You know, I was contemplating, it's hard to believe it's been a little over a year since Pastor Mark and Jill have been serving on our staff. They came in January, a year ago, and I am so thankful that God has brought them our way. And Pastor Mark has done just a marvelous, marvelous job with our teens. I'm so thankful that he is a capable, careful preacher. He's careful with the word of God. I'm so thankful for that. Mark, you come. and open up the Word of God and preach to us tonight. Let me go ahead and ask you, if you have your Bible tonight, to go ahead and open it to the book of 1 John, in chapter 3. And I am very appreciative of Pastor Curtis and all that he's done for me in the past year, myself and Jill included, and I am very appreciative that he is willing to share the pulpit with Pastor Bishop and I and to afford us the privilege of participating in this specific series on the book of 1 John. I was asked just before the service whether or not I was on deck for preaching tonight, and I said yes. And you know, I was thinking about that. I don't know how Pastor Bishop feels, but anytime I get up here and I'm up to bat, so to speak, I just hope I don't strike out, all right? Lord, I don't need a home run. I just need, you know, maybe a single would be good, all right? But I am excited about the privilege of speaking tonight, and I hope that we will learn much from God's Word tonight. We're in chapter 3 of 1 John, and we're going to be looking specifically at verses 11 through 18. And this is really a jam-packed passage, so we're going to have to keep moving tonight. And what I'd like us to do is we're going to read our text right off the bat. And then I'm going to open in a word of prayer. I will introduce the message. And then we will basically go through the text, just exposit all the way through it. And what I really want to get to is the end, which is where we will be spending some time applying this to our life, I think, to some very practical application from our text. So that's kind of where we're going tonight. But let's begin by turning to God's word itself. In 1 John chapter 3, let's begin in verse 11. where John says this, for this is the message that we have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. "'Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, "'and slew his brother. "'And wherefore slew he him? "'Because his own works were evil, "'and his brother's righteous. "'Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. "'We know that we have passed from death unto life, "'because we love the brethren. "'He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. "'Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. "'And you know that no murderer hath eternal life "'abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But who so hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. Father, I pray that you would take these words, Lord, would you speak them to our heart this evening in an extremely convicting manner. Lord, would you send your Holy Spirit and would you allow him to change us tonight, to transform us to be more like your son, Jesus Christ, for it's in his name we pray and ask these things, amen. You know, the statement is often made that there are only two kinds of people in the world. And usually that statement is followed by a variety of other statements. Let me give you some examples tonight. It has been said that there are two kinds of people in the world. There are those who stop to think, and there are those who stop thinking. You know, it's a pretty true statement if you stop to think about it. Let me give you another example tonight. It's been said that there are two kinds of people in the world. There are those who cheer for the New England Patriots, and there are those who cheer for inferior teams, right? I mean, that's just how it is. And if I need to be miked again to say it again, I'll say it again. Those who cheer for the New England Patriots, those who cheer for inferior teams, that's just how it is. I understand that's not a popular example tonight, so let me move to my third example. I think it'll be more enjoyable to you tonight, all right? Thirdly, it's been said that there's three kinds of people in the world. There are those who are good at math, and there are those who are not. And there are also two kinds of people in the room. There are those who understood that last example and those who did not. But either way, that's OK. But I say all that to say this, in 1 John 3, according to the apostle John, really there are two kinds of people in the world. And I want you to see where John says this. And it's in verse 10, the closing verse of the last passage we covered. And John says this in chapter 3, verse 10. In this, the children of God are manifest and the children of the devil. So according to John, there are two kinds of people in the world. There are children of God and there are children of the devil. Now John tells us in that verse, he says that both of these categories are manifest. In other words, they are plainly recognized. They are easy to spot. I could put it this way. They are as easy to spot as a New England Patriots fan living in Indianapolis. And by the way, you know how you can spot that, right? It's because the Patriots fan still has something to