All You Need Is Love.

Steve Gentry

[0:03] Welcome to Village Church. [0:05] If this is your first time here, my name’s Steve. [0:07] I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church, and I’m thankful and grateful as always to [0:11] see each and every one of you this morning. [0:13] If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to 1 John. [0:16] We’re going to be reading on a 1 John chapter 4 starting in verse 7 this morning.

[0:22] But today we’re kicking off a new series that’s entitled All You Need Is Love and Other Lies. [0:29] I Used to Believe. [0:30] Over the next seven weeks, we’re going to take a look at seven different philosophies [0:35] that are prevalent in our culture today, and they’re phrases that many are swayed to base [0:42] the vision for their lives on. [0:45] The problem is that these phrases are ultimately lies that will lead you down a road and leave

[0:51] you disappointed and in need of repair at best, but can also destroy your life at worst. [1:00] Now, in 1967, which was before I was born, a long time before I was born, John Lennon [1:06] wrote a song called All You Need Is Love, and Mark Manson wrote in the New York Observer [1:13] quoting that Lennon also beat both of his wives, abandoned one of his children, verbally [1:20] abused his gay Jewish manager with homophobic and anti-Semitic slurs, and once had a camera [1:26] crew film him lying naked in a bed for an entire day.

[1:30] Now, what this shows us is first that you should never base the most important thing [1:35] of your life on what a pop rock star says. [1:38] But secondly, it also shows us that there was something that he needed in his life [1:44] that he ultimately never found. [1:48] Now, too often what we have is a reductionistic view of love that is based on sentiment, romance, [1:57] and our feelings.

[1:59] Now, while love is not less than these things, it is certainly far more. [2:06] When love is reduced to these things, it becomes selfish and abandoned then at the [2:12] notion that any of these three points might be waning in the type of love that we’re [2:17] seeking or the type of love that we’re experiencing, and you hopefully then will find it in something [2:24] or what you hope is someone else. [2:28] But the question remains, what if you need more than sentiment?

[2:35] What if you need more than romance, and what if you need more than what your feelings [2:42] are leading you to chase after and pursue? [2:46] What if life is about more than these things? [2:50] And what if love is about more than these things? [2:54] Because the reality is that it’s not so much love that is the problem, but how we [3:00] misdefine love that leaves us disappointed, empty, constantly looking for new love that

[3:08] can fill the void that our last disappointment with love left us with. [3:15] You see, love though is different than you think because it’s not a subjective feeling [3:19] that you are left to define yourself because it is something that has been defined by [3:25] the creator of the universe who himself actually created and is the definition of what love [3:31] actually is and what you actually exist for. [3:36] The love that you are typically looking for in this life and the love that our culture

[3:39] around us will teach us to look for and fill ourselves with will not ultimately fill your [3:46] life, but instead will leave you empty with a great void that you feel like you need [3:51] to fill with something else over and over and over. [3:56] That’s what’s led us to the pandemics of divorce and the pandemics of people leaving their [4:02] children and fatherless and sometimes motherless households. [4:07] Is that we believe that you can fall in love and then fall out of love as if we have no

[4:13] control over the roller coaster of this life. [4:16] And my assumption is that some of you may actually believe that you’re in one of those [4:20] situations right now where you have no control over what it is that you’re feeling in your [4:25] life. [4:25] And I want to talk specifically today about what it is that you need and what it is that [4:31] you need to base your definition of love on.

[4:36] So look in 1st John chapter 4. [4:37] I’m going to start reading in verse 7.

[4:41] The apostle John writes, Beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. [4:49] And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. [4:52] Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. [4:57] That’s a very important phrase.

[5:01] In this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the [5:07] world so that we might live through him. [5:10] In this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to [5:16] be the propitiation for our sins. [5:18] Beloved, if God so loved us we also ought to love one another. [5:23] No one has ever seen God.

[5:26] But if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. [5:34] This is the word of God.

[5:37] I want to take a look at three areas that are hopefully going to be helpful for your [5:42] life, for your purpose, and for your mission in following Jesus this morning. [5:47] If you don’t know Jesus, my hope is that through this you will see what it means to [5:51] actually follow Jesus and possibly trust him as your savior. [5:56] But the first thing that I want to look at this morning is the reality that God is love [6:01] but love is not God.

