Today’s lesson looks at 2nd and 3rd John. In last week’s lesson, we discussed God’s display of love throughout the book of 1st John. This week, we look at the second side of the coin: Truth.

Michael Roberts

May 27, 2019

A Whole Lot of Loving Going On

Michael Roberts

May 27, 2019

Sermon from May 26, 2019

This week’s lesson looks at the book of 1 John as we continue the series “Treasures Along Route 66.” The “Route 66” for the series refers to the number of books in the Bible, and we have nearly completed the series.

1 John is particularly meaningful to Pastor Mike Roberts, and he calls this sermon the one sermon he would preach for the rest of his life if he could pick only one.

Sermon Transcription:

Our weather's a little bit better today than it was last week with all the storming and all that good stuff we had, so it's good to see you here this morning.

This morning, we want to continue our series on Treasures along Route 66, and we're getting to the end of the series. It's only three more lessons after today in the series. And of all the treasures we gathered along this route as we looked at the 66 books of the Bible, today's the day's treasure is the very best one.

Because the day's treasure is love.

We're studying the book of 1st John today. And if I was going to summarize the book of 1st John, I would say there's a whole lot of loving going on. Just a whole lot of loving going on in this great, great book.

If I only had one sermon to preach for the rest of my life, today would be the day I would preach the sermon you're going to hear this morning.

Because the first book of 1st John over the last two years, has just kind of formed my whole theology and basically summarizes the whole Bible.

So today is my favorite lesson of all time. It will be the one I want to be remembered for, because there's three statements I give you today that I think summarize everything that we're about. Turn your Bibles to 1st Corinthians 13. I'll show you why I think this is the best of all.

1st Corinthians chapter 13 and just start with verse one.

Paul said it this way, “If I speak in tongues of men or of angels, but I don't have love I miss that treasure. I'm only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and I can fathom all mysteries and acknowledge and knowledge and if I have faith that can move mountains, but if I don't have love, I really have nothing.

“If I give all my possessions to the poor, and I give over my body to hardship that I may boast but I don't have love I missed that treasure again.” Paul says I gain nothing.

Paul says let me tell you what love is. He says “love is patient. Love is kind. Love does not envy, it does not boast. Love is not proud. Love does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. It's not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes. Love always perseveres.”

And then look at the next sentence. Love: that treasure never fails.

“Love never fails.” Go down to verse 13. “Now these three things remain, faith, hope and love.”

“But the greatest of these, the greatest treasure of all, is love.”

So once again, I say this is my most favorite message to ever preach because the treasure we're going to look at is love, which Paul says is the greatest thing of all.

Now, before we go into 1st John, and show you three very important statements, I want Renee to come up and share a story with you. It's a story that, as I was researching for this week, or really two weeks ago, because this is why I was gonna preach last week when the storm hit… But as I was researching for this, I found a blog. In fact, it was from a lady just named Bry. I have no idea what her last name is. The website was faithfullycommitted.com.

And she entitled the story that Renee is going to tell you The Greatest Story Ever Written. And that's what I typed into Google was “the greatest story ever told,” or “the greatest story ever written.” And here it is. It's the life of Jesus. So, Renee, if you would, come up here and share with them love story about Christ.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Like many young girls, I dreamed of someday being a beautiful princess, who waited for her handsome prince to come and save her to slay all of the dragons without fear. He loved me enough that he'd be willing to die for me. He would stop anyone who looked to harm me. And then real life came creeping in.

Those princes one right after the other, all turned out to be frogs.

The dragons were too strong. I wasn't safe from harm.

I lost hope and romance. I lost hope and love.

But then, I found the greatest love story ever written. Now this is an incredible story of love, intrigue, betrayal, and the ultimate sacrifice. This is a story of a prince who is more powerful than any dragon, yet more humble than any servant. He is strong and fierce, yet kind and merciful.

He loves tenderly, even when he's correcting. He is loving and gentle. His touch is healing. His words are comforting. He says that his bride, which are all of us, that we will be together forever.

But just like any good love story, there's an evil enemy pursuing our Prince at every turn. He could run away, but he loves us too much to leave us.

If he runs, we're going to perish, and he wouldn't ever allow that to happen. Our Prince is faithful and true. So he stays, he stands, and he literally says “to get to her, you've got to go through me.”

But our noble Prince is betrayed. He is captured, he is beaten, and he's eventually murdered. He dies for us. And because he dies, we're saved. But the story doesn't end there. This is a story to restore all hopes. This is a story of Unending love. Our Prince is raised from the dead, he slayed the dragon. The battle is over. And he is the victor.

And he's going to come back for us. He says he will never leave us. The prince His name is Jesus Christ. The greatest love story ever written is the story of Jesus life. From the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Jesus loves you more than you can ever imagine. He is greater than any princes of your day dreams. He will rescue hit you. If you allow Him. Jesus is the Restore of hope. But don't take my word for it, read it for yourself.