cheer for in January, all right? I'll stop, OK? I promise. That's the last one. I sit there, and I take it all the time, and I finally get up here. Just got to get it off my chest, so. But here's the point that I try to make with that. John says there's two kinds of people in the world, and according to John, they're easily spotted. You can pick them out in the crowd. And you know what? Two weeks ago, when Pastor brought the last message, we saw that the contrast between the children of God and the children of the devil is the difference between a life of righteousness and a life of sin. In other words, what we learned in the last passage was that children of the devil are characterized by a life of regular and habitual sin. And on the other hand, children of God are characterized by a life of regular and habitual righteousness. And you know, we're going to see another contrast in our text tonight. John likes these contrasts. And this time, what we're gonna see is that the contrast between the children of God and the children of the devil is not this time a difference between righteousness and sin, this time it's a difference between love and hatred. And really, John boils down this contrast to the difference between two individual people. And as the title of our message tonight clearly reveals, those two people are Cain and Christ. One proved himself to be a sinful son of the devil, while the other proved himself to be the sinless son of God. One was consumed with selfish hatred for his brother, while the other was consumed with self-sacrificing love for his brethren. One took the life of another so that he himself could live, and the other laid down his life so that others could live. And you know what? There's an all-important question that each and every one of us needs to ask ourselves tonight. And it's a question we're going to ask all throughout the message. Actually, the question comes in two parts. Here's the question. Which one of the two do you belong to? And really, as I mentioned, there's two layers to this question. Let me spell them out for you. The first layer is this. It's that you do permanently belong to either one of these two groups. In this very moment, in the seat that you sit tonight, you are either currently a child of the devil like Cain, or you are a child of God in Christ. And let me just pause to say that if there is any uncertainty in your heart as of to your status in this regard, that uncertainty can be done away with tonight. And I pray that it will be. And so that's one layer of the question, but the other layer is this. It's that though we permanently belong to Christ, and I would say probably the majority of us in the room tonight do permanently belong to Christ, all too frequently, we do not act like it. You see, the reality is that even children of God can display the same selfish hatred that Cain did in his life. So who do you belong to tonight? Are you a child of the devil or are you a child of God? And if you are a child of God, let's take it one step further. Who do you act like most? Are you like Cain or are you like Christ? And I believe we're going to see the answer to that, or the passage we're in is going to help us develop our answer to that. So let's jump right into our text. 1 John 3, beginning in verse 11, John says, Let's pause there. What message is John talking about here? Well, we're not gonna take the time to do so, but we could go back to chapter one in verse five, and we actually find John using this exact phrase for the first time, and now he's using it a second time. And in chapter one, verse five, John actually tells us what message he is referring to. And we could go back and read the opening verses of this letter, and what we would find is that John is referring to none other than the gospel message itself. He's talking about the good news of Jesus Christ that we have known since the beginning of our salvation. That's the message he's referring to. And at the end of verse 11, John tells us what kind of action is at the heart of the gospel. It's as if John is saying, you want to know what the gospel is all about? Do you want to know what the essence or the heartbeat of the gospel message is? Well, it's this, end of verse 11, that we should love one another. Sounds easy enough, right? Piece of cake. I mean, how hard is it to just simply love one another? Well, before those thoughts start coming into your mind, let me go ahead and share with you what God's definition of love is from this passage. You see, when God says, love one another, here in this text, he expects this. Here's a definition of love for you tonight. Loving others means making every effort to meet the needs of others, even if it costs you your life. Loving others is making every effort, every effort in your strength and within your realm of ability to meet the needs of another person, even if it costs you your life. Now that doesn't quite sound like a piece of cake anymore, does it? And you know what, in our passage this evening, we're gonna see two individual examples. One who fulfilled this command perfectly. And also we will see one who failed at this command miserably. So let's start with the negative example of Cain. The first thing we're going to see is this, that Cain was full of selfish hatred. We see this in verses 