“Waterbrooke seeks to be a gospel-centered, multi-ethnic community that is captivated by Christ, compelled to love others, and called to make disciples to the glory of God.” “Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment , but an old commandment that you had from the beginning...Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause of stumbling.” 1 John 2:7-10 “For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” 1 John 2:7 “Beloved let us love one another because love is from God…” 1 John 4:7 Love is inevitable in the life of a Christian because God is love and He lives in us. God’s love in us is the compelling force to love one another even as God has loved us. I. God's Love Defines Us. 1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8 Love is our God-given Identity: “Beloved” So much so-called love in the world is driven out of a need-centered insecurity where we are looking for love in all the wrong places and in all the wrong ways. Christian, you don’t have to look for love anymore. You are God’s beloved. "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19 Love is our new God-given nature: “Let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'” John 3:5-7 “John’s point is that that in the new birth, this aspect of the divine nature becomes part of who you are. The new birth is the imparting to you of divine life, and an indispensable part of that life is love. God’s nature is love, and in the new birth that nature becomes part of who you are.” John Piper Love is our Truest Test of Whether We Actually Know God: “whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love, does not know God, because God is love.” “We need frankly to face ourselves at this point. We are, perhaps, orthodox evangelicals. We can state the gospel clearly; we can smell unsound doctrine a mile away. If asked how one may know God, we can at once produce the right formula: that we come to know God through Jesus Christ the Lord, in virtue of his cross and mediation, on the basis of his word of promise, by the power of the Holy Spirit, via a personal exercise of faith. Yet the gaiety, goodness, and unfetteredness of spirit that are the marks of those who have known God are rare among us—rarer, perhaps, than they are in some other Christian circles, where, by comparison, evangelical truth is less clearly and fully known. Here, too, it would seem that the last may prove to be first and the first last. A little knowledge of God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about him.” - J.I. Packer II. God's Love Distinguishes Us. 1 John 4:9-10 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10 “Biblical agape love is the love of choice, the love of serving with humility, the highest kind of love, the noblest kind of devotion, the love of the will (intentional, a conscious choice) and not motivated by superficial appearance, emotional attraction, or sentimental relationship. ” • God’s Love is a Surprising Intervention - God sent His only Son. • God’s Love is a Sacrificial Intervention - God sent His only Son. • God’s Love is a Substitutionary Intervention - “to be a propitiation for our sins.” “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you might not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2 “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”- Romans 5:6-8 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this will all people know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34,35 This kind of love is what distinguishes Christians from the world – a love that sacrificially pursues the good of those who have done them the most wrong. III. God's Love Develops Us. 1 John 4:11-12 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” 1 John 4:11-12 God Himself is displayed as we love one another: No one has ever seen God: if we love one another, God's love abides in us…" God's love is developed in us as we love one another: “No one has ever seen God: if we love one another, God's love abides in us and His love is perfected in us.” How do I learn to love those who don’t love me? The answer – genuinely practice it on other Christians. There will be plenty of opportunities for God to perfect agape love in your life. My Notes: