The Truth About Love - Part 4
Written by Ed Allen
Sunday, 02 November 2008 09:00
Get In The Mix - Christian Community
Sermon Notes
Love's ultimate goal is to point people toward God.
1 John 4:7-11 (The Message)
7-10My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.
11-12My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
When we consistently choose to make pointing others toward God, the goal of our love, we build community.
Community: a group of people who live the life of Jesus with and for one another, sharing their lives and resources in a way that is loving, interdependent and radically open to others.
Outline
1. The source of love is God.
2. More that that, when we talk about love, we're talking about God.
3. The goal of our love should be to point others toward God
- Ephesians 5:25-27 – “25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
- The goal of our love is not warm fuzzies.
- Our love will present itself as a sour tasting fruit unless we keep the goal of our love in mind.
- Our love is not about us at all!
Interview with Kevin Toczko