12 through 15. Let's continue reading our text, beginning in verse 11. For this is the message that we have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Now, we know from previous messages that John is writing this letter to Christian people, right? And so on the heels of this exhortation to these Christians in verse 11, he's saying, love one another. He immediately follows it up with these words of warning in verse 12, not as Cain. We could put his words this way, don't be like Cain. And you know what that leads us to an important question, and that is this, what was Cain like? And I believe our passage answers that question tonight by presenting four characteristics of a hateful child of the devil. We're going to move through these characteristics as quick as we can, but John deals with them for a significant piece of this passage. So we want to see the four characteristics of Cain tonight. First of all, notice with me that Cain was an unbeliever. You see, John describes Cain as being of that wicked one. And I think we would agree tonight that the obvious identity of that wicked one is none other than Satan himself. So by this description, John is identifying Cain as a child of the devil. And you know what, I'd like us to just look at one passage tonight really briefly that I think strongly supports this conclusion. And we find it in Matthew chapter five, verses 37 through 39. In this passage, we find Jesus explaining to his disciples the parable of the wheat and the tares. And he says this in verse 37, he that soweth the good seed is the son of man, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom. So here's what Jesus is teaching. There are children of God who are in the world and you know what? They've been sown there, placed there, their origin is with God himself. More specifically, Jesus, the son of man. But then he goes on to describe some other people in the world that are not children of God, that do not have a relationship with God. And he does that at the end of verse 38. He says, but the tares are the children of the wicked one. And who does Jesus identify this wicked one as in verse 39? He says, the enemy that sowed them is the devil. So when John identifies Cain as being of that wicked one, he is clearly identifying John as an unregenerate child of the devil. And so we establish this first characteristic of Cain in order to help us keep in mind that as we look at all the rest of these characteristics of Cain, these are characteristics of an unregenerate child of the devil. These are characteristics of people who live a life of habitual and regular sin. And the point that I want to bring out to us as Christians tonight is that when we, as God's children, display these kinds of characteristics in our life, then really what we're doing is we're acting like unregenerate children of the devil. So, first of all, we see that Cain was an unbeliever. But let's notice the second characteristic, and that is this, that Cain was a murderer. And this is found easily in verse 12. It says, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one and slew his brother. Now we're not going to take the time to do so, but we could turn all the way back to Genesis chapter four. And we could remind ourselves about the chilling details that surrounded the act, the very first act of murder in God's creation. But you know what, the word that John chooses in our text here tonight, we find it translated as slew. This is a very gruesome term. In fact, it was a term that was often used to describe the butchering or the slaughtering of animals. You see, Cain was a child of the devil who heinously murdered his brother Abel. And in a way, Cain was just actively demonstrating the truth that Jesus taught in John 8, 44. You see, in John chapter 8, Jesus is refuting the false claim of a group of unbelieving Jews. These Jews were saying, hey, we're children of God. And Jesus refutes that claim. He says, no, you are not children of God. In fact, according to verse 44, ye are of your father, the devil. You see, Cain was an unregenerate child of the devil. who simply carried out to completion the lusts of his father, the devil. So Cain was an unbeliever. He was a murderer. What's the third characteristic? Well, that's this, that Cain was jealous. After reminding us that Cain was a murderer, John begins to describe to us the process in Cain's life that led him to the point of physically murdering his brother. What led to this point in Cain's life? Well, John asks a question in the middle of verse 12. He says, and wherefore slew he him? Why did Cain murder his brother? Well, John answers that for us. He says, because his own works were evil and his brothers righteous. And here's what I want you to gather from that statement. The seed of murder in the heart of Cain took root in the form of jealousy. The seed of murder in the heart of Cain, it started and it took root with just jealousy. And you know, I liked what James Montgomery Boyce had to say in his commentary. He said this, the ultimate act of murder grew out of a basic heart attitude, an attitude of hate and jealousy. John Stott had this to say in his commentary. He said, jealousy lay behind Cain's hatred, not the jealousy which covets another's greater gifts, but that which resents another's greater