1 John 4:7-21

[0:00] Good morning everyone, again. A New England fall. Still too loud.

[0:15] ! A New England? I don't know which one it is.

[0:31] A New England fall. Apple picking. Crisp, cool mornings. Patriots football, for some. And of course, a dramatic surge in attendance at the local dendrology club gathering.

[0:47] Yeah, some people know what that is. I think Becky knows what that is. Dendrology, if you don't know, I didn't, is the study of trees. The six New England states are arguably one of the best places to catch a glimpse of changing trees.

[1:02] Actually, an article written in 2014 on the subject revealed that tourists spent upwards of $3 billion that year to be awed by the autumn colors.

[1:14] Have you recently thought about why the leaves change? Changing leaf colors are a sign of inward changes in the leaf. The internal changes manifest themselves outwardly.

[1:25] In fact, they must manifest the change in color. The green pigments in the leaf thrive off of sunlight. So decreasing exposure to the sun in transition from summer to fall means a fading of green and an increase in yellow, orange, and red pigments.

[1:44] Interestingly enough, a leaf actually contains all of those colors throughout its life. It's just that in the summer or spring, when the sun is great, you see mostly green.

[1:58] But the other colors take over when the sunlight begins to fade. The green can't remain the prominent color because its life source has faded. An internal change in how the leaf produces nutrients results in the stunning array of colors.

[2:15] Which you've never heard a sermon started with an analogy about leaves, have you? But our new life as Christians reveals a similar idea. And that is that the internal change to our hearts that salvation brings must exhibit itself in two ways.

[2:33] The greatest is loving God. The second is loving others. You may have heard this passage before. Matthew 22, 36 through 39. Don't turn there. I'm going to read it. Teacher, what is the greatest commandment of the law?

[2:45] Jesus replied, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is it.

[2:56] Is this, love your neighbor as yourself. Well, John speaking in 1 John 3, 10 says this. We heard this last week or a couple weeks ago. By this it is evident who are the children of God.

[3:08] And who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. Neither is the one who does not love his brother.

[3:19] Just like a changing leaf, God's children show evidences of their conversion through their actions. Not just practicing righteousness, which we just heard. But also, our focus today, loving others.

[3:33] There's no doubt that John understood the significance of loving others. We know this because it's actually the third section. It has a slide on it. In this short book that's been devoted to it.

[3:45] And it's coming up soon. Now, why is there so much repetitions? Parents, I have a question for you. You repeat yourself until your child gets it, right?

[3:57] And you don't stop before that. Mr. Johnson doesn't, I guess. Shaking his head. And you do that, why? Because you understand the importance of that specific lesson you're trying to teach.

[4:11] And until you know that your child understands it, you keep teaching them that lesson. I believe our author, John, takes a similar stance in this case. And so there's a representation I learned by seeing.

[4:24] So, 1 John's test. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd test of truth. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd test of obedience. And there we are with love. We're on the 3rd test of love. Now, it is said that the book of 1st John is designed to show us tests by which we can know if we are in Christ.

[4:41] Beliefs and attitudes that authenticate one's claim to be a Christian. He gives three tests of truth, obedience, and love. These three ideas weave in and out throughout the book.

[4:52] And our test today is the 3rd test of love. Let's see what John has shared with us so far. 1st John 2, 7 through 11 was the first test of love.

[5:05] And it discussed how love, the command to love, has been renewed. Or, love's renewal. The old commandment with a new twist. Christ came to earth as the embodiment of how to love.

[5:16] 2nd test of love, 1st John 3, 11 through 24, encourages us how to practically love others. Laying down our lives for the brothers.

[5:27] And giving those in need what they need. And finally, 1st John 4, 7 through 21, is the 3rd test of love. And this test points to love's power.

[5:40] Now, all 3 tests of love communicate the same principle. Love one another. We probably know this. And the main idea I want us to see today, the main point today, is this.

[5:51] Through power, those with new life must love others. Wow. If you notice, must is in all caps there. Through power, those with new life must love others.

[6:03] And we're going to see four reasons that believers in Christ must love others in this text today. All of which have been heavily influenced by love's power. And so, just as the leaf's internal change produced outward results, so also a believer with new life in Christ will, must, show the fruit of Christ in their loving others.

