Welcome for today's online service. We trust that you'll know the Lord's blessing as you join us in this time. Well, let's begin with a time of silent prayer that our hearts may be prepared to meet. I'm going to begin by reading our call to worship from Psalm 147, verses one to seven. Let's hear God's word. Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God. For it is pleasant and praise is becoming. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars. He gives names to all of them. Great is our Lord and abundant in strength. His understanding is infinite. The Lord supports the afflicted. He brings down the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praises to our God on the lion. Indeed, our God is so worthy What a joy it is to come into your presence. You are the living God. You are the only God. You have been from everlasting and will be to everlasting. You are the one who made all things. And as we've just read, you know, all the stars, innumerable stars in the sky, you know them all by name. And Lord, we ask that you may meet with us today. Lord, we come now before you trusting alone in Jesus Christ. We come in his name and knowing that we come in his name, We know and are assured that you will receive us. So be with us, we pray, and may you get all the glory we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's sing our first hymn together, All Glory. Should nothing of our efforts stand, No legacy survive, Unless the Lord does raise the house, Invade its builder's tribe. To you who boasts tomorrow's gain, tell me, what is your life? A mist that vanishes at dawn, all glory be to Christ. All glory be to Christ, our King All glory be to Christ His rule and reign we'll ever sing All glory be to Christ His will be done, His kingdom come On earth as it's above Who is himself our daily bread, praise him, the Lord of love. Let living water satisfy the thirsty without price. We'll take a cup of kindness, yet all glory be to Christ. All glory be to Christ our King, All glory be to Christ! His rule and reign we'll ever sing, All glory be to Christ! When on the day the great I Am, the faithful and the true, the Lamb who was for sinners slain, is making all things new. Behold, our God shall live with us, and be our steadfast light, and we shall hear His people be, all glory be to Christ. All glory be to Christ our King, all glory be to Christ. His rule and reign we'll ever sing, all glory be to Christ. Let us come in a time of confession. Let's pray together. Father, we want to acknowledge before you how much we fall, how badly we fall, how often we fall, and in doing so, defend you and all that you've done in Jesus Christ for us. So Lord, we come before you and we ask that you would forgive us. We praise you, Lord, that you are a forgiving God. You know all the ways that we fail, all the ways that we trample upon your holy law. And Lord, we come confident that Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for all of our sins, even the sins of the whole world. And so, Lord, we come today clinging to Jesus. And Father, we ask that you would continue your work, Lord, that you would continue to be patient And you will not forsake us, as we know that you never will, because you are our father, you have called us your children. We pray that you would continue to work in us and change us, transform us, Lord, so that we look more and more like your children. Hear us in these things, we pray. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. Let us hear from God's Word, this great promise of the new covenant found in Jeremiah 31, verses 33 and 34. The Lord says through his prophet Jeremiah these words. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will not teach again each man his neighbour, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord. will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I will remember no more." What a wonderful promise we have here through Jeremiah. I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I'll remember no more. And we can take that to heart. We've seen what God has done in Christ, in paying the price of our sin. And so we can know the forgiveness of God. Let's sing together, Men of Sorrows. For the Son of God who came Ruined sinners to reclaim Alleluia, what a Savior Mocked by insults harsh and rude, In my place condemned he stood, Sealed my pardon with his blood. Alleluia! What a Saviour! Guilty, helpless, lost were we Sinless Lamb of God was He Sacrificed to set us free Alleluia, what a Saviour He was lifted up to die, it is finished was his cry, now in heaven exalted high. Alleluia, what a Saviour! When He comes, our glorious King, All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing, Alleluia, what a Saviour! We come now to a time of intercessory prayer. we bring up some general concerns to God. So let us pray together. Father, you know us and we praise you that we can come before you. We thank you that we can enter into your very presence. We thank you that we can come before you, sit on your throne and your throne toward us in promises we have in your word, that we shall receive mercy and find grace to help in times of need. So Lord, we come and we cast ourselves before you and we confess together that we are a needy people. We are so fragile, so weak, so prone to wander, easily