Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 8, 2015 | Don't Settle For Christian - Who You Know (Alex Wolfe)

Transcript

November 8, 2015 | Don't Settle For Christian - Who You Know (Alex Wolfe) · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: I I really do hope it's a good morning for you all.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: For me, I'm I'm a little torn because on one hand, uh I'm with my first love, the body of Christ, the church.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: I get to be here with you all this morning and and uh worship the Lord, and we get to encourage one another, and in that sense, it's a really good morning.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh but on the other hand, uh one thing some of you know about me already is that I really love the sport of soccer.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh specifically, I'm a huge Manchester City uh supporter, not to be confused with Manchester United.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: They're red, we're blue, big difference.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh but Manchester City is a team in the English Premier League.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh so they're in English soccer.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: So the problem is uh that I'm a huge supporter, and they play this morning, perhaps one of our greatest rivals at the moment, Liverpool, at 10:30 a.m.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: while I'll be delivering this next message.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: So in that sense, I'm uh it's a tough morning for me.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Um but in order to show my support, uh I brought my scarf uh to wear, and uh um I'm realizing now that unbuttoning my shirt on stage was probably not the best thing to do.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: But you guys are the first service, though, so you get all the kinks.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: Just don't tell the second service I did that.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna leave it open next time.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: But I'm wearing my jersey uh to show my support, and in order to justify doing that, I felt, well, I better use this as a sermon illustration uh so that I could both show my support and no.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: But it just so happens that my experience in supporting Manchester City uh actually illustrates really well uh the point of the passage that we're gonna be looking at today.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you a little bit about this team that I love, Manchester City.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh they had a bit of a rocky history.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: They started in the late 1800s, and by the early mid-1960s, they were on top of the English league.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: They were doing really well, and then in 1981, they sort of they lost a big game and had this horrible fall.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: To the point where in a relatively short period of time, uh they went down to the third tier of English football.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: And I say football because that's the proper name for soccer, because you kick it with your foot, you see.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh not that I don't love American football, don't get me wrong, but I think they kicked the ball, what, like ten times in a game?
2:33
SPEAKER_00: You know, handball might be it's all right.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: I can rant about that for a while, but you don't want to hear me do that.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Um but they fell in a short period of time uh to the third tier.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: So in English football, what happens is there's all kinds of tiers.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: You have your top league, which is the Premier League, and then you have a few leagues below that, which are sort of semi-pro in a sense, and the bottom three teams of each league get relegated down to the lower leagues, and the top three teams get promoted up to the higher leagues.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: And so Manchester City went down two, and they weren't doing so well.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, however, by 2002, they had fought their way back from that lower league up two leagues back to the top Premier League.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: And in 2012, they had finally won the league, and they have been a top club in the league ever since.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: So it's a bit of a Cinderella story, a bit of a uh from rags to riches kind of thing, which is really what drew me to their story back in 2012 when I first began looking into Premier League football.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: With a story like that, I wasn't the only one to start following Manchester City.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: Since then, they have become one of the richest and most successful clubs in Europe, let alone England, and they've won multiple times.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh so as you can imagine, there have been a lot of people attempting to jump on the bandwagon since then, and some because they love the story, like me, and some because they love watching really high-quality soccer, also like me.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but there's also a group of people that support them, they they jumped on board for the glory and the excitement that comes from winning.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh they they just want to be on the winning team, and that's become evident uh as I'm on a Manchester City supporters Facebook page.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: So I'm really nerdy about this stuff.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Um but the group has blown up in the last few years.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: It's gone from it's gone over a hundred thousand members recently, and it had nowhere near that when I had first joined this group.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: When I had joined, when it was a smaller group, I had noticed a culture in the group that was extremely attractive to me.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: I see most of the supporters in the group at that time had been around and been with the team since the 80s, the 90s, or even before when Manchester City was winning absolutely nothing.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: And these supporters stayed.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: There was a grit to these guys and gals.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't about glory, it wasn't about winning, it was about the culture and the joy that the game brought them, even if they lost.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: It was about the community that they were a part of.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: It's these men and women who consistently, uh here's Manchester City logo, I had to forgot that.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: But they consistently use this hashtag CityTillI.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Win, lose, or tie, city till I die.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: And why do they say this?
5:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because they love the club.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, they enjoy the club for better or for worse.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: They truly know Manchester City because essentially they're the heartbeat of the club.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: And this is the group that I've striven to be a part of so much so uh that I traveled to Manchester last October and I got to sit among this group of people.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And it was amazing.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: They start singing about the good times that we've had recently, but they also sing about the bad times.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, and by the way, here's a side note.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: I used to be a worship pastor a long, long time ago.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: And I would notice all the time, maybe some of you have noticed Jeremiah, might maybe have noticed, uh, it's often women who sing in church services.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: And I never knew what was happening there.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: And you know, it would always be the excuse to be, well, men are more reserved, like keep to themselves more stoic.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was like, maybe.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: But then I went to this game and I thought, well, maybe it's an issue of love or affection.
6:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because at this game, men sing together at the top of their lungs for 90 plus minutes because they love the game in their club.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's an amazing sight.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: So don't tell me men don't sing.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: I know that's not true.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: That's just a thought, something to think about.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Uh but as more and more bandwagoners began to join this Facebook group, there was a certain type of voice that got louder and louder over time.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: When we would concede a goal in a game, it was get rid of our goalkeeper.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: He's the worst.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: He's world-class, by the way.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when we lose a game, oh, our manager, he's he's awful.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: Widely considered one of the best managers in the world.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: If we don't win the league, even if we get second place, it's oh, I I can't believe I support Manchester City.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: They're the worst team.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe they would be this horrible.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: You see, they don't know the culture.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and these are the people that when I was at the game, they would sit, they wouldn't stand and sing, they would just sit there and gripe and moan and call for people to get fired.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: And they don't know what it's like to lose and to support the team and remain beside your fellow supporters thick or thin.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: See, they don't love Manchester City, they love to win.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: And you can't help but get the sense that uh once another team starts to become more dominant at some point in the inevitable future, uh, that they'll be on to the next team.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: See, some of them were never even truly on our side.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: They just wanted to claim us when they won.
8:29
SPEAKER_00: And in the end, they are the ones who ultimately are miserable.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who are anxious, they're embarrassed by the club.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: They don't enjoy the game or the culture, they only want the glory that comes with winning.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: And they say they're Manchester City fans, but they talk just like Manchester United fans who tear us down all the time.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: Every day.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: Well, I hope you've stuck with me uh up to this point, as I've gone on my long rant about Manchester City, um, because there is a point to this story, as you may have picked up on.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: As I reflect on our passage for today, I realize that the problem in 1 John that we're going to be dealing with today, uh, he's addressing a similar problem to what I just described.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh the church today is filled, even now, with people who have joined uh for various reasons, but uh the one thing they have in common is that they got on God's team by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and they're on the team with all of their differences because Jesus put them on the team.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: But just like Manchester City supporters, there are those who get great enjoyment from being on the team, and then there are those on the team who, for a lack of a better word, are just miserable.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: And on the one hand, are those who enjoy the team.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: They again are the ones who have been in the trenches in the church.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who know how to suffer the hard times.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: They are the ones who, no matter how bad it gets, they're sticking around.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: They're the ones who encourage and build up one another in hard times.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: They know God's character.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: They have grit.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: And thus they're the ones you find who are loving their brother.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: And as a result, they show up and they sing his praises alongside their brothers and sisters in pure joy.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Now, on the other hand, are those who joined for the glory.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: The ones who have never allowed themselves into the trenches, they don't know what it's like to suffer with or for somebody else.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: They don't sing.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Rather, when things get hard, they slander, they gossip, they tear down, they criticize the worship pastor, they criticize the pastors.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: When things don't go their way, they retreat and they condemn their brothers and sisters.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: They're on the team, but they don't know God's character.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: Not like the other team, or the other teammates.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: And the result is that they're miserable.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: And that they're gaining no present benefit from being on the team besides glory when the team wins.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna dive deeper into that idea as we get into the text, but I want you to be asking yourself a question as we go through.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh, see, most of us here are here today because we're already on the team.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: We've already joined, we already said, Jesus have mercy on me, a sinner, and as a result, we're on his team.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: But the question I want you to ask as we go through this is, which teammate am I?