righteousness. You see, Cain couldn't stand the fact that his brother's righteousness surpassed his own sinfulness. And this jealousy took root in his heart, and that is what eventually led to the act of murder itself. And you know what? John continues this thought into verse 13. He says this, In other words, he's saying, don't be surprised if unbelievers in the world around you, if they are jealous of you, and if they hate you. And why should we not be surprised? Well, as multiple writers put it, they put it this way, Cain is a prototype of the world. And you see the world thoroughly resents the righteousness of God's people. We see this all the time in our world, don't we? Why are Christians so oppressed and persecuted in our world? Well, it's simply because the world does not like having its sinfulness exposed by the righteousness of God's people. And you know what, this point leads us that this hard attitude that was found in Cain, this jealousy that took root, that eventually led to murder, he resented his brother's greater righteousness, that is the same heart that exists in children of the devil, unbelievers, even in the world today. You see, it's not just isolated to Cain. This is very much present in the world that we live in. Cain was an unbeliever. Cain was a murderer. Cain was jealous. And we need to move on to our fourth characteristic, and that is this, that Cain was empty of love. And you know what? Really, this is just another way of saying that Cain was full of selfish hatred. Because to be full of hatred is the same thing as to be empty of love, right? And you know what the opposite is true? To be full of love is to be empty of hate. And I really think that this is the point that John's trying to make in verse 14. Will you look at it with me? Verse 14 says, we know that we have passed from death unto life. We as Christians, we are not children of the devil anymore. We are not living in death. We have crossed over into life. We're children of God. And how do we know this? How do we know that the love of God is in us? Well, he says it, because we love the brethren. You see, the reason that believers love the brethren is simply because they have already been filled with God's love. But you see Cain had not been filled with God's love and so therefore he was empty of love. And I want you to notice carefully with me what John says at the end of verse 14 into verse 15. He says this, he that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. Now there are a couple of shocking truths embedded into those two statements. You know, first of all, John makes it very clear that there is no middle ground between love and hate. And you know what? This is kind of contrary to the way that we think about love and hate, isn't it? Let me just give you an example. Have you ever heard somebody say before something like this, I don't love him, but I don't hate him either. You ever heard someone say that? Maybe you've said that yourself. You know what I think that reveals is that we have a tendency to think that there's some kind of neutral territory where we can safely choose not to love someone, but we're not to the point of hating them yet. But you know what, according to our text, John says that there's no such territory that exists. So the first shocking truth is this, if we are not loving our brother, then by default, we are hating him. To be empty of love is to be full of hate. To be full of hate is to be empty of love. But you know what? I think the next truth at the beginning of verse 15 is even more shocking to us because John goes on and he says this, if you hate your brother, you are a murderer. That's a shocking statement. But you know what? I think that that statement is only supported by Jesus' own words in Matthew chapter five, verses 21 through 22. What does Jesus say? He said, you have heard that it was said of them of old time, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. You see, to God's way of thinking, murder does not occur with a physical act of violence. Murder occurs with a spiritual thought of hatred. It's not just the act that matters, it's the thought that matters as well. And really even though the consequences may differ between murder in the heart and murder in the hands, what God says is there's really no difference between the two and both are to be held accountable for their actions. Then we come to the end of verse 15. And John says this, he says, And ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. You know what, this may be the most difficult statement in our passage to understand. Does this mean that John is saying that any person who has ever had murderous hatred in their hands or in their heart, that that person will never be able to have eternal life? Is that what John's saying? Well, no. No, John is simply saying that these kinds of people are presently demonstrating that they don't possess eternal life in that moment. You see, John's not denying the fact that through repentance and through faith in Jesus Christ, that these individuals could possibly obtain salvation. But I do believe what John is trying to communicate is very similar to what he was trying to communicate about those who practice sin in our previous passage. You see, two weeks ago, we learned that those who regularly and