overcome by temptation. easily confused, deceived. And Lord, we need you all the time. We need to be clothed in your armor. We need you to be near us. We need your Holy Spirit to strengthen us. Our Father. And so with that sense of dependence, we come before you. You love us for the sake of your dear son, and you will never, ever leave us. You will never forsake us, not for all eternity. Our Lord, help us to grasp something of that safety that we have in you. Fill us with your peace, we pray. in the face of all of life's challenges and all of the changing circumstances and all of the uncertainties we feel. Fill us with your peace, that peace of God which surpasses all understanding and will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. Lord, we pray for each one. We ask that you would strengthen us in the particular ways we need strengthening, and particularly as we face various temptations. Lord Jesus, you told us in that model prayer that we are to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And so we ask that now. We are faced with many temptations in our lives. Temptations to doubt. Temptations to fear. Temptations to choose the path of sin. Temptations to pursue a course of pleasure and to turn away from pursuing you wholeheartedly. Oh Lord, please give us strength. Help us to see what is going on. Help us to see the trickery of Satan and how he is attacking us. And Lord, let us not step into those traps that he sets for us. Father, we pray that you would fix our eyes more firmly on the Lord Jesus. We pray that Christ and all that we have in Him will be our riches even here on earth, and that we would pursue nothing but to know you, Father, and to know your Son. and to live more fully for the One who lived and died for us. That we would be devoted to serving Him, our Lord and our Master and our Saviour. And it would be our joy and our delight to lay down our lives And so, Lord, please grab hold of our hearts. We know how unfaithful we are, prone to wander, as the hymn writer says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. And we ask, Lord, that you would take our hearts and seal them and protect them and allow nothing to come in, nothing to capture our hearts and draw them aside from you. Oh God, help us to see that there is none like you. Help us to see that there is none who loves us like you have loved us and do love us. Help us to see that there is nothing in all of your creation that compares with you, the great creator and sustainer of all. So help us to worship you above all things and to delight ourselves in you and to seek you with our whole soul. So Lord, please be at work in each of us. We pray, Father, that your word would be a delight to us, that we would treasure it much more than fine gold, and that it would be to our taste sweeter than honey, and we would feed on it daily. Father, help us to be faithful in studying your word, in knowing it, in committing it to our memories and to hiding it in our hearts. Father, we pray that we also would be a people of prayer as an expression of that trust we have in you, as an expression of that dependence that we have. Lord, we know that we're often very unfaithful in prayer. We have so many things that distract us, so many things that take away our attention, so many things that claim to be very important that we must do. And we're often deceived by these things and help us to be ones devoted to prayer and that we would come to that place of being the people that Paul speaks about in being praying at all times, praying without ceasing. So Lord, please work in us. and grant to us to be such a praying people. Father, we ask that you may be with your church. We consider your church in other lands and we recognise that your church there is often harassed, full of trials and tribulations. Opposed by people, by governments. Lord, we would cry out to you for your precious people. We know, we can read in news how abominably at times your people are treated. Father, we thank you for them. We thank you for their courage. We thank you for their faithfulness. they would never deny you, even in times of great pressure. Father, we pray that your children in such places will be known as people of forgiveness and people of love. We pray for ourselves, Lord. We pray for the church in this land. And we ask, Lord, for a great outpouring of your Holy Spirit upon us. and that we would return to the purity of your word. And Lord, that you would rid us of all that has come through the influence of the world. And Lord, that we would be so moved in all that we do in worship by your Holy Spirit as he illumines the pages of scripture to us. Help us to be a church of love, who love one another, and help us to deal with all of our issues, all of our relationship problems. Help us, Lord, to die to our self-centeredness, and help us to give ourselves to one another. Help us to be committed to doing this. Lord, we ask this for the sake of your name and for the glory of Jesus. For often, Father, as Paul said of the Jewish people, that your name is blasphemed by the Gentiles because of them. Surely the same thing could be said of us. Oh, our Father, may that not be the case. Work in us, we pray. We cry out to you. With all of our heart, work in us. Bring us to repentance. Convince us. we're an error. Help