's one of the effects of knowing God that we love one another now God could have been a personal being without being a loving personal being he could have been a personal being that was not loving what he has revealed about himself is that God is love and that's important because the central aspect of God's character is the fact God is love now the second thing we want to look at is not only his personal relationships originate with God but our ability to relate personally has been damaged by the fall and that's the reason that we have problems in life all of your problems either directly or indirectly flow from the fact that you have been cruelly damaged by the fall the book of Romans the whole first three chapters of that book describes the fall of man describes the fact that we are in the condition we are in as you look around yourself you look around in this world that you live in and you see the condition of mankind if you think this is the way God intended it to be in other words this is the ultimate goal of God for his world and mankind created his image you are greatly mistaken the reason we see things the way we do the reason if you ever watch cops on TV and you see the debauchery and fall in this and the gravity of man and in watching those kind of things it's like looking in a mirror because we see a reflection of our own heart the reason is is there's been a fall and because of this fall we've been greatly damaged cruelly damaged but what's significant is the nature of the change that took place what happened at the fall what happened in the garden the first story that is give the first part of the story given to us in the Bible is that of creation that the second is the fall the second thing that God tells us about is the fall and in the fall the major thing that's happened is is that self has displaced God as the center of life what happened to Adam and Eve was our ultimate parents all the way back to the beginning of creation the thing that they did in the fall when they succumbed to the satanic temptation was they moved God out of the center and put themselves there that's exactly what Satan told them they could do you can be like God you can be the integration point of your life you can be at the center you can be your own God and Adam and Eve brought the plan and when they did that it plunged this race into a condition and this is the primary dysfunction that we have is that self is in the center and God is not now there's a there's a phrase that's given to us in Genesis chapter five a just short passage there that's so sobering because in the early part of Genesis when the creation account is given we are told that man was created in the image of God male and female he created us in the image of God and after the fall and it wasn't until after the fall that Adam and Eve began to have children but after the fall they begin to have children it says this is the book of the generations of Adam in the day when God created man he made him in the lightness of God he created them male and female and he blessed them and he named them man in the day in which they were created when Adam had lived one hundred and thirty years and the fall has taken place and now God is no longer at the center but there they put themselves at the center it says he became the father of a son in his own lightness according to the image according to his image that is Adam's image and he named him Seth in other words when Seth was born Seth was not was no longer in the image of God in the same sense that Adam was before the fall he still bears the image of God you still bear the image of God but something has changed and now Seth bears the image and lightness of his father Adam and part of that image and lightness is the fact that God is no longer in the center self is in the center I want you to look at this statement by Francis Schafer an old book a true spirituality that he wrote some years ago Francis Schafer was a great Christian thinker and he wrote some important books and one of those books true spirituality is really a wonderful book to read on the Christian life if you've never read it he writes in this book and he's talking in this context about when we place ourselves at the center our tendency is to turn into ourselves to find solutions to life in other words we we begin to feel the effects of being separated from God and separated from one another we look inward for solutions to life here is what he says when God turns inward to himself he is a Trinity that is he's a trying God bodhisattva in the Holy Spirit but when we turn inward there is no one there to answer this not only causes psychological problems but it also destroys my relationship with others and he goes on people without God hang too much on their personal relationships and they crush those relationships crush and break no love affair between a man and a woman has ever been great enough to hang everything on it will crumble away under your feet he goes on if I acknowledge technology if I acknowledge that I am really not God listen to this if I acknowledge that I am really not God and that since the fall we are all sinful then I can have true human relationships without battering myself to pieces because they are not sufficient in themselves or because they are not perfect now what are you saying here is really profound if you get a hold of it because what shape we're talking about in this book on the Christian life and at the heart of this book is the truth of Romans chapter six that the Christian life is a life of relationship with the father an active aggressive pursuit of God in my daily consciousness and he says here profoundly says with self at the center we are not sufficient as individuals to live autonomously in other words we can't live separated from others we were designed for relationship and because we have been cut off from God because God is no longer at the center and because we were created and designed with this need for love to know that we are loved and to love others because we've been cut off from God every relationship in life is ultimately doomed to failure as we live apart from God God what he says is is try in father son and holy spirit and when you read the gospels you hear Jesus saying over and over again describing the relationship that he had with the