11:48
SPEAKER_00: See, we're now in week five of our uh first John series, and last week uh we're calling it Don't Settle for Christian.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: Last week we talked about what you know, and today we're going to be talking about who you know.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is, is it possible to be on God's team and to not truly know and enjoy him?
12:12
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is yes, as we sort of just illustrated, and we're gonna continue to do so.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: And today I want to talk to you, talk to you about how you can be sure to be the other kind of teammate who is both on the team and who knows God and thus has enjoyment of him.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: So today we're gonna be in 1 John verses uh chapter 4, verses 7 through 21.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bibles, it'll benefit you to pull them out and follow along.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna be looking at this great passage, which is centered around love, which is exciting.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: So, first we're gonna set up the context of the book so we can understand the passage, and then we're gonna do a sort of a verse-by-verse exposition of uh 7 through 21, and then at the very end, we're just gonna ask a few questions that'll help us maybe apply the theology that we learn.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Well, first off, the context.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: As we've mentioned in this series already, uh 1 John is somewhat of a continuation of John's gospel.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: And in the gospel, as Jim mentioned a few weeks ago, John lays out sort of the how to become a Christian.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: Right?
13:25
SPEAKER_00: It's the how to behold Christ, to look upon his death and resurrection and believe that he is the Christ.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: It's sort of a how to join God's team, if you will.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: But in 1 John, he's gonna take it a bit further and he's gonna discuss how to get the most out of the Christian life.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: Hence, don't just settle for Christian.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: But our passage today was actually set up in the Gospel of John itself, in chapter 15, verses 9 through 12.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus says this to his disciples just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: Abide in my love, and if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: And then we get to first John in chapter one, verse four, and he references this, these things we write, the apostles write to the audience, so that our joy may be made complete, just as Jesus told us it would.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: And so what I think is happening, how I think it works, is that Jesus or the Father sends the Son, Jesus, with a message of uh acceptance in him through Jesus and abiding in love, and Jesus continues in that message and he passes it along to the apostles.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: And as the apostles continue in the message that he brings from the Father, then the joy of Christ is complete.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: And then the apostles are going to abide in that message of love and pass it on to their audience.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: And if the audience continues in their word and love one another, then their joy will be made complete, and so on and so forth, as you disciple and pour in, and you watch people abide in the words which have been instilled in you, so on and so forth.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: So, what's really kind of happening here is don't just believe in me, but abide in my command to love.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: So, what we have in 1 John is a letter written to those who are on God's team, Christians, but who may have a less than complete joy.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh, how we're gonna set up the book of uh 1 John to understand our passage is the book was written to believers.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2 identifies them, they're definitely believers.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, but what you don't always see explicitly in the text is they're sitting antagonists behind the scenes.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and he's enticing, or they are enticing believers, and their whole uh theology, philosophy is to deny Jesus.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is they are going to tell these Christians is that relationship to the Father has nothing to do with Jesus, it has everything to do with works of the law.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: See, we are righteous because we uphold the law and we do these works.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: So our relationship and our fellowship with the Father is not through the apostles who saw Jesus, whose fellowship was with the Father.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: No, we have access to the Father because we are righteous, because we keep the law.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: And so they are going to entice these Christians to join their team, and the result being, if they believe them, they'll stop believing or trusting in Jesus as an access to the Father, continued access to the Father.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: You'll start by faith, go back to law-keeping.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: They would reject their Christian brothers who are in need because they don't recognize them as brothers, and as a result, John will say they will be miserable and not confident in the day of judgment.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: So John writes, partially to warn them of this theology, but also to educate them on what Jesus told them.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: And his theology is going to be: we saw Jesus, we touched him, we have the eyewitness account, we can confirm he came from the Father.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: You have to take our word for it.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: And so the relationship to the Father is only through the Son by faith.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: And if you listen to my word, because I saw him, you will continue belief in Jesus, you will love your brother in need, and as a result, you will be joyful and confident in that day of judgment.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: And so this is the context we're going to bring into our text.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: So as we jump into the text in chapter 4, verse 7, we're going to start reading.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: We're going to start with the first two verses, verses 7 and 8.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: John says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: This is one of those texts that at first glance it could seem to trip you up.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: Because it says, Everybody who loves is born of God and knows God, and the temptation for you is to think that, well, if I don't love, then I'm not born of God, and I do not know God.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: But the next verse defines what he means.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: The one who does not love, if if that kind of thinking were true, you would expect him to say, does not know God and is not born of God.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he says.