us to forsake pleasing men and to have as our chief focus to please you, the living God. So Lord, hear us in these things. We pray also, Lord, for our leaders, our governance. And Father, we have asked for your mercy upon them. We pray for your restraint upon them. We know that Satan is the ruler of this world under you, of course, Father, but you've given this world, in a sense, over to him, and certainly he works through governments and so on. We would cry out to you to restrain them, to guide them, to give them wisdom, and to make good decisions for the true well-being We ask that you would continue with us and bless our time together for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to read now from John, John's gospel, John chapter 15. John chapter 15 and verses one to 17. John chapter 15 and verses one to 17. Let's hear God's word. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you dare much for it, and so prove to be my disciples. Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. This is my commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard from my father, I have made none to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you. and appointed you, that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Or he may give to you. This I commend you, that you love one another. Let us sing now God Who's Almighty Word. ♪ Chaos and darkness heard and took their flight ♪ ♪ Hear us we humbly pray and where the gospel day ♪ ♪ Sheds not its glorious rain let there be light ♪ ♪ Filling and sight ♪ Health to the sick in mind ♪ Sight to the inmate mind ♪ O now to all mankind let there be light ♪ Spirit of truth and love ♪ Life-giving holy dove ♪ Speed on your flight ♪ Move o'er the water's face ♪ Bearing the land of grace ♪ And in earth's darkest place ♪ Let there be light ♪ Gracious and holy peace Let's pray and ask for God's blessing upon us. Father, we thank you for the time we have now. to read it together, to think about what it says, to try and understand it. We ask for an outpouring of your spirit with us. We pray for a powerful working of your word in our hearts, transforming us, making us the people you want us to be. In Jesus' name, Amen. Today we're turning to 1 John chapter 4. This is just a one-off sermon. I'm going to come back to Galatians, not next week because someone else is taking the sermons, but the week after. So 1 John 4. verses seven to 11. We're gonna read that, we're gonna focus our attention on verses nine to 11. Let us hear God's word. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love. In John's gospel, during the Last Supper, on the night of his betrayal and arrest, that night before his crucifixion, Jesus gave to his disciples a new commandment that they were to love. Church of Jesus Christ. In John's first letter, in chapter 4, John repeats this command of Jesus. It's stated in verse 7 But in these verses, John does more than simply repeat this command. He also gives us reasons, helps, that we might do as Jesus has commanded us. Why should we love one another? Well, John tells us that God is love. and He has loved us. As we come more and more to know this astounding love of God, it must move upon us that we become those who love one another. And so in our time together, We're going to spend the majority of our time looking at God's love. God's particular, special love for us in Christ Jesus. And we're going to consider verses 9 and 10 as we do that. Then we're going to turn toward the end of the sermon to consider the command to love one another. So let's first focus on God's love. What can we learn about God's love from verses nine and 10? I'm gonna read these verses again. By this, the love of God was manifested in us or among us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now what do these verses tell us about the love of God? There is a whole lot that they tell us. And I'm going to mention seven things, seven things, only briefly. And I'm sure there's more. You might be able to see more things that are asserted about God's love in these two verses. The first thing that these verses tell us is that God's love has been manifested in us, or I think it's better to say it is among us. It was manifested. It was made clear, it was revealed, it was shown to us. It was made open and plain. It was revealed in history and in God's actions. God has done more than simply to tell us that he loves us. This is more than words and feelings. God's love is not a hidden God. You know, sort of hidden, just as we cannot see God, so we cannot see his love. That's not the case. Our God has chosen to reveal it. It was manifested, John tells us. Now, of course, God has revealed his love in a variety of ways. He's revealed his love In creation, as we look around and we see this world that he's made for us, it tells us of his love, of his care. We see its beauty, we see its abundance, we enjoy those things. And it tells us that our God is a God of love. But we also see his love in And we can see how things happen and we can see signs of God's love and tender mercy toward us. How he protects us and preserves us in life. But when we turn to these things, creation and providence, sometimes they're obscure testimonies to the love of God. Because providence, can be read in different ways. And indeed many people do, especially