[6:05] God is love but love is not God. [6:09] You see love is not all you need. [6:13] You may say well that text had a lot to say about love. [6:18] I’ll tell you that’s exactly right. [6:19] Love is very important but what this text also reveals is that it’s a specific kind [6:26] of love that’s very important.

[6:28] I would go as far as to say a kind of love that’s not left for you to define. [6:36] Because what many of us do and what many of us find ourselves waning through life and [6:40] just kind of wading through the motions, living on a shifting sand is that we think love [6:45] is left up to my specific needs or my specific actions or what I specifically need to get [6:53] from someone else. [6:55] But that’s not what you see in this text at all.

[7:00] And I would go as far as to say this is these are the verses in scripture that are the [7:05] most specific about love because it hones in on who it is that defines love but also [7:11] how he defines love and what he does with his love and how it should impact you in [7:18] your life. [7:20] The question that you’ve got to ask yourself is are you defining love the way God does? [7:27] Because it’s very easy and we’re very quick oftentimes to maybe speak back and say see

[7:33] God is love, therefore love is all that matters.

[7:39] Let’s just kind of go down that path and say well if that’s true then how do you define [7:44] what that love is? [7:46] Are you defining it the same way that God does? [7:50] Are you basing the definition on something that only has to do with you? [7:55] Something that only has to do with how you feel from one day to the next? [8:00] If I followed my feelings from one day to the next at best I would be homeless.

[8:06] That’s a best case scenario right there for me. [8:09] Because man if I followed my feelings I would do some really dumb things with my life.

[8:16] But fortunately we don’t have to live that way. [8:19] There is an anchor with which we can take a look at life, we can take a look at love [8:23] and say that is love, that is the guiding post and if my feelings begin to lead me [8:30] away from that then I’m the one that’s in need of correction. [8:35] Not love itself. [8:38] You see life and love are rooted in God.

[8:43] They’re anchored in him. [8:45] In other words if God is love then what you can then go and say is love cannot be found [8:52] anywhere but in God. [8:55] You cannot find true love, real love apart from who God is and then how God created [9:03] you to be. [9:05] If you’re seeking the feeling of love you may find something that for a season makes

[9:12] you feel good, makes you feel like you’ve found something that you want in your life [9:17] but what do you do though if those feelings begin to wear off? [9:23] Because if you seek God you will find something that lasts, something that’s unchanging. [9:28] Many years ago when I was in college this film came out that I think defines what an [9:36] entire generation, maybe more than one generation has defined by love and I think they really [9:42] just kind of honed in on what every romantic comedy teaches as the gospel for your life.

[9:49] Don’t think I don’t know, you’re all basing your love experience on romantic comedies. [9:55] In the film Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise comes in to his love’s house and he’s trying to [10:03] win her back and he says these words that are so wrong.

[10:11] Ladies if a man ever says these words to you dump him immediately.

[10:19] You complete me. [10:21] You complete me. [10:24] You see because what is unfolded in those few words is a complete reality of what we [10:32] believe we’re finding when we find the one.

[10:39] As we think that we’ve found a savior, we think that we’ve found someone that can fill [10:45] every void in our lives. [10:48] But if you’ve been married for any length of time, at some point he’s going to leave [10:55] his underwear on the ground and you’re going to take a look and you’re going to say oh [11:00] there’s more voids than I ever knew existed.

[11:05] Friends no person can ever complete you. [11:11] I’m speaking specifically to the idea that there’s a romantic love that we’re all going [11:16] to find that’s going to make us whole, that’s going to make us right, that’s going to fix [11:20] all of the wrongs in our life and ultimately if the two of us are together then nothing [11:25] else in the world matters because I’ve got you baby.

[11:32] But no person in this world can handle that type of responsibility.

[11:41] Because that person whether it be male or female is going to at some point disappoint [11:50] you. [11:51] My wife could write more than a trilogy just of the disappointments that she’s gotten out [11:57] of me.

[12:01] The reality is that I was never meant to complete her. [12:05] I was never meant to be her all. [12:08] I was never meant to fill every void in her life nor could she ever have hope for me [12:16] to do that nor should I ever have hope for her to do that. [12:19] So what do you do in the moment that you come up with that reality and you all hit it usually [12:25] in about month two?

[12:29] Well what our culture teaches us to do is to find it somewhere or in someone else because [12:39] maybe you’re just falling out of love.