habitually practice sin, they do not possess eternal life. You know what, I think John's trying to make the same point here about murderous hatred. He's saying that those who regularly and habitually have murderous hatred, even in their heart, those people cannot be assured of salvation. You know what, this is exactly what Cain demonstrated with his hands and in his heart. Cain was full of selfish hatred. And I really think that the reason that John includes this negative example in our text tonight is because Cain is a miserable example of what it means to love one another. Let me just remind you of our definition of love tonight. Loving one another means making every effort to meet the needs of others, even if it costs me my life. But you see what Cain did was the exact opposite. No, Cain didn't make every effort to meet the need of another, even if it cost him his life. You know what Cain did? Cain made every single effort to meet his own needs. And you know what? It came at the cost of his brother's life. And you know what? We've seen an extreme negative example of Cain from this message. And the question that we are asking ourselves throughout the message is this, who do I belong to? Am I a child of the devil like Cain? Or am I a child of God in Christ? And if I'm a child of God in Christ tonight, who do I act like most? Am I like Cain or am I like Christ? And you know what, I think before we can finally answer that question, we need to consider the positive example of Christ. You see, the contrast between the children of God and the children of the devil is a contrast between love and hatred. Cain was full of selfish hatred, but we're going to see next that Christ was full of self-sacrificing love. And you'll find this with me if you look down at your Bibles at verse 16. John shifts his focus away from Cain and hatred, and he focuses it now on Christ and on the topic of love. And he says this, he says, In other words, God is the source of love. And there is a historical event that defines and depicts for us exactly what this love is all about. There is a day in history when God powerfully and perfectly presented to us what gospel love is all about. And that day was the day that Jesus Christ died on the cross. John says this, he, Jesus, laid down his life for us. And you know what? Embedded into that statement is our definition of what it means to love one another. I'll repeat it again. Loving others is making every effort to meet the needs of others, even if it costs you your life. And folks, tonight, that is exactly what Jesus Christ did for you. Jesus, our Savior, sparing no pain, made every effort to make sure that your need for salvation and my need for salvation did not go unmet. You know what? Jesus made every effort to meet the greatest need of the world, and get this, he did it even though it cost him his life. What a contrast in this passage. Do you see it? Cain, he sets a pattern for the children of the devil in all ages. He hated his brother by making every effort to meet his own needs. And you know what? He took the life of his brother. But Jesus, on the other hand, Jesus sets a pattern for the children of God in all ages. And what did he do? He loved his brother by making every effort to meet the needs of others. And you know what? came at the cost of his very life. You know what, John, earlier in the passage, urged his readers to not be like Cain. And here we find John urging his readers and urging us to do just the opposite. He says, don't be like Cain. Instead, be like Christ. Which leads us to a question, how am I? How are we, how are you to be like Christ? And I think our passage gives us two ways tonight. First of all, notice with me that we need to be willing to make the ultimate commitment of self-sacrifice. Let's read verse 16 again. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us and we, ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. How can we be like Christ? We can be willing to self-sacrifice to the extreme. Now, I want to make it very clear tonight that I don't think God is trying to develop in us some kind of a martyr's complex, where we are like unnecessarily going around trying to find ways that we can sacrifice our lives for other people. You know, it's probably unlikely that any of us will really ever be presented with a true opportunity to love one another in this way. But you know what? Perilous times are coming. And if they do, we ought to be willing to lay down our lives for the brethren. And you know what? This very convicting thought came across my mind as I was preparing this message. I'll share it with you tonight. Perhaps the reason that God does not ask many of us to live out the ultimate commitment of self-sacrifice is because we don't even live out the minimal commitment of self-sacrifice. If God expects us to be willing to live out the ultimate commitment of sacrifice, then we must be willing not only to do that, but we got to do something else. We also must be willing to make the minimal commitment of self-sacrifice. Would you look at verses 17 and 18 with me? John says this, but whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. John says, but whoso hath this world's good, You know, I think we are tempted to think that John is here describing somebody who has a fair amount of