18:49
SPEAKER_00: He says, the one that does not love does not know God.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: And so the question is, is it possible to be a Christian and not truly know, or the word could also be translated, understand God.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: So I think his point here is that anybody who does love, they are both on God's team, they are born of God.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: We looked last week at how you're on the team, you're born of God by faith.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus the Messiah, period.
19:19
SPEAKER_00: But remember, this book is about not just settling for Christian, but going to the next step.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: And so the one who loves is both born of God and he knows God.
19:29
SPEAKER_00: The Christian who does not love is born of God, yes, but maybe he doesn't know God well.
19:37
SPEAKER_00: And so it's not that if you fail, you fail to love, you aren't a Christian, but Christians who fail to love fail to truly understand and understand how God operates.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: So as we go to verses uh 9 through 11, he's just said that believers who love both are born of God and know God, but the question is, what is love and what does it look like?
20:04
SPEAKER_00: And so he's going to define what he means in these verses.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: Let's read.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: By this the love of God was manifested in us.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: That God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: So here he's defining the type of love he's talking about by pointing to Jesus.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: The type of love he's talking about is the type of love where God sends his son to die as a propitiation for the sins, as an atonement for sinners.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: The best approximation or the best understanding I have of this type of love is a word that comes from the Old Testament is chesed.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: You heard this word, chesed.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: It's a Hebrew word and it refers to a one-way, uh, one way, I just did it, one way, sacrificial, loyal love.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: That's what it looks like.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh steadfast love, loving kindness is translated in those ways, and it's used to refer to God's loyalty to his covenant with his people, regardless of their actions.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: Regardless of what Israel, God's people do, no matter how much they prostitute themselves out, God is going to remain faithful to his covenant.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: Entirely, sacrificially, for their benefit.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: It's illustrated really well in the story of Hosea and Gomer.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Are you all familiar with this story?
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh God tells Hosea to go find a wife, and she's a harlot.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: And he marries her, and guess what?
21:51
SPEAKER_00: She continues to be a harlot.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: She continues to cheat on him, and he's raising kids for her, and he's doing, he's sacrificing, he's giving everything.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: She's giving him nothing in return.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: In the end, she gets herself in a sticky situation where she's going to be sold into slavery.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: And you would think, if it was me, I'd think, ah, I'm not getting anything from you, anyways.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: But God says, no, you go buy her back.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be faithful to your covenant, regardless of what she does.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: And we know this story wasn't just about Jose and Gomer.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: They were used as an example of how God loves his people, of how he's faithful to them regardless of their faithfulness.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: He is faithful when we are faithless.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: That's what Kesed is.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Paul said it this way: that Jesus died for us while we were his enemies.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: We weren't married.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: We weren't his wife.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: We were his enemies and he died for us.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: We had no merit.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: We were worthless.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: That's what this kind of love is.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: He died as a propitiation for our sins.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: And the other team, the antagonist, however, has a different definition of this love.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: Lindsay and I watch this really dumb show.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: It's called The Bachelorette.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: And we don't watch it because we actually support it.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: It's just like it's one of those train wrecks you can't look away from.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: It's just like, wow, this is really dumb.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I guess it makes us feel better about ourselves.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
23:22
SPEAKER_00: But just this last week, uh, she ditched all these guys for one guy, and it's in the midst of COVID, so they had all quarantined for two weeks before they could do it.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: They gave up all these things.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: And this one guy, I her, her, I think, father, one of her parents, was struggling with Alzheimer's or something like this, and he bought a book and he was reading about it, and he had done all these things, and when she left, he said, uh, why is it that I've given up so much and yet I've gotten nothing in return?