The Greatest Story Explained

I didn’t feel comfortable reading that story from being a princess, waiting for a prince. I said, “Babe, I need you. I need your help a little bit.”

So I appreciate her sharing. It probably came to life a little bit better that way.

But it is the greatest love story that Jesus Christ himself would love us enough to fight the fight, to die for us just to redeem us so we could be with him. As Renee said, as the ended read it for yourself. Turn your Bibles to 1st John. And I want you to see in the in the Scriptures, this great love story.

God Is Love

The first thing I want us to see is a statement made in 1st John 4:8, and this is the foundation of the entire Bible. It is the foundation of the story that Renee read. 1st John 4:8, here's the treasure. “Whoever does not love does not know God.” Why?

Because “God is love.”

Folks, if I asked you describe God to me, and somebody might say, “Oh, he's majestic, he's great. He's holy.” 1st John says, Let me tell you how God who God is. God is love. In fact, he believed it enough. Go down to verse 16.

Verse 16, he says, “so we know and we rely on the love God has for us.” You know why?

“God is love.” Any image you have of God, that does not fit those three words is a wrong image.

Because God is love. Someone says, well, the Bible is a story about God. It is. And there's lots of things written about God. But bottom line who is God? God is love. That's bottom-line, who God is. You see it as the story of Jesus unfolds. And the Bible is basically saying, here's where you fit into God's story. Because God loves you. God loves each of us, and I don't want to get ahead of myself here. Look at Psalm 36:7.

He says “how priceless is your unfailing love.” In fact, you read through the book of Psalms, David over and over talks about God's unending love, God's unfailing love, how God always loves.

Why, David? What are you trying to say?

He's trying to say the same thing that John is saying. John says, Let me describe God to you. God is love. He had one word to describe you what would it be?

If there's one word to describe God, it’s love.

That's the first thing I want you to get this morning.

I Am Loved

The second thing of this love story is this: God is love, therefore I am loved.

God is love, therefore I am loved.

The greatest need every human being has from a little baby to an old person is to realize that you are loved and appreciated. To realize you are accepted as is.

I don't care how bad you been this week. I don't care if what you've done this week. The fact that God is love is still a fact.

Number two, just as important, since God is love, realize I am loved no matter what.

Now how many of you have ever felt unloving, undeserving?

Nobody can love me because I am…

I have done…

No, the gospel, The Good News of the Bible is God is love. God can't help but love you. That is who he is. Therefore, I am loved.

1st John 3:1. How great is the love of God.

How great is the love of God? Look at this.

“How great the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God. And that is what we are.”

Why does God love us?

Number one, that's who God is. But number two, who are we?

We're his children. “How great the love of God.” Why, he lavished his love all over us.

Look at 1st John a little bit more. Go down to 4:9. 1st John 4:9-10. He says, “This is how God showed his love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love. It's not that we love God. No, it's He loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

By the way, Paul said it another way, he says while we were yet sinners, Christ died for who?

The ungodly.

Those that weren't acting like God, those that were not acting like his children.

God is love; and God says, I love all of you.

I love you, all my children.

How do you know it? It’s what we call the Gospel story.

I sent, my son, the prince of princes to come to save you, to come to stand between you and Satan, to come and die in your place. That's how I know I love you.

I let him come and pay the price for all of your sins.

Go down a little bit further if you would, in 1st John 4:16. He says, “so we know and we just rely on the Lord God.” When it comes judgment day, I don't want to go before God and say, “God, here's my resume.” What do you think?

I don't want to appear before the judgment seat of God with my resume.

God, let me tell you what good I've done all these years. Let me tell you how many sermons I preached, how many people I baptized, how many… Let me tell you all this stuff.

Because that's really not what it's about. John said that's not what it's about. John says, we rely not upon what good we've done. We rely upon the love God has for us.

See, God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God and them. This is how, how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the Day of Judgment.

Where's that confidence come from? It’s based on his love, right?

So we have confidence on the Day of Judgment. In this world we are like Jesus, there is which is no fear in love. The perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

Someone says, I'm not sure I'm gonna make it to heaven.

They've missed the treasure I want to talk about this morning.

God is love.

God loves you enough. He just lavishes on you his love and made you his child. God loved you enough, he let Jesus die for you.

And John says, we rely on that love that's I rely on God loving me. Not that I'm good enough, but just God loves me. I rely upon that. And when it comes Judgement Day, I have no fear. You know why?

Because God loves me. That's why I have no fear. I have no fear because God loves me. And he says, Now if you have fear, you have not grasped this treasure of perfect love. You don't understand how much God loves you. You don't understand how valuable you are. You don't understand what it means to be a child of God because God loves you and made you his child. Why? Because God Himself is love.