unbelievers, find it difficult to see the love of God as they look out on this world because they see a mixture of both good things and bad things. But God has not left us to such uncertainties. God has revealed his love in a clear way. in a historical event. He has made it plain to us. He has made it, we can say, obvious. He's proved it. And that leads us to the second point. John says that the love of God was manifested among us that Son into the world. This is how God has demonstrated, proved, shown His love. How can you and I see God's love? We see it, we fix our attention upon the coming of Jesus. This proves that God cares about us. And we remember the words of John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. God so loved the world by sending his son, by giving his son. And we must remember, as we look at this, The concept of the world here that John uses, it's not the world that God originally made when he created Adam and Eve. This is no pristine paradise. This is a world of sin and rebellion. And this is where God sent his son. He didn't send him even into a palace. to enjoy all the good things that this world has to offer, but he sent him into the slums, so to speak. He sent his son on a mission to such a world as this, plunge into sin and rebellion and many of the consequences of such rebellion. And this reminds us that God has not abandoned us. He has not let us go in our sin and our folly. He has become one of us. He has taken on human flesh. He has become part of His very creation. And He came after us. So great is God's love for humanity. He did not scrap us as a race, like he said to Moses of Israel, I'll get rid of them and I'll make a new nation out of you. He didn't do that with us as a race, he didn't scrap us. Rather, he came down to us, such as a demonstration of the amazing love of God. But further, the third point, He came to give us the very thing we needed. See what it says, that's still in verse nine. He sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him, that we might live through him. The scripture tells us that apart are spiritually dead. Ephesians 2.1. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. And so he came to give us that life that we didn't possess and that we so desperately needed and that we could not get elsewhere. He came that you and I might He came so as, in a sense, with bearing presents to this lost and forsaken world. He came to bring to us that life we needed. He came to give us, in a sense we could say it this way, He came to give us heaven instead of hell where we were headed. But also there is something further in this word life. It certainly does refer to life in heaven, but it also speaks of a wonderful, intimate relationship with our Creator. In John's Gospel, John 17 and verse 3, Jesus said, and this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And so this is the life that God came to give. He sent his son to bring this life, to bring us into relationship with God. that we might know him as our father and Jesus, in a sense, as our older brother to bring us into the family of God. Such amazing love of God. Wonderful love for us. The fourth thing. And here we move on to verse 10. God's love is an initiating love. He did not wait for us to love him first. John writes these words, in this is love, not that we loved God, not that we loved God. Now the beginning of verse 10 is somewhat ambiguous. What did John mean by not that we loved God? He could have meant many things. One thing I think he does mean here is that human love is not a good definition of love. In this is love, he said, not that we love God. If you want to know what love really is, don't look to our love for God. That's not a good example. God's love is the definition of true love. But also, I think in John putting this in, it suggests that God's love is greater than our own, and before ours. It's not that we loved God, because when Jesus came and died on the cross, obviously many of us were not even born, and those who were, they didn't love God. He came for us before we came for Him. He showed us this love before we showed any signs of love for Him. He made the first move toward us. In fact, the Bible tells us that He loved us when we didn't love Him at all. And Paul celebrates this in Galatians 2.20, when he talks about Christ as loving him and giving himself up for him. Now, when did Christ do that? Well, it was when Paul was an enemy of God. Paul did not truly love God. He certainly didn't love Jesus. Jesus died for him long before Paul ever loved the Savior or loved the Father. And we can go even further back than that because the scripture tells us that God loved us even from eternity past. That's how far back his love reaches. In a sense, we can say there was never a time when he didn't love us, even when we had no love for God at all. Such astonishing love, this initiating love. The fifth point. Love to reward the unworthy. And this is love, not that we love God. Well, where is this love to be seen? Well, it's here. But that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. The propitiation for our sin. We're unworthy, we're sinners. We're not lovely people, we're not delightful people. We're not the kind of people that God looked down and just couldn't help himself loving because we were so delightful. The scripture tells us from cover to cover that you and I are utterly undeserving of the love of God. Indeed, we provoke something else in God. The word propitiation highlights that we provoke God's wrath, God's anger. In Romans 5, verse 8, we have this wonderful statement of God's love that highlights this aspect that we're so undeserving. