Believe Be - Love

Fremont Community Church

We have talked about what we should THINK

We have talked about how we should ACT

It is time to talk about What we should BE

We are meant to BE disciples of Jesus - Disciples are

"students, apprentices, practitioners – of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of the Heavens into every corner of human existence.” Dallas Willard

To BE a disciple of Jesus Christ means to live a life becoming LIKE HIM. The next ten weeks we are going to learn about this. What is Jesus LIKE?

We are going to start with LOVE -

Key Question: What does it mean to sacrificially and unconditionally love others

Key Idea: I am committed to loving God and Love others

Key Verse: 1 John 4:10-12

10This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

Jesus teaching, in fact the entire Bible, can be beautifully encapsulated in two statements

Love God first and most

Love Others as much as you love yourself

- We have talked a LOT in this church about the first and second greatest commandments.

One of my favorite preachers - Brian Zahnd says it this way - “Life is not a game; it is a gift. The purpose of life is not to “win” but to learn to love well”

Nat King Cole in His classic song “Nature Boy” sings the refrain that I wish ALL Christians would learn by heart and believe - “The Greatest Thing You’ll Ever Learn Is Just to Love and be loved in return"

• 7Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
• 8The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
  • Love is the primary reality of the nature of God
    • love comes from God
    • love is the byproduct of the presence and power of God
    • If you do not know love you do not know God
• 9By 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.
• 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son [to be] the propitiation for our sins.
  • The Cross of Jesus is the love song of God over you.
  • The Cross of Jesus is the conduit through which we are loved by God AND we are enabled to Love Him AND others.
    • Love CAME OUT Of the Heart of God and was planted in us through the Cross
    • Our sins were forgiven - by His love
    • WE were made alive TO LOVE - by HIS LOVE
• 11Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
  • I have nothing to add
• 12No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
  • Jesus said the world would know we were His disciples by our love for each other
  • God is present and tangible in the midst of
  • YOU were meant to be the manifestation of the presence and power of God - by loving others WITH HIS LOVE
• 13By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
  • The work of the Holy Spirit inside of us to teach us to love and to enable us to love both God and others
• 14We have seen and testify that the Father has sentthe Son [to be] the Savior of the world.
• 15Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
• 16We have come to know and have believed the love which Godhas for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
  • Living as the people of God means living loved by God
  • To abide in God is to abide in love to live saturated in His love.
• 17By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may haveconfidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.
• a people who abide in his love are being formed into his image.
• This is the process by which we are formed into Gods image - by being loved by God -abiding in His love
• 18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
• Perfect love casts out fear - Love is the opposite of fear
• Fear is the sign of an immature soul.
• Fear is the root of so many sins!
• 19We love, because He first loved us.
  • It does not say we love God because he first loved us
  • All true love in the human soul comes from an experience a reflection of the love of God for us
  • Love is the “Royal Law” - Rom 13:9-10
• 9For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
• It is when we love that we are the most like Jesus and we only love out of our experience of his love!
• Your love for God and for others is directly proportional to your revelation of His love for you AT THIS MOMENT
• 20If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
• 21And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
• Love is the evidence of our having been loved by God if we do not love, we have not experienced his love