God is love.

I am loved.

I am cherished

Let it sink in.

No matter what the world says, no matter how you feel, no matter what you've done, God is love.

Number two, I am loved.

I Will Love

Now watch number three.

Number three gets to the point because, church people got to hear this next part, right? What do I need to do then? What do we do? See, I don't know why we've been so programmed. It's all based on what we do. It's not based upon what we do, but based upon God is love and I am love. This is what I do.

Do you see what I'm saying here? I don't do this to get loved by God. The third point I'm getting ready to say, I don't do it to make God love me more than he loves you.

I don't do it to get a brownie point with God.

I do it because I understand the treasure who God is. God is totally love. Therefore I am totally loved by God. Now once I realized who I am, where I fit in into the picture, then the third point comes naturally.

And the third point is, I will love.

God is love. I am loved. Now, I will love.

Back in making some of this presentation for me last week getting ready, [Becca} said, “Hey, you preach that sermon before.”

Have you heard it a lot of times from it before? Because the last two years those three sentences are right, those three sentences… In fact, I write those three sentences in every Bible I get now right up front. I write those three sentences in a lot of books I get now right up front.

God is love. I am loved. Therefore, I will love.

I want to be known as a lover. Why? Because I want to be like Christ, and Christ loved people enough to die.

In 1st John 4... Let's go to chapter 3 to start with. As you're going to chapter 3, you remember the words Jesus said back in Matthew 22, when he was asked, “What's the greatest commandment in all the laws? In other words, people's asking the question or trying to find out the to-do list more than they are to find out about God. Jesus says, “well, if you have to have a to do list, here it is:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul. And the second is like unto it. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” And then he said this in verse 40, “upon those two commandments, hang all the laws and the commandments of God.”

And so even Jesus Himself summed it up like this: “Jesus, what is this all about? What's the greatest, he says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind soul strength. then learn to learn to love your neighbor as you love yourself. So you can't love yourself if you haven’t gotten point two, can you?

Point one, God is love. Point two, I am loved. Point three. I will love.

I will love God. And I will love others.

Jesus takes it to one extreme when he says in Matthew 5:44, “Love your enemies.” Well, that's not natural. We're not talking what's natural here, folks. You know why? We're looking at a supernatural God? And how do you describe God?

It's a little test. God is what? God is love. That's how you describe God. Supernatural. His love is supernatural.

Number two, I am loved. You know what, that's supernatural. Because I'm not always a lovable being, right, Renee?

I mean, if anybody thinks I'm a lovable being, it would be her. But there's times I'm not always a lovable being. So it's supernatural. God says, Mike, your loved even when other people think you're not a lovable being.

And now God says, I want you to love.

I want you to love. Look here in 1st John 3:11.

He says, “this is a message you've heard from the very beginning, we should love one another.”

Go down to verse 16. “This is how we know what love is. Jesus laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and see a brother or sister in need, but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let’s not love just with words or in speech, but with action and in truth.”

See I can write those words real easy. God is love. I am loved. Therefore I will love.

That's easy to write. That's even easy to say.

Is it easy always to put your life down before another?

Sometime that seems tough, doesn't it?

You know what?

There's some folks—it's not even a second guess in my mind—I would do it for.

No question in my mind, because I love them that much.

You know where I need to grow?

Those folks that sometime you want to strangle. Let's just be honest.

Y'all know some like that?

Now that's where it's tough isn’t it?

And that's why it's important to realize what love is. Look at the definition in 1st Corinthians 13.

I'm not saying that you gotta have a warm, fuzzy feeling towards everybody, because you're never going to have a warm fuzzy feeling towards some people. Reality, am I right?

But look at what love is in 1st Corinthians 13. It doesn't say anything about a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Not a thing about it.

In fact, this passage says, it doesn't say a word about a warm, fuzzy feeling. He says Jesus demonstrated what love was by basically saying, if you want to get to Mike, you're gonna have to come through me, I'll die for him. And Jesus laid down his life for me. That's what he did.

He says you need to learn to love like that, but not just learn like that because it's not every day that you're facing a situation where you gotta prove love by dying for someone, but sometimes you gotta prove love by living for someone.

You see they have a need. He says, share with them.

It’s seeking their best. That's what love is, seeking the others best. Go on on down to chapter 4:7-8. His Dear friends, let's learn to love one another. I know it's hard sometimes, but love comes from God.

By the way, the closer you get to God, the more you can learn to love people. You know why?

Because God is who? God is love. What does God do? God loves people. I am loved.

So the closer I get to God, then I can learn to love other people. So he says, “Dear friends, let's love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who love has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love really doesn't know God. You know why? Because God is love.”

You struggling with an individual, I struggle with some individuals, I gotta get closer to God.