[12:43] If love is so iffy then friends it’s not worth investing in because it’s always going [12:52] to be this intangible and subjective thing that you can never hope to reach and you [12:57] can never hope to get. [13:00] Relationships are ruined when we make it all about the wrong kind of love. [13:09] Too often when we talk about love we aren’t talking about what is written in these verses. [13:14] What we’re talking about is something that’s just based on how I felt when I woke up that

[13:18] morning. [13:20] See culture will often give us and tell us to load all of our significance in this life [13:27] in romance or any other aspect of romance and if we don’t find that then we’re left [13:33] incomplete so my question is what does that say if you’re single?

[13:40] That you’re not complete until you find love? [13:44] That your life is somehow less than because you don’t have that romantic feeling or that [13:51] romantic experience going on in your life so good luck you’re only half complete at [13:57] best.

[14:01] If that’s true then I would say yeah that is what that means but the good news especially [14:05] if you’re single in here this morning is that that’s a lie because that’s not what love [14:09] is to be based on at all. [14:11] You see culture will give us the feeling that we should reduce our identity to the sum [14:18] of our sexual desires because that is where we find significance.

[14:24] Music will lead you there, movies will lead you there but God will not lead you there. [14:31] Your identity cannot be reduced to the sum of your sexual desire. [14:36] Don’t believe that lie. [14:39] Your identity was meant to be found in something that’s objective, something that’s fact and [14:44] quite frankly someone that is unchanging and that person and that being is God. [14:50] He is the one that defines your identity.

[14:53] He is the one that defines your meaning and your purpose and he is the only one that [14:58] can ever give you absolute completion. [15:02] So if you are single, if you are married, if you’re struggling somewhere in the flux [15:06] of all of that then let me give you the good news this morning is that the good news is [15:11] is that you are not created by God to find your significance in someone or something [15:16] else rather you are created by God to find your purpose, your meaning, your identity

[15:21] in the sum total of who you are as a person and who he is, has been and always will be [15:30] because God is love.

[15:35] He is the one that you are looking for and he is the one that can give you hope in every [15:40] moment because look at what verse 7 says there towards the end of it. [15:45] It says that whoever loves has been born of God.

[15:53] So that tells us something very important about who we are but more than what kind of [15:57] love we need to give and what type of love we need to get. [16:00] We need to give and get the kind of love that only God has and he says that if you [16:06] love for real it’s because you know God. [16:12] It’s because you have been born of him. [16:14] It’s because he has completed you and then down in verse 8 he tells us that if we miss

[16:20] God we will never find what love really is but the fact is that God has made it abundantly [16:28] clear who he is, what he does, how he defines love so that you won’t miss it. [16:35] Note what he begins to say there in verse 9 he says in this the love of God has been [16:44] known.

[16:47] What this is then is very important.

[16:52] The this that he is talking about is God the Son, Jesus Christ. [16:58] You see when we think we have found what it is that we are looking for and we embrace [17:05] the love of our life, the one that we found and it disappoints us or it hurts us or it [17:10] gives us great pain. [17:12] Tim Keller writes that we have four responses to that type of experience that we will typically [17:18] have.

[17:19] The first response that we will have in that disappointment is that we will blame the thing [17:24] or the person and we will live our lives in deep rooted resentment.

[17:32] Or secondly we blame ourselves. [17:36] It’s like I must have done something wrong. [17:39] I’m no good. [17:40] I don’t deserve love. [17:42] This is all my fault. [17:46] Or thirdly we just blame the world.

[17:49] The world is tilted against me. [17:53] This is a karmic thought. [17:55] It’s really the first two honing in on you. [18:00] There’s a fourth option.

[18:03] That is to reorient the focus of your life on God. [18:08] That’s what he is talking about when he says in this the love of God is known. [18:14] He wants to reorient the vision of your life onto himself and off of that person or that [18:23] thing, off of you, off of the world because those are the things that you are trying to [18:29] find your identity in, that you are trying to find satisfaction in, whether it be a [18:34] person, whether it be money, whether it be success, whether it be a feeling.

[18:38] You are attempting to find in other things what God created you to only find in him.

[18:45] And he gives it through Jesus. [18:48] Look again in verse 9 when he says in this the love of God has been made manifest, it’s [18:52] been known among us clearly that God sent his only son into the world so that we might [19:00] live through him. [19:01] In this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son to [19:15] be a propitiation for sin.