[6:25] So, let's read today's third test of love. Read along with me in 1st John 4, 7 to 21. Verse 8.

[6:43] Verse 8. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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.

[6:55] In this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he has loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

[7:08] No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. Verse 13.

[7:20] By this we know that we abide in him, and he in us, because he's given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

[7:35] So we have come to know and believe that the love that God has for us, God is love. And whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. Verse 17. By this is his love, sorry, by this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.

[7:55] Because as he is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

[8:08] We love because he's first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

[8:20] And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. Please pray with me. Lord, we ask for this morning something very simple, God, and that is that you would teach us.

[8:35] And Lord, that you would teach me, teach those sitting here. Lord, we are all your sheep. Lord, and you are a great shepherd who is loved so well.

[8:48] And Lord, we ask that you would soften our hearts and open up our minds. Let our ears listen to your spirit, Lord. Lord, we thank you that you are a great God of love.

[9:01] Lord, and we have been blessed beyond measure. These things. In Christ's name we pray, amen. So the first point today is that believers must love because we have been reborn by the maker of love.

[9:23] We have been reborn by the maker of love. Verse 7a. Beloved, let us love one another, right? We know this. This is our objective. This is our main principle, our main concepts in these three tests.

[9:37] Beloved, let us love one another. Here's our objective. We saw it in our first two tests. Here it is again. And John begins the section with this statement. Now verse 7 and 8.

[9:48] If you take the beginning of 7 and the end of 8, we read this. For love is from God. God is love. God is the maker or the creator of love.

[10:00] Yet, we see that God does not give love like you and I give love towards each other, right? Yes, he is loving and he does give love. That's not what this verse says.

[10:11] God shows love because God is love. Think of it in the way that an ice cube is cold, right? If a child asks you, Mommy, Daddy, why is this ice cube cold?

[10:27] You would say, because it's an ice cube. And that would satisfy them, right? Yeah, totally. Being cold is what an ice cube is. It gives off coldness because it's cold.

[10:41] God is equal to love. It is an intrinsic part of his being. The Bible tells us that God's actually a lot of things. God is justice. He's righteousness.

[10:52] He's wisdom. He's holiness. He's perfect. These aren't just character traits that God exhibits. They are equally part of his being. They are who he is.

[11:04] So our text tells us something very significant about God. Something that, without this, the rest of the passage is meaningless. God is love.

[11:15] We also learn something about ourselves here in verse 7. Verse 7 says, Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Those who love are of God.

[11:27] New life, entering into God's family, means that I am now given this aspect of love from the creator and source of love itself. We can't miss that. Entering into God's family means that I am, you are, he is, she is, given the aspect of love from the creator himself.

[11:46] That's huge. Being able to love is now part of who I am. It's a part of my DNA. It's a part of me. Because I've been reborn.

[11:58] I have been changed. Reborn by the maker of love means that I am now of him. And therefore his love has forever become part of me. Those who know God will love just as God loves.

[12:11] Love is who God is. And now the power to love is part of who you are. Shoreline. We have to understand this before we move on.

[12:22] And if you're sitting here today and you claim to know Jesus personally, and you claim to know God, almighty God, then inside of you, if you make that claim, then inside of you forever remains as part of who you are, as part of you person, an ability and desire to love.

[12:42] It's not escapable. You cannot escape that. You can't take that out of you. It can't be undone. Think of it as a canvas, a huge canvas painted yellow.

[12:54] And when you choose to accept the blood of Christ, on top of the yellow canvas, you cover the whole thing in red. And who knows what happens when you combine yellow and red?

[13:07] Anyone? Yes, you got it. Right? You get a new color. You get orange. And the point isn't what color you get. The point is that you get something totally different than you have. Because the blood of Christ has changed you.

[13:20] You can't undo that. You can't take the red out of the canvas. You've been reborn, never going to go back to the old. And so you possess part of the character of God himself as part of your identity.

[13:36] So consider this today. Do you find loving others is natural to you? Or do you feel like you have to force that, to really, really try hard and dig down deep?

[13:48] Or take it to the next point. Do you feel like you're someone who avoids loving and caring for people altogether? Maybe you just aren't interested. Well, verse 8 shows us the opposite of knowing God.