I gotta get closer to God. And look at that individual through God's eyes, through God's mercy, through God's grace.

Keep reading with me with me.

1st John 4:7. He's says, friends, love one another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God knows God. Whoever does not love doesn't really know God because God is love. Now this is how God showed his love for us. Let's remember this. He said in one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. Now this is love. It's not that we love God, but he loved us. He sent His son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. See, he loved us when we did not love him.

You say, well, God's asking too much for me to love so and so if they don't...

God love so and so when so and so did not love him.

God loves me, even if I don't show it to him. So he says, that's our bar right there. He says, Dear friends, verse 11, says God so loved us. We all to love one another. No one's ever seen God. But if if we love one another, guess what? This is good. If we love one another, then God lives in US,

and His love is made complete in us.

Watch there.

We don't have the treasure of God totally until we learn to love one another.

And then we start seeing how look at this treasure. Because he says only then is it really may totally complete. Oh, I have it, and I've enjoyed it, and I've read it, and I've taken it so far, but you really don't totally understand it until it comes alive a your life and you can learn to love that person. That is a pain in the neck.

And all of a sudden you start saying, Wow, that's God. That's not me because I want to strangle them. That’s God. And that's how much God loves me.

Right now.

That's how much God loves me. And I know me doing my best to love you is… I'm not even near there.

I'm sure I'm getting there. And I'm starting to understand this love of God a little bit better. Look at verse 19. We love Why. Why should we love God or other people?

We love because he first loved us.

Why? Because he first loved us. Look at verse 21. And he's given us this command. Anyone who loves God must love their brother and their sister.

Now, quick review.

God is what? God is love. Since God is love, I am loved.

Do you really feel loved this morning?

Do you really feel loved and valued and appreciated?

And the only way to feel that, I'm telling you folks, is to get back to God because sometimes people around us just don't make us feel that way.

God is love, I am loved, and therefore I need to love. I need to love God, and I need to love others.

Look at John 13:34-35. Jesus says, “a new command I give you, love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another.”

Now watch this. Verse 15, “By this, everyone know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

You remember how I described the book of 1st John?

I described the book of 1st John, there's a whole lot of love and going on.

You know how people should look at you and describe your life? I don't know a whole lot about that person. But I know there's a whole lot of love and going on.

Why? Because God is love.

I am loved and I will love. Jesus says a new commandment I give you. What does he mean a new commandment? All the way back in the Old Testament, he tells us to love how's it now a new commandment?

He illustrated it, did he not?

He illustrated it by giving his life.

He said that this is you need to learn to love. It's not just say, “okay. I love so and so.” No, he says I want to take it to the nth degree. I want to take it to the degree, maybe you can understand God a little bit better. I want you to learn to love others that you would die for them.

Now, folks, that's contagious. That's something that people want. That's something that people need. They don't need another religion. They don't need another church. They don't need another hundred things told to do to make it to heaven.

They need to know that God is love.

They are loved.

And really all God's asking us to do is just love other people.

And that pretty well is why I say it's my favorite sermon.

It’s three simple sentences. But I'm telling you, there's so much treasure, so much worth it every one of these things.

Whitney Houston did a song long time ago in The Bodyguard, if you remember it. Dolly Parton wrote it and sang it before. She says I will always love you. You only hear my rendition of it?

[humorous protest]

Okay, you see why I gotta depend on God's love and not other people's love?

But that's Whitney. Whitney said, you know the song, I will always love you. There was another song that came out even way before that one, probably in the 60s, maybe early 70s. “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”

And folks, that's why Jesus came to the earth. Because what the world needed then was love, sweet love. And what the world needs right now is love, sweet love. And what you and I need right now is love, sweet love, and what your family needs is love, sweet love, and what people that you work with need is love, sweet love.

And what the people that you want to strangle is love sweet love.

That pretty well sums up the whole treasure. It's my favorite treasure of all. And that's why Paul said it is the greatest. Not because it's my favorite treasure, but because it the greatest of these is love.

Prayer

Father, we thank you. We thank you Father for loving us.

And Father I thank you for always loving us even while we're sinners. We thank you for always loving us even when we're unlovable.

Father I in no way think that I did this message justice because love is so deep. It's hard for us to grasp it because we were run it through our filters of human nature, and it just doesn't fit sometimes. Father, help us. Help us see this love. Help us see how much you love us.

Help us just learn to live and learn to eat and learn to drink, just learned to love, just fall in love with this concept of your love. Help it transform us into being better lovers and help us, Father, be known as a people who follow you, who follow love.

Thank you, Father, for the amazing gift.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

All scripture references come from the New International Version of the Bible.

Michael Roberts

May 13, 2019

Make Your Mom Proud

Michael Roberts

May 13, 2019

Sermon from May 12, 2019

Happy Mother’s Day!