[19:20] You see friends the reality that the apostle John wants you to understand this morning [19:25] is that there is a pathway that God has made himself known and that God wants to bring [19:30] you back from finding all of your satisfaction in other things, other people, even yourself [19:35] and he wants to bring you into a relationship with him where he will forgive all of your [19:40] sins, forgive all of your wrongdoing, forgive all of your false pursuits for love and bring [19:45] you home to a reconciled relationship with him where you can find completion, where

[19:50] you can find wholeness, where you can find what love really is and you can have confidence [19:56] that that love will never change and never end. [20:01] But the problem with that is that you have got to admit that you have got a problem.

[20:08] In John chapter 5 Israel had a real problem. [20:12] You see Jesus was right there in front of them. [20:15] I mean he is right there. [20:17] We constantly say well Jesus if you would just come here and tell me yourself it would [20:20] be different. [20:21] Well he did that and it wasn’t really much different.

[20:23] Here is what he says in John chapter 5. [20:26] Jesus speaking to the nation that he loved. [20:28] He says you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. [20:34] See they even took something that God gave them so that he would know him and they just [20:39] said well we have got it so that is what love is. [20:43] Never looking past the word to the writer of the word.

[20:47] He says then it is they that bear witness about me yet you refuse to come to me that [20:53] you may have life. [20:55] I do not receive glory from these people but I know that you do not have the love of God [21:00] within you. [21:01] See that is the turning point.

[21:05] When you have thrown your life into all types of false loves and Jesus comes right in front [21:09] of you and he says you don’t have the love of God in you. [21:13] You need it from me. [21:16] Are you willing to admit that?

[21:19] See because what you are looking for may not be what God is offering because you may be [21:23] looking for unconditional love. [21:27] But the fact of the matter is what Jesus tells us is that you need conditional love. [21:32] That is number 2 this morning. [21:35] Unconditional love does not exist. [21:39] Only conditional love actually exists and you need conditional love terribly bad.

[21:47] You say that does not make any sense to me so I need the type of love that is going [21:51] to be based on conditions that I cannot meet. [21:55] Absolutely it is the best kind of love that exists. [21:58] Only if all the conditions are met of course. [22:02] But friends that is the good news of the gospel.

[22:06] See unconditional love does not exist. [22:09] Maybe in your dog.

[22:12] But do you really want the kind of love that only a dog has to offer? [22:16] I don’t think so. [22:17] Some of you maybe but you are wrong.

[22:20] The reality this morning is that you have never received unconditional love and you [22:24] have never given anyone unconditional love. [22:28] Fact of the matter is that a love worth finding, a love worth having and a love worth keeping [22:33] is all based on conditional love and God’s love does have conditions.

[22:42] I mean isn’t that what the scriptures are? [22:44] In the Old Testament we get a huge list of conditions. [22:49] Then Jesus comes and we are like yes Jesus brought unconditional love and then Jesus [22:54] himself says if you love me then you will obey me. [22:57] Conditions!

[23:02] So everywhere you look in scripture from Genesis to Revelation you find all of these conditions [23:07] and it can become overwhelming. [23:11] Because you say over and over oh my goodness I read this I look at I search it back and [23:17] forth and all I am finding is how I don’t measure up. [23:21] How is that possibly good news?

[23:28] I will tell you if it was left to you it would be terrible news. [23:34] It would be the worst news ever because what it would mean is that every one of us deserves [23:38] for God to be very wrathful and angry at us and to punish us because we have not met [23:44] his conditions.

[23:46] But it is good news if someone has met them for us and that is what Jesus has to offer. [23:53] You see the gospel of Jesus Christ or the good news of Jesus Christ is why conditional [24:00] love is good news. [24:02] Because when Jesus came to this earth he did not come with anything to prove. [24:08] Do you understand that about Jesus? [24:10] He had always existed.

[24:12] I mean he spoke things that didn’t exist into existence. [24:18] So coming to this world and living as one of us was a step down. [24:23] It was not a step up. [24:26] Feeding the five thousand didn’t exhaust him. [24:30] He can do anything. [24:32] So the reality is that Jesus came for a different purpose.