father since before the foundation of the world as far back as you can imagine and you can only imagine a little ways back but from all eternity the father has loved the son the son has loved the father the spirit has loved the father and the son there has been this love relationship between father son and holy spirit but because we have cut ourselves off from God we are not sufficient in ourselves God is self existent he has everything he needs in himself he didn't need this earth he didn't need to create a humanity to love him because he was perfectly loved Jesus says in the in his briefly prayer in the upper room discourse as he talks to the father he looks forward to going back into the father's presence and taking up where he left off in this relationship this intimacy of relationship that he had with the father from all eternity but you and I have been uprooted from this context of having God at the center God created his foreign self he put the center of Adam and Eve's life so that they could relate to him knowing that they are loved by God but because they have they cut themselves off and because we are cut off as a result of that and God is not at the center now self is at the center when I go inward on myself when I turn inward to lift for solutions to life problems to myself I am all alone that's my problem I am all alone and so what do I do well I search about relationships because I am I need salvation from this aloneness this loneliness that's what all the great novels are about it's what all the spawns that are written in this world are about it is this search to be saved from this loneliness this aloneness that we experience but every relationship that we ever develop outside of Christ ultimately is doomed to failure I mean we can scratch each other's backs we can kind of agree on helping one another out but the fact is because no relationship is able to bear up under the weight there's never a person you're ever going to enter into a relationship young people you who look forward to marriage you will never find a mate who was able to love you the way you need to be loved by a Heavenly Father and we look to that relationship to feel and to heal this aloneness this loneliness it's going to crush and fall apart we latch on to someone looking for so much from this relationship more than that relationship can supply and you've seen it happen over and over again the relationship is crushed and the fact is not only are you entering into a relationship with this neediness with this unmeatable need but the person that you enter into that relationship with is in the same condition two people coming together both with self at center is not a formula for success the only formula for success the only thing beyond the temporary solution to the aloneness and aloneness it's a relationship with the living God it's why hanging everything on one relationships is absolutely doomed we have this crying need for relationship but the fact is only God can satisfy that relationship that's why Jesus said these very words any man is thirsty he wasn't talking about physical thirst he was talking about this deep spiritual thirst that we have because we were created for relationship he says if any man is thirsty let him come to me and drink he who is trusting in me out of his belly will flow rivers of living water so it's only by putting back into the center the God who created us for that kind of relationship will we ever be able to have relationship with others that is truly strong and healthy and lasting only then can I come to other relationships with a full heart the psalmist said I will run in the way of your commandments because you have set my heart free in other words the psalmist knew that it was only because he had come to understand God's love for him that he was set free that security that understanding of being loved by God to that kind of depth set his heart free to run in the commandments of God you know one of the main things that Jesus did in coming one of the things he did was to put a face on the law have you ever were you ever caught doing something wrong by someone that you really either didn't know well didn't know at all or didn't like some adult who caught you doing something wrong and corrected you reprimanded you and caused you to stop whatever it was you were doing you ever had that happen you know the difference between the feeling that you had then and the feeling when your father who loved you and cared for you when he corrected you and you knew that it came from a heart that was full of love for you remember the difference between those two feelings what Jesus did and especially in the sermon amount was you put a face on the law of God that breaking the law of God and this is why he says it's not the letter but the spirit is that it is based upon relationship the reason that we want to obey the law of God is because of who God is it's because there are instructions and commandments from God from Jesus Christ from this person who loved this so much you lay down his life for us it's relationship the third thing I want you to think about is this sorry about that we recover our capacity to love by learning love from God look what he says here in 1st John chapter 4 verse 9 by this the love of God was manifested in us that God has said his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him in verses 8 and 9 he gives us an important key that suggests it here if I'm living a loveless life what is my problem according to verse 8 he says the one who does not love does not know God for God is love if I'm living a loveless life if my life is not characterized by my loving others and my experiencing the love of God for me then I don't know God that's what he says you know we live in a culture right now at this point in our history we live in a culture that is so characterized by entertainment I mean think of this we have 24 hour day entertainment we can hardly stand to go through a day without experiencing more entertainment than your grandparents experienced in a year some of you are old enough to remember I'm old enough to remember I can remember seeing the first TV in our neighborhood boy that's old isn't it I can remember when most people didn't own a TV I remember the first person never got a TV I was a little kid I don't know