wealth or maybe many, many assets to be able to be shared with others. But you know what? That's not what the phrase really has in mind. You see, the phrase is actually describing any person who possesses the material means to meet the needs of another person. You know, this could be money. This could be food, this could be time, this could be transportation, this could be a number of things. But John sets up a hypothetical situation for this kind of person. And here's what he's saying. He's saying, if you see that your brother has a legitimate material need, that you have the means of taking care of or of meeting, and you suppress your heart of compassion for that person by refusing to reach out to them and self-sacrificing love, then something's wrong. You see, because a person who has been filled with the love of God, a person who has had his greatest need met through the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, that person should be at least willing to make the minimal commitment to meet the material needs of other people. You know what, finally in verse 18, John stresses that this kind of love demands action. He says, my little children, let us love not in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth. You see tonight, really the message boils down to action on our part. It's not just enough to say that we love one another. No, we must live it out in deed and in truth. Let me ask you this. Aren't you glad that John 3 16 doesn't just say, for God so loved the world and stop there. Aren't you glad that God loved you in deed and in truth? Aren't you glad that God demonstrated his love for you? And even when we were unattractive and undeserving sinners, he did something about it. He died for us. You know, we have some unanswered questions still tonight. First of all, who do you belong to tonight? Are you a child of the devil like Cain or are you a child of God in Christ? You know, maybe you're sitting in your seat tonight and you are under great conviction of the Holy Spirit because you know in your heart that you are not a child of God and your life proves it. You live a life of regular and habitual sin, unrepentant sin. And really your life is more characterized by Cain. It's full of hatred. It's full of making sure your own needs are met rather than meeting anybody else's needs. Maybe that's you tonight. You say, I'm not a child of God. You know what? God can change that tonight. You see, God can replace your sin with righteousness. He can replace your hatred with love. And really, God loves you tonight. He's proved it by the self-sacrificing love of his son, Jesus Christ, on your behalf. You know what, God wants to make you his child tonight. And tonight, you can be saved. I hope and pray that if there's anyone in here in that situation, that you would not leave tonight without getting that uncertainty made certain. And you could come talk to myself, to our pastors, you could talk to any member of this church, and we would be glad to share with you what it means to be a child of God, to be transferred from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of life. To be transformed from a life full of hatred to a life full of love. But you know what, there's another question we've left unanswered tonight. And that is for those of us, the majority of us in the room tonight here, that know that we are children of God. As John says, we know we are children of God because we love the brethren. But you know what? I think we would all admit that we do not perfectly love the brethren like Christ did. And even though we don't practice a life of regular and habitual hatred, From time to time, we do manifest and display the same heart of selfish hatred that Cain did. You see, the tendency of our sinful flesh, yes, we have the spirit within us, but we still fight the flesh. And the tendency of our flesh is to make every effort to meet our own needs, no matter what the cost is. But you know what? The power of the Spirit working in you as a Christian, you know what that means? That means that you can make every effort to meet the needs of other people, no matter what the cost is. So in conclusion tonight, I told you I wanted to make this applicable. I want to make it practical. Just by way of conclusion, I want to address three arenas of life in which we can love one another. Three arenas that we can practically live this out this week. We can be like Christ. We can love one another. What's the first one? Well, I'd submit that we could do this in the world. Now, I understand that John's primary focus in this love one another command is really directed towards how believers treat other believers. But I don't think it excludes the application of how we love the lost around us. In fact, we could make the argument that those who are lost around us in the world, they are the ones with the greatest need to be met. Their greatest need is for salvation. So using this definition of love, how can we make every effort to meet the salvation need of the lost in our community right here on the Southeast side of Indianapolis? How can we do this this week? Let me just give you two specific pointers. First of all, we can sacrifice our time. You know what, we are all busy people. I think we'd all admit that. And that probably we would say that