[24:36] He didn’t come to impress. [24:38] Jesus came to meet the standards of love. [24:42] Jesus came to define love for you. [24:45] Jesus came to forgive. [24:48] See because there are two groups of people in here right now. [24:51] There is the group of people that are hoping that I will say your actions don’t matter

[24:54] and God will give you all of the love that you ever needed and it never matters what [24:58] you do. [24:59] But there is another group in here that is terrified that I am going to make people [25:02] feel like they don’t have to do anything to get God’s love. [25:06] The second group should be terrified because that is what I am going to say.

[25:11] You don’t need to do anything to get God’s love.

[25:15] Jesus has done everything that will ever need to be done for you to have the love of God. [25:21] That is why it is called good news. [25:24] Yeah, Jesus said I have come for judgment and then he took the judgment.

[25:32] You see Jesus did come to judge and he came to be judged for us. [25:39] You see the conditions of God’s love are good for us because Jesus comes and he makes it [25:45] crystal clear what love is. [25:46] Look at what he says in Matthew chapter 22 in what is called the great commandment. [25:50] He recites something from Deuteronomy which is in the Old Testament. [25:54] He said,

[26:07] So he sums up everything that was ever written in the Old Testament. [26:10] He says you need to love God with everything that you are and you need to love other people.

[26:15] And in those two commandments he finds us all bankrupt.

[26:20] Because you have not loved God with every fiber of your being. [26:25] He says everything, everything that you are, love God and then also love other people. [26:31] You blew it there too.

[26:35] You probably blew it on the way here.

[26:38] Remember when that guy cut you off or you cut that guy off? [26:41] You blew it. [26:43] Hopefully you didn’t have a Jesus fish.

[26:51] The problem is, is what Jesus is telling us in this text is that everything about love [26:57] and everything about life needs to be oriented towards God. [27:03] And that we point our lives towards God and then as we do that we will live for him, we [27:10] will love with him and we will become like him. [27:14] And then in becoming like him we will then live as Jesus lived loving others so much [27:21] so to the point that he sacrifices his very life.

[27:25] Is there anything about love God? [27:26] Love other people. [27:27] And then we blew it. [27:28] So Jesus steps in and then in John 15 he says this. [27:31] He says you want to know what the greatest love that has ever existed is? [27:34] Greater love has no one than this.

[27:36] Someone lay his life down for his friends. [27:39] See in both of those texts Jesus sums up exactly what he came here to do. [27:46] He came here to love God the Father with every fiber of his being. [27:51] He came here to love people with everything that he is and then he came through loving [27:57] people to give his life for you. [28:02] And then he says that’s love.

[28:05] And so it’s not some unknown, mystical, subjective feeling. [28:09] Instead it is found and defined in who Jesus is. [28:14] He loved us when we refused to love him. [28:17] He sought us when we refused to seek him. [28:20] And he died for us when we refused to live for him. [28:26] In Jesus love is abundantly clear.

[28:32] And then in his life he became what John says there in verse 10. [28:40] The propitiation for our sins.

[28:45] This verse right here is why you don’t need unconditional love.

[28:53] This verse right here is why you need the conditions that God places on love because [28:58] it’s only when you surrender your life to the reality that you haven’t met the conditions [29:03] that you will see the greatness of what Jesus offers in 1 John 4 10. [29:08] That term propitiation is a term that we don’t use much in this life so I want to make it [29:12] very simple. [29:14] It is a way to be taken from God’s wrath to God’s favor.

[29:20] And that is what Jesus offers. [29:23] And that is what he did on the cross. [29:25] That he put himself out there and said I the perfect son of God who’s never sinned, never [29:34] broken the law, has met every condition that God ever put on love, I will pay the penalty [29:41] for everyone else’s sin.

[29:46] And when he took that penalty he made it possible for me to go from a place where I deserve [29:53] the penalty to a place where I just get all of the favor.

[29:59] I’m completely forgiven. [30:01] I’m completely loved. [30:03] Not because of anything I’ve done, not because of anything I’m doing, not because of anything [30:06] I’ll ever do, but because of everything that Jesus has done in laying his life down for [30:12] me. [30:12] If you need a love that is conditional you will only find it in Jesus Christ and it will

[30:19] change everything. [30:21] It will change your life if you really have it. [30:26] So the point number three this morning, the reality is that if you get God’s love you [30:31] will give God’s love. [30:33] If you get God’s love you will give God’s love. [30:36] And I mean that in two different ways.