what grade I was in first or second grade or kindergarten or something like that I remember distinctly the first TV and I think they could watch an hour or two a day was possible I think to get programs for maybe an hour or two and I can hear as a kid if we watched a couple of hours of TV a week that would be a lot we were destroying our brain our parents were convinced today you can be entertained all your waking hours you can buy you a computer screen that will pump in a TV program as you do your work children growing up today scores are trying to figure out how to educate children by entertaining them because children want to be entertained and if we could figure out how to give them a good education by entertaining them we would solve all our problems when we you know what the problem with that is the problem with entertainment center life is they're not relational centered lives they're not lives that are centered around the thing that you were designed for which was to love and to be loved and John says if we do not live a life characterized by love the love of others and knowing that we are loved by God then we don't know God now notice in verse nine here's the ultimate example of what real love is that God spend is only be gotten sent into the world that we might live through him over and over and over and over again in the Bible every time it speaks about love to illustrate love where does it go it goes to the cross it always goes to the cross because at the cross God shows it shows us what it's like to love someone what is it like to really love someone look at the cross the cross of Jesus Christ is the great example Romans chapter five says that God demonstrated his love for us he manifested his love for us to the greatest degree ever when he sent his son into the world to die for a sins I mean think of this it was so unnecessary on the part of God to do this it was not necessary for God to have a relationship with us it was not a need within him he didn't need to give his son so that he could have a relationship with us because he needed relationship with us so badly it was unnecessary in his part but because of his great love for us and it was so undeserved by us that he would take our place that he would as someone told me this week he took the wrap for us he suffered the penalty of my sin to bring me back into a relationship with God to put God back at the center of my life and the Bible always points to this is the great example of what it really means to love now we can enter into relationship with God based upon what Jesus Christ has done rather than an attempt to do that based upon my good works he opens this door to us this incredible door Jesus says I am the door to enter into a relationship with a living God based upon what Christ has done this is the ultimate illustration of what it is to sacrily sacrificially love one another we are called to love one another the way that Christ has loved us and here is how he loved us by laying down his life for us John says if you don't love in this way if you're not experiencing this kind of love if self is at the center you never will when God is at the center this is where he is leading us notice verse 10 in this is love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins you listen to hear what he's saying this is so vital it's not up to me to conjure up love for God from this empty perverted heart of mine what he tells me is that God has loved me I am to open my heart and receive the love of God into my life God isn't saying here God isn't saying here that we loved God and in response he loved us but rather that God loved us and what we did through the empowerment of the spirit was to receive that love and notice verse 11 here's the key to loving others in verse 11 beloved if God so loved us we also ought to love one another this is the key to loving people it is letting God love us it's receiving the love of God you know you may be thinking man that's so that's so simple that can't be the key if that were the key then everybody would be loving each other just being allowing themselves to be loved by God that's the major problem that all of you have and I have is receiving the love of God it's the greatest problem we have receiving the love of God that's what John is telling us notice verse 16 and we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us God is love and the one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him you see that expression the one who knows and believes it's very strong it needs the one who embraces who drinks from who eats who experiences you see an old song there is a river that flows deep within and that song and the scriptures Roman John chapter 7 verse 37 when Jesus speaks of us drinking from him is speaking about the fact that we when we come to receive the love of a father as it really is not as we destroyed it and want to make it but as it really is when we receive the love of the father as it really is when we know and believe when we embrace it and drink from it eat it experience it then we become people who can love the way the father loves this is the key to becoming a lover like God it is to receive the love of God as it really is and notice verse 18 and this is not easy it's not easy to get to the place that he's describing in verse 18 there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves punishment and the one who fears is not perfected in love let me explain something real simple to you and the gospel in the epistle of John John uses this expression over and over again about love being perfected and sometimes what we think when we read this is that John's talking about you getting so good at loving God that these kind of changes will take place in your life that's not what he's speaking of when he talks about perfect love when he talks about the perfection of love and love being perfected what John is talking about is when the love of the father reaches its goal its purpose it's in in your life in other words when you respond when you receive when you understand and know the love of God as it really is and you receive that love by faith and you live in that love when you drink from that love as Jesus described it when that happens you will cast out fear what does he mean casting out fear what is he talking about you