[14:03] Verse 8 says, anyone who does not love does not know God. Those who don't love prove they have not been reborn by the maker. And do not know God by their not loving others.

[14:16] By their not loving others. Either your heart's been changed by the maker, or it has not. There's no middle ground. It's black and white. Do you see, do we see the power of the maker to change our hearts?

[14:31] Do we see that power of love? Literally, to infuse us with love. That which would seem to be so unnatural in loving others is implanted into our heart forever.

[14:44] New birth, friends, means new love. Those who have been reborn by the maker of love will themselves love others. But there remains one question.

[14:55] What is meant by love? What if I can't tell if my love is the type that John's talking about? Everyone must love.

[15:06] Everyone must know God because, in some capacity, right, everyone loves. Who doesn't love? These days the love gets, bored love gets thrown around so much. I love coffee.

[15:17] I love my dog. I love football. I love my child, my spouse. My cozy cashmere sweater. Yeah, I know. Crazy.

[15:32] So where is the line? Which love is John talking about? And how can we be sure if we do or don't know God?

[15:45] The love John talks about is found in the next two verses. And so our second point is this. Believers must love because we have seen the man of love.

[16:00] Verse 9 reads this way. Read with me. 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. And so when God sent Jesus Christ to walk on this earth, the most tangible, real, perfect love, the very physical love of God was seen for the first time ever.

[16:25] Christ showed a love that the world had never before experienced. The most humble love, the most consistent love, the most genuine and pure love. Christ was a perfect representation of the Father's love, visible in the Son.

[16:44] If God had sent Christ only to be a good teacher or a good prophet or a great role model for us, he still would have accomplished infinitely more than any other human ever had, right?

[16:57] It would have still been a tremendous display of grace and love for him to do this. But verse 10 reveals more. Verse 10, in this is love. So there are two amazing aspects to Christ's love that we see here.

[17:20] Christ is our propitiation. What does that mean? Well, it means Christ is an atoning sacrifice. He assumed the full payment of human flesh and blood, pain and agony, for our just and rightly due penalty, resulting from our sin, from your sin, from my sin.

[17:42] The book of Romans says this, for the wages of sin is death. And then, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

[17:54] So God gives, rightly, justly, appropriately, the penalty of death to all who sin. This is his full wrath. There's no greater thing than to be separated from God through death.

[18:11] But in Christ being our propitiation, he has taken the penalty upon himself, friends. God's perfect son took the penalty, the wrath of his father, 100% satisfied in the son.

[18:28] Through accepting faith in Christ's death as that payment for us, you and I are pardoned completely, and we're declared not guilty.

[18:39] So Christ's love means he's our propitiation, but it also means that Christ chose to die apart from our actions. And I think this is something that's culturally we're really stuck on.

[18:55] Christians as well. Perhaps dying for a person, the text says, not that we loved God. Perhaps dying for a person or people you love could be justified, right?

[19:07] They cleaned up their act, right? They do a lot of good things and they try hard. They go to church, they give to the poor, they help other people out. But Christ died for us when we didn't even know God and we're neck deep in sin.

[19:22] Romans 5, 8 says, but God demonstrated his own love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And we weren't pretty sinners. We weren't attractive sinners.

[19:34] We weren't sinners that anyone would want to die for, let alone God's son. And so his love, Christ's love was unwarranted. Not that we love God.

[19:47] So God initiated love because he is love. And it was an outpouring of his character. It is who God is. God's love through Christ is a perfect love.

[20:00] So now we can answer the question, well, what kind of love is John talking about? It's a love that takes initiative. It is undeserved. It is given with the ultimate price.

[20:13] Total and complete self-sacrifice. Strictly for the good of another. Strictly for the good of another. It is the powerful example of God sending his son, Jesus Christ, to earth to bear the full penalty of God's wrath for our sin.

[20:32] And it is Christ carrying out his mission and loving us. Believers must love because we have seen the man of love. And we have the example.

[20:43] So how about you? Do you initiate love with other people? Or maybe do you wait until they've loved you or have cared for you first?

[20:58] Maybe you do initiate love. But is your love selfish? Is it seeking the good of those who seem undeserving and ungrateful?

[21:12] Or is it seeking your own fulfillment? So stop and consider, what if God had waited until we, mankind, cared about him?