[30:38] If you get it, in other words, if you receive it, but then also if you get it, if you understand [30:47] it, if you comprehend it, if you lay the vision for your life on it, if you get God’s [30:54] love you have no other response than to give God’s love. [30:59] It’s the only possible reaction. [31:01] But it starts with understanding that to love properly you must first love God. [31:06] To love properly you must first love God.

[31:10] The root of love is found in knowing God and that is what Jesus gives us. [31:16] He reconciles us to Himself through what He did on the cross, dying for our sins, and [31:22] then He restores our relationship with God through the resurrection. [31:27] And in doing all of that we can trust Him. [31:32] We can put our faith in Him. [31:34] We can put our hope in Him.

[31:36] But then when you do that you will understand that trusting is always found in following. [31:42] Trusting is always found in going in the same direction that He’s in. [31:49] See because without Jesus you can’t really love because God is love and so if you don’t [31:54] have Jesus then you don’t have God and if you don’t have God then you don’t have love. [31:59] If you don’t have Jesus you can’t really forgive because what the cross gives us is [32:05] an objective thing to do with other people’s sin.

[32:09] So what do you do when someone hurts you? [32:11] Do you just sweep it under the rug to bring out next year when they offend you again? [32:17] Well if you’re a Christian, if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, when other people harm you, [32:23] when other people hurt you, you have a real basis for forgiveness because you can say [32:28] Jesus took that sin, Jesus took that offense that’s been done to me, that’s been done [32:33] against me and He died for it.

[32:35] Therefore if He can forgive surely I can forgive. [32:40] It’s a real basis for forgiveness. [32:42] If you don’t know Jesus then you can’t really correct someone else because the only real [32:50] life change is found in who Jesus is because He’s the definition of what real life is. [32:55] He’s the definition of what real hope is and He’s the definition of what it means to correct [33:00] someone legitimately.

[33:05] But you can forgive because Jesus died for all sin. [33:11] You can love because Jesus gives you love and you can correct because Jesus corrected [33:16] you. [33:18] See in every spot of what real life is and what real life is all about Jesus gives you [33:25] a philosophy within which to actually work off of. [33:29] And if love is only found in God then that is the type of love that needs to define your

[33:36] very existence. [33:38] Note what the apostle John said in the next letter that he wrote, 2 John verse 6. [33:43] He says, and this is love that we walk according to His commandments. [33:47] This is the commandment, just as you heard from the beginning, so you should walk in [33:52] it.

[33:55] He’s further fleshing out what it means to actually love God and follow God. [34:01] That when your life is pointed towards God you will be able to walk in a life of actually [34:09] loving yourself, actually loving God, and actually loving other people. [34:16] But to love you must lead others to God. [34:21] To love you must lead others to God. [34:26] Note that down there in 1 John chapter 4 if you look down in verse 12 he says, no one

[34:32] has ever seen God. [34:34] If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. [34:41] See in 2 John he says that the loving life for you to live is that you follow the commandments [34:47] of God. [34:49] Then at the end of this section on 1 John chapter 4 in verse 12 he tells us that if [34:54] you have God, even though people haven’t actually seen God, His love abides in you and then

[35:01] as you obey, as you follow His commandments, His love is perfected in your life. [35:09] That’s a pretty high calling.

[35:12] That’s a pretty tough calling. [35:14] But it’s a calling that is real and is possible in Jesus. [35:19] You see since love is only found in Him, loving others is always about getting others to [35:25] Him. [35:27] See because it’s not your love that’s being perfected in this life. [35:32] Because it’s not about you.

[35:35] It’s God’s love that’s to be perfected in this life. [35:39] Therefore you must make your life all about showing the love of God to others. [35:48] Because 1 John 3 14, he said one chapter previous, he says, we know that we have passed out [35:54] of death into life because we love the brothers. [35:58] Whoever does not love abides in death. [36:02] Love is not about making you feel good.

[36:07] See friends, the reality is that in 1 John 3 14 he says that if we’ve been given love [36:13] by God, our natural reaction will be to love other people for God. [36:19] And with His love. [36:22] We will start by loving what he calls the brothers, other followers of Jesus. [36:27] But then we will take that love and try to make everyone else a follower of Jesus. [36:34] Rick Warren summarizes the Bible’s teaching on love in the 3 areas about your life.