see this is a very hard thing to receive this foreign kind of love back to the chapter right before this John says the way to God loves us is a foreign kind of love it's unlike our love for each other it's unlike the way we are we are not like God in this way because of the fall and it's hard to receive it we're not self-giving people we are self-taking people when we think about relationships we're always looking out of for the kind of relationships that are going to build us up I heard on a sermon this morning John Piper was talking about suffering in the Christian life that we've been called to this as we do the work of the gospel and he asked this question he said if you have the opportunity you have the choice that you could either have a baby that was healthy and strong or a baby that was disabled a baby that was not whole a baby that was retarded which would you choose and he said God has told us in the in his word is he has called us to choose that very kind of choice not that specific choice but that kind of choice that we would choose death instead of life because of our love for the father that's exactly what Paul did it's what all the martyrs have done it's what those today who are doing as they lay down their life if you saw on TV I think it was on 60 minutes the other night about Christian missionaries around the world that are putting their lives in danger and they can't these people these news people couldn't figure it out why would people do this they are so narrow-minded that they think these people can't serve their own God why would you have to go in and super impose your God upon them and risk your life and the life of your children doing it with foolishness see that's what we choose why do we choose that why would Christians choose it why would the I got a phone call the other day from Dale Hollenbeck from the airport as he and his wife and his little boy two-year-old boy were going on getting ready to board the plane he called me to tell me they were leaving for Uganda and he was so excited so excited to go to Uganda all of this really good's taking everything that he owns and his young family and he's going to Uganda to preach the gospel to train pastors to preach the gospel what in the world would motivate a man like that somehow this young man this 27-year-old 28-year-old man has come to experience the love of God to stretch a death that he would lay down his life for the gospel you see that's what John is talking about perfect love casts out fear we are fearful of drawing near to God we fear this loving God we are afraid of him we don't draw close to him we find all kinds of ways and excuses not to draw close not to experience the depth of his love for us we know we're guilty we know that we've had contempt in our heart for God and so we don't want to get close we're afraid we fear his punishment that's what John says fear has punishment but perfect love not your perfect love for God but God's perfect love for you when you embrace it in other words when you come to believe and accept how much God really loves you you will draw near without fear if you ever base that up on how well you were loving God you would never draw near but John says when his love is perfected in you we draw near to this God perfect love a mature understanding of God's love for us takes a lot to get to the place to that place you've met people like that you've met people who are so secure in the love of God that they don't have to be pretend to be anything other than they really are people are willing to lay down their life because they know that his judgment against them has been completely exhausted at the cross do you really believe that do you believe that the judgment against your sin has been completely exhausted at the cross you really believe that the judgment against everything about you that falls short of what you ought to be every shortcoming every trespass every sin every violation of the law God everything about you that screams that you don't love God with all your heart soul mind and strength do you believe that the judgment of God against you has been exhausted at the cross that's what the person believes who comes to the place where the love of God is perfected in them knowing that our relationship is secure that we're not on probation that it has been sealed that it's been verified that God has committed himself to love us to the very end when we embrace this fact that the fact that we are loved when we don't deserve it when we embrace that fact that we are truly loved and we don't deserve it then we're really doing what John says here we're experiencing the perfection of the love of God will it change our lives absolutely it'll change the way you live but changing the way you live won't necessarily bring you there and this is exactly what Jesus says in the sermon on the Mount it is the change of the heart that God is going after not just the change of your conduct and what's the result look at verse 19 first John 4 we love because he first loved us now we have this new capacity to love we begin to it begins to grow in us in the heart when we are have been bathed in the in bathed in the love and grace of God and we come to understand what it means to be loved by God through Jesus Christ we gain a new capacity love why is that well two reasons first of all because we come to understand the truth about God's love and we have this incredible example what is it like to love people who don't deserve it I'll tell you what it's like it's like the way that God loves you it's just the way he loves you and that's what he's calling us to do to love people who don't deserve it and you know what he'll do this is what God does sometimes what God will do in order to teach you this so that you will come to understand that God loves you not because you deserve it but because he loves you he will put people in your life that you love and he will allow them to fall so far short to fill you so badly and then call upon you to love them in spite of that to teach you but that's how he loves you and when we experience that when we come to understand the love of God in that level Paul John says that kind of love is continually casting out fear and drawing near the God living in a place that God designed us to be where God is at the center our own