one of the reasons why we don't try to meet the salvation need of people around us is simply because we don't have time for it. We barely have time to do the other things we need to do, let alone be able to do that. But you know what? I would suggest to you tonight that although we are all busy, that we all have some portion of time throughout the week that we would call free time. And you say, what's that? I have no idea what free time is. I don't have any free time. Well, let me just give you examples. We all have time to go out and eat a nice meal at a restaurant. We all have time to occasionally go to the grocery store, to the shopping mall. We all have time to sit down with our families and watch movies or to do other extracurricular events, other athletic events. So we all have some time that we would call as free time. Let me ask you this. Are you willing to sacrifice some of your free time in order to meet the salvation need of the lost? Are you willing to make every effort to meet their need for the gospel? You see, this should be just the minimal commitment that we make in loving the lost. Let me just give you another suggestion. Not only can we sacrifice time, we can sacrifice our home. I know that might sound a little weird to you at first. What do you mean, sacrifice your home? Well, let me explain myself. For most of us, our home is our comfort zone, right? We come home, you have a garage, you pull into the garage, you close the door behind you, and you are in your safe haven, right? It's comfortable. You love the way things are at home. But I want to remind us tonight that just outside the four walls of our comfort zone are neighbors. many of whom have this very need of salvation in their lives. So let me ask you, are you willing to sacrifice your comfort zone in order to reach your neighbors for Christ? To have them into your home? No, I wouldn't bring them into my comfort zone. Yeah, that's what God gave you a home for. We should be making every effort to meet the needs of those in our neighborhood with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can sacrifice our time. We can sacrifice our home. I could list a number of other things, but just some thoughts of how we can love the lost around us. What's the second arena? Let me move on quickly to that. We can love one another in the home. You know what? There are several one another relationships within the home, aren't there? In the home, let me just list several of these for you. First of all, husbands and wives must love one another. You know, for us husbands in the room, we all know that God commands us to love our wives as Christ loved the church. And you know what? That is a very, very heavy and weighty command. Because you know what? Christ loved the church so much that he gave himself for her. Christ made the ultimate commitment of self-sacrifice for the church. And you know what's sad is that many of us husbands, myself included, we struggle to make the minimal commitment of self-sacrifice for our spouse. Let me just give a real down-to-earth, real-life example. If you ever husband's been coming home after a long day of work, it's been a terrible day at the office, you're tired, and you come home and you kind of have your agenda in your mind about how the evening is going to work out. You've got to finish out a little bit of work that was left over from the office. You've got to work on a project around the house, just kind of shore up a couple of things. And then there's a game on at 8 PM that you really want to catch. So you've got your evening planned out. But as you come home, you quickly find that your agenda is in conflict with the agenda of your wife. Maybe she asks you, hey, honey, I need you to run to the store, pick up a last minute ingredient for dinner. And then after that, I need you to unload the dishwasher. I haven't had a chance to get to it all day. And then after that, instead of watching the game, could we watch something that we both want to watch? Does that only go on in my household? And you find this conflict, and you arrive at a point where you've got to make a choice. Am I going to love my spouse as Christ loved the church? Am I going to put her needs before mine and make sure every effort is made that she is taken care of, no matter what it costs? See, we can do this even in the home, husbands and wives. Wives should be loving their husbands in the same way. And I want you to imagine what our marriages would be like if every effort was made to meet the needs of your spouse. What conflict would dissipate? what peace there would be enjoyed in the home. So husbands and wives, just one example. Next example, parents and children must love one another. Let me just take a moment in here to speak to the children in this relationship. Those of you who are still living at home, and for that matter, even if you're not living at home. Children, do you realize how much your parents love you? Do you realize that they make every effort to make sure that your needs are met? And you know what? It costs them a fortune. It does. You know what? Don't you think the least that you can do as children in the home is to love them back? And when I say love, I mean that you love them in deed and in truth. You love with action. Just a couple examples. How about helping dad around the house when he's got a project? Willingly helping dad in the yard. What about volunteering to help mom in the kitchen or to clean up the house or to do the laundry? You know what? We children in here have a responsibility to love one another. And in the home, we can love our parents. But let me move on to the next relationship in the home, and that is siblings. So I'm still talking to you children in the room. Now, this is a relationship where this command is often very desperately hard to obey, right? Because our siblings don't usually give us a lot of reasons to self-sacrifice for them, do they? But you know what, God doesn't tell us to love our brothers and sisters when they deserve it. No, we need to sacrifice for our siblings no matter what. So you siblings, you kids in here with siblings, you need to share the TV and the video games and make sure the needs and the wants and desires of other people are placed before yourself. We need to let them borrow our possessions, our clothes, whatever it is, without making a huge deal about it. We need to put their needs before our own because you know what? That's what Christ did for us. Second arena is in the home. And the third arena is this, it's in the church. And you know what? This is really the main arena that John had in mind while he was writing this letter. And I wanna just suggest to you two ways that we can love one another here at church. First of all, we can sacrifice our money. You know, this is exactly the example that John gives in verse 17 of our passage. He says, if we see that a Christian brother in our church has a material need that we have the means to meet, then you know what? We have an obligation to that Christian brother. And you know what? Pastor referred to this in his message just the other week on being merciful. But you know what? Too often we love our brother in word and in tongue only. I'll pray for you, brother. Oh, I hope that that works out okay for you. Oh, I'm so sorry for you. But you know what? God is telling us tonight that we must go beyond that. We must love in deed and in truth. Maybe it just means seeing a material need, such as a need for funds in a certain area. Maybe it's a need for transportation. Maybe it's a need for you name it. But simply pulling that person aside and saying, hey, I'm willing to help meet your needs. And you know what? I'll do it, even though it's going to cost me. You know, we can sacrifice our money or our material possessions, but second of all, and we'll close with this, we can sacrifice our energy. Let me ask you this. Do you realize that on any given Sunday, after a service, that that lobby out there is chock full of people who have needs? And you know what, I'll be the first to admit that after a long Sunday morning, Sunday school, the morning service, sometimes the last thing we want to do is exert the effort to go out there and to help meet the needs of other people. And on a Sunday night, where we had all day here, we want to get out of here. But you know what? There are needs that need to be met in the body. And we have an opportunity to show love for one another by making an effort, using our energy, spending it all on meeting the needs of people here in our church. You know, I'm always encouraged to walk around late after the service. I make the joke with my wife that we try to be the last people to leave the parking lot. I don't know how it happens, but it always is. But I look around late after a service, and there are people talking to one another, and not just shooting the breeze, but actually helping one another, meeting other people's needs. That's what loving one another looks like. And we need to do that more and more and more. And I realize that today's been a lengthy day in God's house. I do realize the time tonight. But you know what? We have an obligation to love one another. And you know what that means? Making every effort to meet the needs of others, even if it costs us our life. And this week, no doubt, we are going to be faced with opportunity after opportunity in the home, in the workplace, in the world, at our church, where we have to choose, am I going to meet my own needs at whatever cost? Or am I going to meet the needs of those around me, even if it costs me my life? Let's bow for prayer this evening as we close. Dear Heavenly Father, we stand convicted under the power of your word tonight. Lord, there's been a very clear command given. It's a simple command. Lord, it's easy to say, but it's a lot harder to carry out in everyday life. Lord, we are more like Cain than we would readily admit. And even though we don't live a habitual and regular life of hatred towards others, Lord, we often put our needs first. And we go to great lengths to make sure we get what we want. When in reality, we have every reason to be more like Christ because he has met our needs. He's met every need that we possibly could have. He went to the ultimate extreme to do so. So Lord, the least we can do is minimally commit to meeting the needs of others this week in our home, in the world, in our church. Pray that you'd help us to be obedient. Lord, would you change us, transform us, and through the work of your Holy Spirit, help us to love one another this week. For it's in Christ's name we pray, amen.