[36:42] How do you perfect the love of God? [36:46] How do you live a life in which the love of God is perfected in you? [36:52] First thing that you do is become more like Christ. [36:56] Become more like Christ. [36:57] Wait a second, so it starts with me doing something that only has to do with me? [37:01] No, it doesn’t have anything to do with you, it has everything to do with Christ.

[37:05] You look at the commandments that he says, you look at how he has defined life, you [37:10] put the burden of it on his word and you say, I want to be what this word, what his commandments [37:17] tell me that I need to be about in life. [37:21] And you become more about the Christ, you become more about his mission, you become [37:26] more about who he is and less about what you are, less about what you need, less about [37:32] what you want, less about what you get out of everyone else and you become more like

[37:37] Christ because when you become more like Christ it will lead you to the second thing. [37:42] The second thing is to serve others like Christ. [37:46] To serve others like Christ. [37:49] If it’s one thing that Jesus did when he was on this world that we can really be clear [37:54] about, is that he made his life about other people.

[37:59] He made it his mission to serve others. [38:04] I mean, look at the miracles alone that Jesus did while he was on this earth. [38:09] Can you imagine being the recipient of one of those miracles where the God of the universe [38:12] makes the blind to see? [38:14] The God of the universe made your meal appear out of nowhere? [38:17] Or if you’re one of his disciples, the very God of the universe on his hands and knees

[38:25] washing your feet.

[38:28] See, we love to complicate this so that we never have enough time, we never have enough [38:33] options, we never have enough things that we can do to actually serve others, but the [38:37] reality is that none of us are creating enough margin in our lives so that we can do something [38:41] simple like serve our neighbor.

[38:47] Serve others. [38:48] And then thirdly, it’s about telling others about Christ.

[38:56] So when you become like Christ and when you serve like Christ, inevitably you’ll tell [39:01] others about Christ. [39:05] You’ll tell others of the mission that he came to complete, that he came to fulfill, [39:11] that he came to give. [39:14] In Matthew chapter 28, another disciple of Jesus wrote, and Jesus, as he’s leaving this [39:19] earth, he looks at his disciples and he says, go make other disciples.

[39:26] Go, tell others about me. [39:29] The very term gospel means good news, which means that you talk about it. [39:34] You tell others about who Jesus is. [39:37] You live for Christ. [39:41] You live to sacrifice everything because you’ve been given love, therefore you can give love.

[39:48] Friends, the truth that we need to understand this morning is because there’s always a [39:53] temptation at the end of something like this for us to say, well, that sounds good, but [39:57] I think love is dot, dot, dot. [40:01] One of my major themes this morning is it doesn’t matter what you think love is. [40:06] Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what I think love is. [40:09] It only matters what God thinks love is and knows what love is because he is love.

[40:17] The good news is that you don’t have to think anymore. [40:21] You can know. [40:23] You can settle. [40:25] You can put your anchor into the God who is the very definition of love because that is [40:31] what God has given us scriptures to know. [40:34] Friends, love always points to God because God has shown us what love is through Jesus.

[40:44] Trust him and receive a life of love that you will then be able to give to others because [40:53] you will never, ever be able to spend all of it. [40:58] As the band comes up, I want you to understand this morning that this ultimately is what [41:08] we call the Lord’s Supper is all about. [41:11] Here at Village Church, we reflect on the Lord’s Supper every single week and it’s [41:17] because it brings us face to face with what God’s love is for us.

[41:25] When we drink the cup, that represents the fact that Jesus loved us to the extent that [41:31] he shed his own blood for us. [41:33] When we eat the bread, we celebrate the fact that Jesus loved us to the extent that his [41:38] body was broken for us.

[41:43] And then when we turn around from that table, what we have is a proclamation that we are [41:53] people who need love.

[41:57] But we’ve eaten, we’ve drinking.

[42:01] When we turn around, we know that we’ve received love. [42:06] The only place that you can possibly find it is Jesus. [42:10] And so if you believe that this morning, there are four stations up front, three in the back. [42:17] I want to invite you to come, eat, drink, be filled with the love of God. [42:23] And then as you do it, I want it to serve as a proclamation that you will then go and [42:30] give it to a world that needs it.

[42:34] When you’re ready, come.