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners, while we were opposed to God, hearts turned away, no love, in fact, hatred toward God. Later on in that same passage in verse 10, Paul refers to us as enemies. While we're in that state, hostile to God, God loved us! When we look at our own love and so much human love, our love is often just loving that which we find We often only love those people that we find some reason in them to love. But God is so different. And here his love shines so brightly. All the strength of his love comes from himself alone. It comes from his own heart. It is not generated, it is not fed. by anything within us, but it's just that pure, burning love in his own heart for us. Love to ward the unworthy. Six. The sixth point, God's love is sacrificial and costly. This is obvious again, both in the fact that he sent his only begotten son, but more particularly in verse 10, that he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. In other words, he sent Jesus to the cross. Jesus was a sacrifice to turn away God's wrath upon his son. True love costs. True love is prepared to endure the cost for the good of the one who's loved. God is the supreme example of such love. Never anybody has paid such a price, such a cost. His only begotten son, his unique son, his precious son. Human love often cools when it faces cost. Human love often has a limit. And when we perceive the cost to be too great, on love. But God never gave up. God was prepared to pay the ultimate cost. No higher cost is conceivable than His precious eternal Son that He existed with for all eternity in the full delights of communion with Him. He sent him, this one, into this world to endure the fury of his own wrath against sin. He poured out the fullness of his anger upon this most delightful son. We can't imagine the cost We can't imagine the cost that the Father bore upon the cross in giving his Son. Nor the love exhibited in Christ in paying such a price. We are told in Ephesians that this love, this love of God, this love of Christ, is beyond all limits and beyond all understanding. Paul prayed for the Ephesians in Ephesians 3 beginning at verse 18, that they may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the surpasses understanding. Such a love that will take all the days of eternity to search out. And finally, the seventh point, that God's love is a holy love. His love is that love which sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is that God the Father would not compromise His holy standards. We have a very different definition of love today in our world. Often the love that people speak about is a very A love that contradicts God's standards of right and wrong. The types of relationships that people enter into. People leaving their spouses. And in God's love, he could never compromise the standards of his justice. That's why he had to send the son to be the propitiation to deal with the issue of his just wrath against sin. If he didn't do that, we could not be saved. Sometimes people think it should be You know, just sweep it under the carpet, just ignore it. But that will mean that God himself is unjust. That is something he will never do. For that is to deny his very character. He will never be unjust. He will never ignore wrong. He will never turn a blind eye to evil. He does not have such an unholy And that meant, because that is the character of God, for you and I to be forgiven, payment had to be made. And this demonstrates the height of his love that he was prepared to do so. So these seven things we can learn about the love of God from these two verses. Let me ask you, do you know the love of God? Do you know the love of God? Not do you feel God's love for you. Our feelings change. They're unreliable indicators of fact or reality. Sometimes we experience At other times, we don't. An example of this, a biblical example, would be the story of the prodigal son. I wonder if the prodigal son felt the love of his father when he was away in a foreign land feeding the pigs. He probably did not, but it didn't change the fact of the father's love for him. Do you know the love of God? Not feel it, nor do we always see the evidence of it in everyday life. Life's circumstances change. They, like our feelings, are up and down. Good and bad things happen to all. As Jesus said, the Father sends his Son and reign upon the just and the unjust. In that sense, it's indiscriminate, this goodness of God, as well as these hard things from God. The circumstances of life are no certain indicator of God's love. Sometimes the sun is shining and we may feel, surely God loves me. Sometimes it's overcast and stormy. And we might feel that God has hidden his face from us. He doesn't love us anymore. The changing circumstances of life are no certain indicator of God's love. Where do we go to see the love of God? Where do you go to look for confirmation of God's love? Where do the New Testament writers go to prove it? We've