[21:24] Right? Until humans gave God proof that we really deserved his love. That's scary. That's a scary thought. And it's easy to lose sight of God's love, that act, and how it's affecting me, when I'm so fixed on how someone else has wronged me.

[21:47] They've wronged me. They don't deserve my love. Who are we to choose not to love someone? Friends, we have forgotten where we came from.

[21:58] When we see someone else's unkindness or not loving us as too big of an obstacle for us to overcome. We've lost sight of it.

[22:10] We've blinded ourselves. So those who have been reborn of the maker, receiving as part of their character, love itself, as part of your DNA. And you have seen and know the greatest act of love in Christ as the atoning sacrifice, revealing God's deep love for mankind.

[22:28] They must sit in their seats and merely dwell on this knowledge. That's not right.

[22:39] That's not right. No. Because, friends, what good is truth if you don't act on it, right? It's useless. What good is truth if you don't act on it?

[22:51] So what do I do about these things? The text tells us we desperately need to see, you and I, as believers, that we have received Christ's mission to love. So believers must love because we have been reborn by the maker of love.

[23:09] We have seen the man of love and we've received the mission to love or the mission of love. Verse 7, verse 9, and verse 11.

[23:22] I'm going to split them up. They read this way. Beloved, let us love one another. Verse 9. God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him. And verse 11.

[23:33] If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. The word in verse 11, ought.

[23:44] I don't say that much. I'm not sure about you. So what does it mean? Does it mean we should try really, really hard to love? Or we should make our best effort to love?

[23:57] It doesn't. It's not conditional. Our society, unfortunately, is full of conditional love. In the home, husbands and wives, children, treating each other poorly because another one was angry and used a harsh tone or said something mean or bad.

[24:16] Or criticized me or made me feel bad. Got me down. It's seen at work. Managers yell at employees. That's what managers do, right? And employees are nasty in return. I'm not going to respect you if you scream at me.

[24:29] It happens at school. It happens at school. In politics. Sure. On social media. Really anywhere that people are interacting.

[24:40] And so, you treat me bad, I treat you bad. You care for me, I'll care for you in return. For a while, right? Until you offend me.

[24:51] Loving only those who love us during the time that they love us is totally fake. The tax collectors in biblical times had a really bad rap, but it's not something that they didn't earn themselves.

[25:07] They were known to be extremely corrupt, extremely unkind. And so, Jesus actually talks about it at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, 46.

[25:18] He said, For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even corrupt tax collectors do that. If you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

[25:31] So, John's not talking about a conditional love that's poorly rooted and based off of other people's action. Theologian John Piper puts it this way.

[25:43] When John says we ought to love each other, he means ought in the way that fish ought to swim in water. Birds ought to fly in the air. And living creatures ought to breathe.

[25:54] And peaches ought to be sweet and lemons ought to be sour. And born-again people ought to love. It is who we are. Believers with new life in Christ are obligated to love.

[26:09] We have a duty, we have a commitment to love others through the internal changes brought about by our new life. It is who we are.

[26:20] It is who you are. Remember the example of the fall leaf. Belief has a duty, has an obligation to change, because internally it's been changed.

[26:33] And the result is the new color. Christians, you have a mission to love. So consider your life.

[26:44] Is there a relationship that you have that's strained because you're choosing not to love somebody? Maybe your view of your mission to love is just an option to love.

[26:58] But it's not. If you're living as God's sons and daughters with new God-like DNA, infused with the character and obligation to love, what do you make of your recent choices?

[27:11] But Matt, that person's so hard to love. The way they yell at me, the way they put me down, the way they talk about me behind my back.

[27:23] Not even trying. Maybe you're sitting here today and you've been really offended by someone. Really offended. And you've been hurt.

[27:35] Damaged very deeply. And maybe you have a lot of pent-up emotion of pain and sadness. Maybe you're developing some really vicious relationships at work, right, based off of recent political disagreements.

[27:55] I think the election has created a lot of tension in our country. It's easy to see that. How can I love this person?

[28:06] How can I love others? Speak poorly about my choice of candidate and I'll speak poorly about yours. The mission to love as God loves is not easy.

[28:21] And if you think it is, you're fooling yourself. Or you're not really aware of what your real mission is. But the fact is that no one really said it was going to be easy.