security has been established because we've accepted the love of God and when that happens it sets our heart free we're no longer worrying about who I am and what I'm worth and why do I matter we're free to love and that's the psalmist meant when he said I run in your commandments because my heart you set my heart free we come to know what it means to be loved by God and probably nothing helps in that process any more than our own failures you ever wonder why God keeps allowing you to fail when you want to do when you really those those season in your life when you you want to please God you want to obey God you want to be everything that he's called you to be and you keep failing and failing and failing and failing the reason the God allows that is he wants it you to get it through your head and into your heart that he doesn't love you because of your performance he loves you because of who you are to him when this happens when I come to be possessed by this when I drink deeply from God's love in this way I can look away from myself and I can see other people with new eyes I can see other people with new eyes I'm no longer looking for someone to possess or for someone to possess me I'm no longer looking for someone to give me meaning and security in life I'm set free problems 30 says that the earth shakes under an unloved woman when she finds a husband what he means like that and the same thing is true of an unloved man when he finds a wife he has shakes under them because John has said you can't love until you've been loved the reason we love is because we can't understand God's love for us and it's only to the degree that you understand the love of God for you that you will ever be able to love somebody else purely and a woman who's never been loved Solomon said when she gets someone who tries to love her the earth shakes under her it's a rocky rock and roll and kind of life can be married to a person like that who is insecure and wants you to give them security because they're not finding it in their relationship with God now once we come into this kind of understanding of God's love for us my essential needs are met and I can relate to other people the way God relates to me I can begin to love people not based upon my need for them but based upon the fact that I can love the way God loves I can seek to meet their needs like I can no longer I can be free from using people for my own ends you know that's the way so many relationships are in this world we're all guilty of using other people to meet for our own gratification it doesn't matter if there's sexual relationships or business relationships or working relationships and even relationships in the church where people use other people they enter into a kind of relationship with them in order to have some need in their life meant don't you just hate it when somebody acts as though they're your friend in order to sell you something and as soon as you make the buy and there's no more profit to be made they hit the road you know the church is a hot bed for merchandising programs you know that don't you more merchandising programs begin in the church that is multi-level merchandising programs more of them begin and spread in the church than any other organization in our culture but it's a horrible thing to feel like you've been loved by somebody only to discover that they wanted something from you and once they got what they needed from you they discard you you know what's wrong with a person like that it's their theology that's what it is it's the theology I don't mean it's because they're a pre-tripper a post-tripper a pre-millennialist or an omelionist I mean their view of God and a man created the image of God in the purpose of our lives is distorted when we come to understand who God is and what it is that God has in mind for us for us to come to understand his love for us and entering into that love basking in that love drinking from this river that Jesus describes when Jesus says in John 37 John 737 all you that are thirsty come to me and drink he who believes in me he who is trusting in me he was relating to me in faith a trust relationship he says out of his belly will flow rivers of living waters what do he mean he means that when you enter in when you are experiencing when you're living a life that is characterized by faith entering into God's love for you in Christ Jesus not only will you be full but you will overflow into the lives of other people you want a close relationship find somebody to have a relationship with who knows they're loved by God who finds their basic deepest needs met by a living God you young men who want to marry a woman find out young lady who's discovered what it is to be loved by God you young ladies find a man who knows what it is to be loved by the living God who knows what God has done on the cross and sending its son to the world dying in our place so that he could have relationship with us you find a person like that and the earth won't shake under your marriage because you're you will be marrying a person who has security in his relationship with God and he's free his heart is set free to love you the way God lets you and you'll be set free as well I want to talk about three things in closing first I'd like to drive this home to your heart if I could is that if you're here today and you've never received the love of God if you have never even thought about what it means to be loved by God as he has manifested his love for mankind on the cross if you've never experienced a reality of John 316 for God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son that who so ever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life and you know what that means to have eternal life to have eternal life isn't just a live forever it's in fact it's not even just to go to heaven to have eternal life means according to John 173 Jesus in his upper room prayer said this eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ if having a relationship with God in other words God sent his son into the world to die for sinners so that sinners who believe in him and enter into the love of God and Christ Jesus could know God and knowing God is knowing that you are love knowing God is experiencing what it's like to be loved so deeply and fully and perfectly that there's no