23:54
SPEAKER_00: See, this is the world's view of love.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: The world's view of love is feelings-based.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: It says, I love you until I don't anymore.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, I just I'm just not feeling it, so I'm out.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: This love is reciprocal.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: I scratch your back and you scratch mine.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Maybe if I feel like it.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: But if you stop scratching my back, I'm not gonna keep doing it for you.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh their love is selfish.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: It's about my happiness.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: You hear it all the time.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: I deserve this.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: I deserve to be happy.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: I deserve for you to fulfill me.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: But this Kesed love that John is talking about here is how Christians ought to love one another.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: And the interesting thing is kessid is not at all feelings-based.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you get to the point where you can show sacrificial love, your feelings aren't so good.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Your feelings have probably been hurt, and that's when chesed hits it, kicks in.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: It's not reciprocal, it doesn't expect anything in return.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: It's one way.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: You do it, and you don't expect anything in return.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: You suffer.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: And it does not, it's not selfish, it does not expect happiness.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: In fact, if you're showing chesed, happiness is not usually something involved because it means you're suffering.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: But the good news is chesed expects joy.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: Because joy comes through sacrifice.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of love that he's defining that if you do this, you can truly come to understand and to know God.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: And so let's keep reading.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: No one has seen God at any time.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us, and by this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: We have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: See, the apostles have seen, they've test, they're testifying to this audience, that he sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: We looked at this last week, and we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: And so the apostles saw Jesus, who came from the Father, and you have to take their word for it.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Specifically, that whoever confesses Jesus as Messiah, the Son of God, is on God's team.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: And he says here, we have come to know the love, and we've believed the love which God has for us.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: In other words, whoever accepts the ultimate love, the act of kessid that God poured out in the person of Jesus, who died as a propitiation for the sins of his enemies, whoever looks upon that love is on God's team.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: You're not like the antagonist.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you recognize love when you see it because you've received that love.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: At some point you've said, uh, I'm worthless.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: God has to die for me.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, or at least you should know, that you did nothing to earn it.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: The antagonist doesn't know that.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: But you have come to know and have believed the love, the kessid, in which God enacted for you.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: He died on the cross for you.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: In verse 17 through 18, he says, By this love is perfected with us, so that they may have confidence in the day of judgment.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: Or we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: I love that song we just sang.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: My fear doesn't stand a chance when I stand in your love.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: Because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the one who's on God's team and doesn't love, the one who has received chesed and doesn't show chesed, is anxious all his days because he can't tell which team he's on.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: Peter in his second epistle illustrates this really well with the example of Lot.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: See, Lot was in Sodom and Gomorrah, yet he was righteous.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: And it describes him as just barely escaping.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: He was just barely saved.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: And all the days of his life in Sodom and Gomorrah, Peter says, were tormented.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: This is an example of a Christian who does not love.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: It's, yeah, you'll escape, but it'll be a life of torments.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: It was, was, are these people, do they believe in Jesus?
28:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Are they saved?
28:53
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Do they know God?
28:56
SPEAKER_00: Not really.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Do they have confidence in the day of judgment?