looked at Jesus, John 3, 16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. We've referred to Romans 5, 8, God demonstrates his unlove towards us in the world where we are sinners, Christ died for us. Also Galatians 2.20, where Paul spoke about Jesus loving him personally and giving himself up. That's where Paul went to see the love of God for him. And in our passage, it is spoken about this God who is love. John explained that. Where does he say that God's love is seen, manifested? Well, again, it's in the giving of Christ to be our sacrifice, our substitute upon the cross. And this is where we must go if we are to be convinced of God's love. Both feelings and events, His love doesn't change. His love is the same for us from eternity past and will be to eternity future. And it's demonstrated, proved in this one event. So my brethren, when you're asking, does God love me? When you're doubting that maybe because of the circumstance of life, maybe because of your feelings, this is where you must go. He has proved it. He has manifest. His love for us in this one event. There is the proof. And upon that proof, you would arrest the case. Does God love me? Well, of course He loves me. He sent His Son, His most precious Son, His only begotten Son, to die for me. He has paid the ultimate price. for my release so that I might be forgiven, so that I might have a place in heaven, so that I might have a relationship with him, so that I might be his son or daughter. Does God love me? Of course he loves me. He couldn't have said it any clearer, he couldn't have said it any louder than he did upon the cross of Christ. Let us move then to our second point. And we're fixing our attention now on verse 11. How should this affect us? Having seen, having understood the love of God, that love that He has for you, child of God. How should it move you? How should it move me? In verse 11, we're told that this love brings obligation. Listen to what John says. Beloved, if God so loved us, we would also to love one another. In other words, this love of God that we experience isn't simply for our own personal enjoyment. It isn't simply so that we can live with a peace and a joy and a smile upon our faces. with it. And his duty is somewhat surprising. We might have expected John to write this, above it, if God so loved us, we also ought to love him. But instead he turns it around to say that we ought to love one another. that obligation to love one another. That is the Christian brethren, brothers and sisters in Christ. Of course we should love all, but here it's this new commandment that Jesus gave to love one another, to love fellow Christians. whatever label they may have. So God's love is not only for our comfort and joy. It's meant to move us. It's meant to move us. And I think it does. It moves us in three ways. It's a model, it is a motivation, and it's also a resource. I'm just going to touch on these three things briefly. A model, a motivation, and a resource. And as we come and understand this, we should feel more and more of the power of the love of God within us to love one another. It's a model. God is our Father. It speaks earlier in verse seven, everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He's our Father and we're called to be like Him and to love like Him. And so as we consider the love of God, having considered it today, we should see that that is the pattern of love that we are called to. Ephesians 5, 1 and 2, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us. imitators of God as beloved children walk in love just as Christ loved us? Oh, it's a pattern here. All of these qualities are to be imitated by us. We love as God has loved, with that cost, with that, even that initiating love, that holy love, loving the unworthy, But secondly, it's also a motivation. Notice what John writes. Beloved, if God so loved us, and we can add the word then, then as a consequence, then we ought to love one another. God's loving us in this way ought to move us to love, especially Christians. This is the chief motivation to love other believers. As we look at people, the ones that we are called to love, sometimes we find a lack of motivation. Sure, sometimes we look at people and it's easy to love them. At other times, it is exceedingly difficult. And as we interact with them, it moves us in the opposite direction to the direction of love. Often, you and I are called to love people that we consider hard to love. We consider unlovely. And we can even feel within ourselves, I do not want to love that person. I don't like what they are. I don't like how they behave. I don't like how they treat others. I don't like how they treat me. I don't want to love them. I don't want to be near them. What can change my heart toward that person? You see, for a Christian, that's not an option. That's not an option. It's the new commandment that Jesus gave us to love one another. It includes all believers. So we cannot shirk our responsibility to love one another. I need a change of heart. toward that person, that brother, that sister, or that group of people. Well what's going to change my heart? It's by looking at God. Looking at the love that He has had for me. Looking at the love that He's had for me, such a worthless undeserving individual, one who has provoked God's wrath, one