[28:34] Was it easy for God to give his son to hateful men? Was it easy for Christ to be beaten and scorned, knowing that he could have ended it at any moment?

[28:49] But the mission, it's doable. It's possible. The mission to love as Christ is possible. And John gives us in verse 12 a peek into what that mission could look like when love's mission is accomplished.

[29:05] Verse 12. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. And so these verses give us hope, right?

[29:17] It reveals that through our mission to love, the unseen God, the God that no man has seen, can not only be seen through our love, right? But his love is perfected in us.

[29:30] Which one of you loves perfectly? Not me. So, perfected love in this case does not describe the way in which we do our loving, but it reveals the status of God's love being in us.

[29:50] Remember verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. This verse does not say, if God loved us, love God.

[30:05] Surely we are to love God. But we love God by loving one another. You cannot love God. You cannot claim to know God or love God and refuse to love one another.

[30:20] Well, I want to love God. Love one another. It is difficult. But our God is faithful to us.

[30:31] And he has given us his love through sending his son who accomplished his mission to love. It was powerful enough to rescue the entire world from certain death.

[30:44] And so, he has given us the means to love and fulfill our mission. I thought of it as, my daughter's not quite there yet, but when she begins to ride a bike, and most of us have probably been there, and you're ready to get the training wheels off.

[31:05] And so, someone takes training wheels off your bike, and you're nervous, but you're really excited, right? It's like, it's a big boy, big girl bike, something like that. And so, for your first ride, at least for me, my dad wasn't even holding onto the bike.

[31:20] He was just like, go for it. And he was like, sitting his coffee on the porch. No, right? Come on, that'd be stupid. Guaranteed failure. Maybe failure. Maybe some kind of a bike prodigy or something.

[31:33] The parent, or who's ever helping you ride, guides you, right? They love you, and they care for you by guiding you. And they're holding onto your seat, or your handlebars, or they've got a hold of one of your shoulders.

[31:47] And I see that in a similar way as our means to love. It's not as if God has said, you've been made to love. You've seen the example. Here's your mission.

[31:59] Now, I'm going to step back and watch you fall and fail. God has given us the means to love. The means to love. In verse 12, which we just read, actually hinted at it, right?

[32:10] And it said that it abides in us as believers. And it's the same means that he used to show his love. And so, the final point is this.

[32:21] Believers must love because they have been equipped with the means to love. The reason that this third test of love is so important is that it reveals something that the previous two do not.

[32:37] And that is that it shows us the God-given means to love. The first test showed us the power through renewal.

[32:49] The second test, the power through practice. And this one, the power of love. And so, without this means to love, being reborn by the maker and seeing the example of God as love, as well as receiving the mission, would be for naught.

[33:06] Like planning an overseas trip. Hopefully, you've never done this. You have your hotel. You've packed your bag. You've chosen your excursions. But you never bought your ticket.

[33:17] Right? You don't have your means. The means to loving others isn't a special power or something we must try to uncover or figure out in some special way.

[33:28] It's not something that only pastors or holy theologians have. It isn't an inner Zen that can be harnessed through extreme introspection or meditative yoga, or by the elite you have obtained a higher level of understanding.

[33:40] Right? Good, because I'm not in any of those brackets. It is a power that already resides in you, Christian, that has led you to your acceptance of Christ and has remained in you ever since then.

[33:57] Those with new life have the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit. Here's what our next verses say, 13 to 15. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

[34:13] And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.

[34:27] As I mentioned earlier, 1 John sets forth tests so that we can know we're in Christ. Right? That's what we talked about. And so these verses tell us, if we testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior, and have confessed that Jesus is the Son of God, something we know as salvation, then God abides in us.

[34:50] And Christians confirm their abiding in Christ only when we can see the work of the Holy Spirit being lived out in their life. Otherwise, how can you know? Many claim to know the Lord.

[35:03] But they don't live lives that represent that. And our goal isn't to go try and pick and choose who is and who isn't living as they say. But as Christians confirm they're abiding in Christ only when we can see the work of the Spirit being lived out.

[35:25] And what is an essential outpouring of that Spirit? Loving others. Why? Because believers aren't believers if they aren't loving. Living out the love that the Maker has given to them through the example of sending the man Jesus.