29:01
SPEAKER_00: Not really.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: These people accept the greatest act of love in the history of humanity, and yet they refuse to give it to others.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: They essentially say, I deserve this.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: They don't.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: Verse 19 is kind of the main verse here.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: We love because he first loved us.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: Notice he doesn't say we love because others deserve it.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: Or we love because others agree with us.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: No, we love only because we've looked upon the love which he's had for us.
29:42
SPEAKER_00: So those on God's team should respond to the act of love they received from God by replicating it with others, and we can do it because we've beheld the person of Jesus.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: The other team can't do it, the antagonist can't do it because they've never seen it.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: They don't understand what it's like to sacrifice.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: And so his point here is that the way to behold Jesus is to look at his act of love on the cross.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: The way to behold God is to look on the cross and see his love.
30:13
SPEAKER_00: But the way to experience God's love, if we want to experience God's love, we must allow his love to be expressed through us and through other believers.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: And the reason is, verse 20 and 21.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar, for the one who does not love his brother, whom he sees, cannot love God whom he has not seen or does not see.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: And this commandment we have from him that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: Why?
30:53
SPEAKER_00: This is sort of the culminative how-to of the passage.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: He's been building up, you want to know God better?
30:59
SPEAKER_00: Do you desire to love God?
31:00
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's how.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: Love your brother.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: But how does this work?
31:05
SPEAKER_00: John keeps saying, well, you can't see God, you can't see God, and so here's what I think he's doing.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: I think it's the point is that Jesus was in the grave and then he raised up in a physical body.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: This is what the church has always believed, in a physical body.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: And then that physical body was taken up to be at the right hand of the Father, which means that Jesus isn't here right now, at least not in bodily form.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: And so I think the point is the closest approximation to loving the actual person of Jesus on the earth and therefore the Father, is to love the closest thing to him on earth, Christ's body, the church, your Christian brothers and sisters.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: So I'm saying that if you want to know and love God, you need to know and love the church.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: So to summarize, uh John is talking about distinguishing yourself from the other team through this thing called love.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: His desire is not that you would just barely jump through the fire, but that you would have confidence and joy in the day of judgment.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: But how?
32:15
SPEAKER_00: Well, you stop acting like a member of the opposite team and you start acting like a member of God's team.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you love because that's something the other team can't do because they've never seen it.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: They've got a different definition.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: To put it in Manchester City terms, don't be a Manchester City fan and then wear a Manchester United or Liverpool jersey on game day.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: That'd be nonsense.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: So, what does that look like in our lives today?
32:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, most of us here today are already on God's team.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we believe in the name of Jesus, so the question I want to ask at this point is uh do you desire to know God better?
33:00
SPEAKER_00: And do you desire to have joy in this life?
33:04
SPEAKER_00: And if you answered yes to either of those questions, this message is for you.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Because many people today have a me in God theology.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: So I just need me, God, and my Bible, and my relationship with him will flourish because it's about me.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: But I want to suggest that you need a flourishing Christian life, needs the body.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: You need others, you need other believers to truly come to know God.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Most think that if you want to know God more, I gotta pray more, I gotta read my Bible more, I gotta tithe more, do whatever.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh but this is evidenced by the fact that when we pray and then we sin, you know, we often have to wait until our prayer life really kicks off again until we go a certain amount of time without replicating that sin.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: In other words, saying my relationship with God contingent upon these things.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: However, consider this: even the antagonists in the story say, I love God.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: I have fellowship with the Father.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: I read my Bible, I tithe, I know God, I'm righteous, I keep the law, but they prove that they don't know God because they fail to love their brother because they don't know love.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: So don't make the same mistake yourself.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: That's their goal, to entice to start by faith and come back to law-keeping.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh you, on the other hand, have beheld the love of God.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: You were his enemy.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: You were worthless in a sense.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: You were a sinner, a seed of the serpent, and yet he died for you, and now you're going to go and try to love him how?
34:52
SPEAKER_00: By making it up and doing your own thing?
34:57
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's nonsense.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Did that ever work before?