who continues to do that, continues to go astray, continues to offend, continues to disobey. Oh, when I look at the love of God that he has for me, how can I refrain from showing love to that brother or sister, no matter how hard I find it? When I fix my attention upon God and His love rather than upon them and their unlovely behavior or attitudes, when I fix my attention on Him, I'm moved to love with that very same love that I have received. Motivation, oh, it's all there. It's all there in God's love. Lastly then, resource. God has not left us with an impossible task to love like him. He's not only provided a model, a perfect, glorious model, And then further, he's not only given us motivation as we look to that. He doesn't just provide these two things, motivation, model, and then says, now it's up to you. Now you've got to love like me. No, he is the source of this love. This love is not generated from within our own hearts. This love is from God. Verse 7, Beloved let us love one another for love is from God. Love is from God. And that love is as a boundless ocean as we saw from height, depth, length, or breadth. It is boundless. And that boundless love of God becomes the source for us to draw upon. And we're told that that same God of love is the one who indwells us and will supply all of our needs The first fruit of the Spirit that we're told about in Galatians 5 is love. All that you need to love is communicated to you by the Holy Spirit who indwells. You're not called upon to an impossible task. God has not left you on your own. God will supply the love that he commands. Before we conclude, how are we to love and practice? I'm just going to mention a few things. The first thing is pretty obvious, but often overlooked. We need to be part of a church. We need to be part of a church. How can we love those that we're not intimately connected with? Obviously we have to be in relationship with them in order to love. Secondly, we're to seek close relationships with all. They're all family members. And we're to pursue these people. We're to seek to know them. Not just know their name. Sure, that's the very least thing that we ought to do. share ourselves with them. Next we need to overlook their faults and learn more and more to forgive. We need that love which covers a multitude of sins because as we get close to people we see more and more their faults and we need to be one who is non-judgmental toward them, compassionate, understanding. And when they offend and do wrong, we need to forgive. And lastly, we need to look for ways to serve and build up each other. We need to look for ways to serve and build up one another. We need to come in with an attitude I want to serve you. I want to bless you. I want to see you growing and maturing in the Lord. And certainly one way we can do this as a start is to pray. Pray for each other. To have each other constantly on our hearts before the Lord. So these are just some practical suggestions. Here is our response to our God of love. Love Him, yes, but also love like Him. As Jesus said, by this all men will know that you are my disciples when you have love for one another This is the goal of Jesus. This is the community of love that he has created by his love. What a tragedy it is when the world sees the opposite. Brothers and sisters, we cannot settle for that. We cannot be happy. We cannot allow this to go on and see Jesus' name dishonored by our lack of love. Let it be our aim. to be the people that Jesus has called us to be, that the world might know Him by the love that they see among us. Let them see and know God's love. by looking at us, or another way to say it, let us be the mirror and reflection of God's love to the world. We need God's help. We cannot do this alone. He is there. He is with us. that he's called us to be a community of love. Amen. Let's pray. Oh Lord, how we need eternity. give us our God. Oh Lord, so work it in our hearts, we pray. We ask that you would work by your mighty spirit to form in us what you command. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let us sing I was lost in darkness' light, yet thought I knew the way. The sin that promised joy in life had led me to the grave. I had no hope that you were not a rebel too. But if you had not loved me first, I would refuse you still. But as I ran my hell-bound race, indifferent to the course, you looked upon my helpless state and led me to the cross. And I beheld your love displayed, you suffered in my place, you bore the wrath reserved for me. ♪ Hallelujah, all I have is Christ ♪ ♪ Hallelujah, Jesus is my life ♪ ♪ Now Lord, I would be yours alone ♪ ♪ As if so all might see ♪ ♪ The strength to follow your commands ♪ ♪ Could never come from me ♪ ♪ O Father, use my ransom life ♪ Let my song forever be, my only boss is you. Alleluia, all I have is Christ. Alleluia, Jesus is my life. Let's conclude our time in prayer. Father, we thank you and we thank you so much Thank you for our Saviour. Thank you for your love for us. For sending your only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him. Sending him as a propitiation for our sins. Oh Lord, may we meditate daily upon your astonishing love for us. We pray, Lord, that you go love in some measure as you have loved us. We ask these things in Jesus' name, and for his glory. Amen.