[35:42] So stepping back, when we combine our mission to love, right, and we combine that with our means to love, we have a tremendous result. And that is God's Spirit given to those who receive Christ at the moment of salvation.

[35:59] It's in you. It empowers you and I to love others. Through that same Spirit that's given us our salvation, in the act of love we affirm that we abide in God and God abides in us.

[36:15] And we reveal the unseen God to the world. What a power. What a gift. The Holy Spirit is a tremendously powerful means to complete our mission of love.

[36:29] There are no excuses, friends. There is no person too hateful. No situation too big. No obstacle too challenging. No heart too stubborn.

[36:40] If you claim to know the Lord, God's Spirit of love is alive and in you. And you must love.

[36:51] Because it is who you are. John ends this section with a really encouraging truth. Verses 17 through 19 says this.

[37:02] By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment. Because as he is, so also we are in this world.

[37:13] There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.

[37:30] Believers in Christ will face final judgment. Where our life is set on display before God and ourselves. But instead of paying the penalty for our sin with eternal separation from God, we will confidently stand, friends.

[37:46] Because the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, is our atonement. And when we meet the judge of good and evil, our fear will be cast to the side.

[37:58] Because our Savior has gone before us in perfect love. And provided a way to eternal rest with God, our Father, who loves us. We know that we abide in God, and his love has reached completeness in us.

[38:14] When we look forward to the future with confidence and without fear. We can love others even better with even more confidence when we know that our future has been decided.

[38:28] And it is because he has first loved us. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. So in conclusion, where do we go from here? When we find ourselves not loving, and we will.

[38:41] Often. There's a good chance, I think, that we forgot one of these four truths. And they're not truths that I made up. I just made them rhyme and look nice.

[38:53] They're the truth from this passage. Don't feel condemned by your imperfect love. You might be sitting in your seat right now saying, I don't love well enough.

[39:06] I love God better. I don't feel like I love people well, but I want to. Romans 8 talks about, as Christians, we're not to feel condemned by our sin and our actions.

[39:20] And that's awesome. But we should see where we fall short. We should see where our sin is more abundant in these places versus that place.

[39:32] We should see that. And when we acknowledge that, that's the work of the Spirit in your life and in your heart. In your desire to change is the work of the Spirit. And so we ought not to feel condemned. But we ought to, when our sin is confessed, live through our internal changes and let them resound externally.

[39:54] Our sin, once confessed, reminds us of the beauty of being secured and accepted in our new life through our Savior. And so finally, believers must love because we have been reborn by the maker of love.

[40:11] Your identity is changed. New life means powerful love from God himself inside of you. If you're sitting here today and you don't understand what it means to be reborn by the maker of love.

[40:25] If you don't understand what it means to actually have a real desire to care and love for people. I would ask you to consider if you know Jesus Christ.

[40:41] And it's the only way to start actually loving others. And so, it would be the greatest decision you could make today or for all time. And so please come talk to me about that.

[40:53] If you haven't been reborn by the maker of love, if you don't know Jesus, you can't even begin to start this process of loving others. So, you might be forgetting you're reborn by the maker and love's inside of you.

[41:09] Or maybe you're neglecting that you've seen the man of love and have the example of God sending Jesus and how Jesus lived on earth. The powerful example has been shown in God sending his son.

[41:20] And now that we've seen it, we can now begin to love as we've seen it displayed in scripture. Or maybe you're neglecting the fact that you as a believer have received the mission to love. Our pursuit is the same as Christ's himself.

[41:34] Fulfilling the will of the Father to love. Loving others. There is power in God's mission, friends. And when carried out well, God's love is perfected through our choices to love.

[41:50] And the unseen love becomes seen through his mission that he's given us. And finally, perhaps you're neglecting or forgetting that you've been equipped with the means to love.

[42:02] And the answer to, how do I love, is inside of you. It is God's spirit that empowers you to love. It has been there since you've accepted Christ as your savior at salvation.

[42:15] And it's still there and empowers you to love. And it confirms that you abide in God and God in you. Starting on the inside and manifesting itself outwardly like a leaf whose color must change.

[42:30] Through power, those with new life must love others. I leave you with this. Verse 21 reads this way. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother.

[42:45] Pray with me, please. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you.

[42:55] Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. Let me tell you.

[43:06] Let me tell you.