35:02
SPEAKER_00: No, it didn't work.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: If that had worked before, then Jesus wouldn't have had to die for you.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: If you could have done this thing through law-keeping, you're on your own.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: No, you love God by doing it how He did it, but you can't see God, not in the flesh.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, so how do you love him?
35:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, you love him by loving his body.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: Lost my spot here, guys.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: So the question is, how do we go about in loving his body?
35:45
SPEAKER_00: First, who do we love?
35:48
SPEAKER_00: Who do we love?
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, remember, we're talking about the body of Christ.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, you gotta love everybody, yes, but we're talking about the body of Christ.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: And so uh as we think through uh who we love, the thing that can that concerns me the most as I look out into the world is not so much that the world is divided, and it's not so much even that our nation is divided, but it's that the same things that are dividing our nation, the same things that are dividing our world, are the same things dividing our church.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: They're not even on our team, and yet the philosophies and the chorus of the world are penetrating to the church, are penetrating the church and causing us to hate one another?
36:45
SPEAKER_00: No.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Love one another.
36:49
SPEAKER_00: You're on the same team.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: How do you love one another?
36:52
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's simple.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: This word guess it.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: Sacrifice for one another.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: Give up yourself for the other person, regardless of your differences.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, especially with your differences.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: Do you not know that the greatest opportunity to love somebody is when you have absolutely nothing in common with them?
37:20
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I'll take it even a step further.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize that the greatest opportunity to show chesed to somebody is when that other person is literally trying to kill you?
37:33
SPEAKER_00: So, what excuse do you have to not love your brother?
37:37
SPEAKER_00: Chances are nobody in this room is trying to kill you today.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Same with Cab.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: So anything in between there is not an excuse not to love.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it's an excuse to show chesed, to love your brother, to show mercy and compassion, to be slow to anger and bounding in chesed.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: So Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, who cares?
38:12
SPEAKER_00: Who cares?
38:14
SPEAKER_00: What is it to you?
38:15
SPEAKER_00: You follow Jesus.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: Be kind to one another, be compassionate, merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know Jesus, love your brother.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: He did it in, Jesus said this in Matthew.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: The apostles come to him at the judgment and he says, You fed me, you clothed me, you did all these things for me.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: And they say, Lord, when did we do any of these things for you?
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, you did it to me when you did it to the least of these.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: Mask wearers, non-mask wearers, black, white.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: What is it to you?
39:02
SPEAKER_00: You follow Jesus.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You want to love me, you love these ones.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: Be kind to one another.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: Be merciful, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: Manchester City, Manchester United.
39:22
SPEAKER_00: No, there's a reason to not be kind, right there.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just kidding.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: Even me too, I get it.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: I know there are probably a few Man United fans in here, chances are, so I love you.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: Here's my final statement.
39:39
SPEAKER_00: It's only through showing up to church and loving those in the body, despite your differences, uh, that you come to know God on a deeper level.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: So my encouragement to you is this go to church.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: Cool enough.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: Serve the church.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: Remember, it's not about you, it's about loving your brother.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: So sacrifice, and I think you will find a deeper understanding of God's character, which I hope will lead you to more joy in this life until he returns.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: So let's pray.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: Father, I thank you for uh who you are, and we thank you that in the ultimate act of love you sent your son to die for us, who are your enemies, to die a death that was undeserved, so that you could give us what we don't deserve.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Your grace and mercy.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: Lord, and as we behold that great act of love and look at the love in which you've shown us, may we in turn show that same love to our brothers and sisters here in the body of Christ, in order that we might come to know you and your character on a deeper level.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: Because as we suffer for this love, we experience the things you experience.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: We experience your character.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: And as we do that, we grow in joy and confidence because we know that in the end, when the end comes, when that great judgment day comes, that we have nothing but glory awaiting us.
41:39
SPEAKER_00: So we can rejoice in the fact that that day is coming.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for that.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: And we praise you.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray by the power of the Holy Spirit.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: Amen.