Good evening, Church – joy to be with you tonight.
If you have a Bible open up to 1 John 4 – focusing on verse 16 tonight…
• A few weeks ago in our ABF class we covered a chapter on the Love of God by JI Packer… by the way… young adults that aren’t involved in a class or looking for a class here’s a shameless plug to come join us on Sunday mornings…
• But since going through that chapter, there have been things heavy on my heart and mind about the love of God – so that’s part of background to coming to this text tonight… I’ll quote Packer a few times from that chapter…
• But the aim is to see what Scripture says about this often misunderstood, misapplied topic…
• And to see this topic, as laid out in Scripture… should lead believers to rejoice…
I John 4 – focus on 16 but we’ll read the surrounding verses to hear the broader context…
READ 1 John 4:7-21 and PRAY…
INTRO:
• God is love. That phrase is stated twice in the passage we just read.
• What is your response when you hear the phrase… “God is love”… or the phrase – “God loves you”?
• I asked that same question to the young adults and one of them said… “… hesitant”… “cautious… a bit on edge”…
• Not exactly what you’d expect from a believer.… but I actually think that reaction is represented by many faithful believers today… and with good reason.
• He wasn’t saying he was hesitant to believe God is love..
• That wasn’t the issue…
• That was his reaction… because the doctrine of God’s love is so… ABUSED in our culture.. that when he hears someone say “God is love”… there’s a pause… a question…
• Where is this coming from and where is it leading…
• Favorite verse about God from those who refuse to accept God’s standards..
• Pastor had said in the past two weeks, and at our high school graduation as well…
• Lost world doesn’t really want you to love them, they want you to agree with them…
• Not just that they don’t want to love them… that’s how they define love.. as acceptance… permission… agreement.
• And there is a good impulse in that response…
• The Abuse of doctrine… the abuse of truth.. is something we MUST be on guard against..
• That is true… where doctrine is abused we need to recognize it…
• But sometimes we can so preoccupied with the abuse of a doctrine that we fail to rejoice in the truth of a doctrine.
• When is the last time you’ve seen something in rainbow colors and your first reaction was rejoicing in remembering God’s gracious covenant to Noah..
• And the reason is… the vast majority of the time, the use of that symbol represents rebellion against God…
• Or when was the last time you heard someone say “Judge not, lest you be judged” – and your FIRST though was…
• I really do need to evaluate my heart for hypocrisy..
• That same reaction can happen when we talk about the love of God…
•
• We hear… God LOVES you…
• Can almost want to hit the pause button..
• And again.. with good reason…
• We need hit pause… make sure everything is faithful, Biblical, accurate….
• But then we gotta hit play button and rejoice in this truth…
Our passage tonight gives us three realities about the love of God that are true for every believer..
Every believer – knows God’s love… believes God’s love… and Reflects God’s love…
First… every believer KNOWS the love of God
• KNOWS the Love of God