God's Love Story 1 John 3&4

Amy

Born 16 December 1867

4 Golden Globe

Awards for

i. Best Actress -Drama Film,

ii. Best Director -Film,

iii. Best Screenplay -Motion Picture,

iv. Best Drama Film

1 Academy Award for

Original Music Score

1 John 3:11-24 11 This is the message you heard from the

beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil

one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.

13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.

14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.

1 John 3:11-24 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a

murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

1 John 3:11-24 19 This then is how we know that we

belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence

20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God

22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him.

1 John 3:11-24

23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

1 John : Summary

3 L’s of 1 John

God is ...

LIGHT (6)

LOVE (46)

LIFE (18)

1 John - Recap God is LIGHT

1 John 1:5 “God is light”

Light is a symbol of Purity / Holiness

Light also Reveals ....

–our true self “Knowing & Making Known”

–the ways of the world “The Christian and the World”

–false teachers and teachings : “Do Not Drink the Kool Aid”

1 John 4:7-5:3

God is LOVE

• 1 John 4:8, 16 “God is love”

What does that mean ??

God = Love OR Love = God ??

Strangers

Best Friends

‘In Love’

Friends

Boyfriend/ Girlfriend

Heartbreak

1 John 4:7-5:3

God is LOVE

• 1 John 4:8, 16 “God is love”

What does that mean ??

God = Love OR Love = God ??

“Love does not define God,

but God defines Love.”

1 John 4:7-5:3

1 John 4:7-8 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for

love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Love comes from God Love BEGINS with God Love BEGINS from God GOD IS LOVE

“GOD IS LOVE” Not just a statement of doctrine in the Bible ?

It is much more than that :

–An eternal fact

–Clearly demonstrated at Calvary

–God has done something for us

–God is saying something to us

–& God is still DOING & SAYING ...

1 John 4:9-10

9 This is how God showed his love among us: He SENT HIS ONE AND ONLY SON INTO THE WORLD that we might live through him.

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and SENT HIS SON as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

GOD showed His Love

He sent His Son - Jesus Christ, the best demonstration of God’s love...

HE Shows LOVE

1 John 4:9-10

9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world THAT WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM.

10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as AN ATONING SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS.

We are to RECEIVE HIS Love

In Receiving His Love –

We have Salvation

We Receive

LOVE

1 John 4:11

11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

We love others ...

Consequence of God’s Love for us

1 John 4:12-16

12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13 We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

1 John 4:12-16

He CHOOSE to live in us ...

He gives the INDWELLING HOLY SPIRIT AS A SIGN of Him living in us.

1 Cor 6:19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?

We Show LOVE

Summary :

God is Love

God SHOWS His love for us

We RECEIVE God’s Love

God comes & dwells within us

Holy Spirit’s Presence

WE ARE TO SHOW FORTH THE LOVE WE HAVE RECEIVED ...

OUR LIFE MUST REFLECT THE GOD WITHIN

The Drama of Life

Is It Possible ? 1 John 3:16-18 16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ

laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

"Rev. and Dear Sir: I have often been struck with the beauty of the passage of Scripture quoted in your

letter,

but I must confess that I never saw such a useful

‘EXPOSITORY NOTE’ on it before."

Samuel Bradburn

"Dear Sammy: ‘trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.’ Attached to the letter was £5

John Wesley

Is It Possible ?

1 John 3:17

If anyone

has material possessions

and sees his brother in need

but has no pity on him,

how can the love of God be in him?

Amy Carmichael:

“You can give without loving

But you cannot love without giving”

• Young Indian temple children

• When asked what drew them to Amy,

• “It was love. Amma (Amy) loved us.”

Amy Carmichael: • Amy when asked : "What

is missionary life like?" • Her reply, "Missionary

life is simply a chance to die.“

Her example as a missionary inspired others (including Jim & Elisabeth Elliot) to pursue a similar vocation

John 13:34-35 34 "A new command I give you:

Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Mark 12:30-31 30 “Love the Lord your God with all

your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

31 The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these."

1 John 4:12, 17

12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (his love is perfected in us ESV, NKJV)

17 In this way, LOVE IS MADE COMPLETE AMONG US...

COMPLETE or

PERFECT ...

COMPLETE

1 John 4:17

17 In this way, love is made complete among us...

so that we will have CONFIDENCE ON THE DAY OF JUDGMENT, because in this world we are like him.

CONFIDENCE

COMPLETE CONFIDENCE

1 John 4:18-19

18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19 We love because he first loved us.

PEACE WITHIN

1 John 4:20-21

20 If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.

21 And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

PEACE WITHOUT

COMPLETE CONFIDENCE

PEACE : WITHIN WITHOUT

Standard Vs Optional

BENEFIT • Coming & Accepting

what God has done for us

• thus receiving

–Forgiveness

–Salvation

–Sonship

PRIVILEGE • Being a Disciple

• Cont. to Experience what God can do in us.

– Fellowship & Relationship

– Leading & Guidance

–Being an Instrument of God to love & touch others

“If” by Amy Carmichael • If I have no compassion on my

fellow servant, even as my Lord had pity on me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

• If I can easily discuss the shortcomings and the sins of any; if I can speak in a casual way even of a child’s misdoings, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“If” by Amy Carmichael

• If I can enjoy a joke at the expense of another; if I can in any way slight another in conversation, or even in thought, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

• If I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“If” by Amy Carmichael

• If I put my own good name before the other’s highest good, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

• If I myself dominate myself, if my thoughts revolve around myself, if I am so occupied with myself, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

“If” by Amy Carmichael

• If I say, "Yes, I forgive, but I cannot forget," as though the God, who twice a day washes all the sands on all the shores of all the world, could not wash such memories from my mind, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

• If souls can suffer alongside, and I hardly know it, because the spirit of discernment is not in me, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

Today I want to be a beneficiary of God’s Amazing Love for me.

I am already a beneficiary of God’s Love –

Help me to know my privileges as your child and live them out.

I already know my benefits & privileges – Help me Lord to complete your “Love Story” by loving someone into your Kingdom,