fear in the relationship and if you've never in there into that love you could enter in simply by turning to this living God Jesus as I am the door he is the way to a relationship of God is your faith in Jesus Christ and today by faith you can embrace Christ and enter into the love of God to experience what it's like to be loved by this living God second thing you can do is you can decide if you're not ready for that you can decide to come back and listen because we're going to talk next week about how this actually works in our lives what it means for us to love each other the way that God has loved us in Christ Jesus how is the gospel applied in the knit and grit of life and then I think for us who have come to know the love of God and we've experienced it to one degree or another we need to ask God and I really believe this is true for all of us that we need to ask God for a love revolution that is we need a fresh indument a fresh outpouring from on high you know why Pentecostals love that picture that they were always praying for the spirit to be poured out that's my roots old line Pentecostalism the reason we used to pray for the spirit to be poured out for a fresh baptism of the spirit it's because what the spirit produces in the heart it isn't just tongues it isn't just all those things that people argue about it is a heart that is so filled with the sense of God's love for us that it spills out and people begin to love each other if you have lived the Christian life for very long you know the difference in being in a fellowship of Christians where the love of God is being poured out gush forth as Paul puts it in Romans 5 5 gush forth in our hearts so that it spills out in every relationship you know the difference between being in a fellowship like that and being in a fellowship where people have themselves at the center it's a complete difference the reason we need a love revolution the reason we need an outfresh outpouring of the spirit to open up our hearts to the truth who God's love for us is because we'll never ever in the in your wildest dream get the work of the gospel done in our day in our place where God has placed us if that isn't true we'll never be effective in the gospel if we are not at church that's characterized by people who know that they are loved by God and whose hearts are set free to love others we will never have impact ever as a church if we don't bask in the love of Christ and are set free to love others it will never happen and I am absolutely convinced that the only thing that will do that the only thing that will do that is the Holy Spirit the only thing that could ever get a young person who is in that phase of life where you first I started to say we're more than any other time of life but it's not really true it's just that the older we get adults are able to hide it because we are a wiser but in those teenage years you first enter into this struggle of wanting to be the center of your own universe now that struggle goes on through our life but we usually get good enough at hiding it that we're not offensive to other people but the only only one who could change the heart of a young person or an older person like me is the Holy Spirit if the only one who could so change my heart that I could be more interested in you than I am in myself and John says we are to look out for one another when we are to be more concerned about the needs of other people than our own do you think that's rhetoric do you think that's just exaggeration that you got to the end of the sermon and you just couldn't stop talking so you just said something like that or do you think that's really what God expects of us there's God really wants to love each other in that way that I am more concerned about what's going on in your life than I am about what's going on in my life and that all of us are like that that I'm looking for ways to minister to you and to serve you instead of looking for ways that you can need my needs you think God really wants that in our church you can say yes that's what he wants and only the Holy Spirit can produce that in our hearts and keep producing it you see the only one who can't let's stand together and pray and ask him to do that our kind and gracious Father as we come before you today on this holiday weekend and when all of our thoughts are on what we're going to do with our families and where we're going to go with the fun we're going to have I pray that before that at this very moment you would speak your hearts that the Holy Spirit would come in a powerful way in each of our hearts you would open up our eyes to the things that we know so well about the love of God and Christ Jesus about the love of God that's expressed at the cross but Father that you drive at home in a fresh way in a new way that we would be honest with ourselves that we would take stock right now and ask ourselves am I really a person who has a heart that's that free am I really freed up to love other people am I really free to give myself away am I so have I so entered into the love of God have I come to know and to receive your love for me even when I don't deserve it which I never do have I so accepted and embraced your love for me that I have been set free to love others and am I doing that now is that my agenda in life to give myself away or am I still at the center Father we confess to you that we've all experienced that we've turned inward for solutions and we're always alone and we turn to you we find fullness and freedom we ask you that you would do a work in our hearts I do pray the good for our spirit upon us that the Holy Spirit would do a deep and pervasive work in the hearts of your people in this church that we would be a lampstand Father we wouldn't just be an organization it wouldn't just be that we have a slickly organized group of people to do some religious work but that would be a real true lampstand a place where the love of Christ the life of Christ is being manifested in the way we treat each other and treat those outside the church we know that you're the only one who can do it we confess that that that the spirit of God is the only one who can do that kind of work in our hearts please set us free set us free to love we pray in Christ name for his glory that he would be glorified by it in Jesus name Amen