All You Need Is Love
1John 4: 7-21 (NLT)
I had approx 10 seconds of the Beatles song all you need is love playing as I moved to the pulpit.
. INTRO: Back in the sixties and seventies, this was the theme. All you need is love. The Beatles had a mega hit with a song titled, all you need is love.
In essence they were right. The type of love that they were promoting was not right but in essence, all we do need is love.
.Look at what the apostle Paul wrote to us and the Corinthian church in 1 Cor. 13: 1-8
. 1If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing.
3If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
4Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.
6It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.
7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
8Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!
. Those of you that were in our fan or a follower study that concluded last Sunday night can attest to this.
. What defines a follower of Jesus is Love.
. We are back in 1 John this morning. Probably some of the more well known verses in 1 John.
. This is where we see God being defined as Love.
. 1 John 4:7-21
. 7Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
8But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
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.
13And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.
14Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.
16We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
17And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.
19We love each other because he loved us first.
20If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
21And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.
. The first thing we see here is that we are:
Commanded To Love
.Look @ verse 7 again.
. 7Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
. “…let us continue to love one another …”
. John writes that we are to continue to love one another.
. This was a command that Jesus gave us.
.In John 13:34-35, John writes
. 34So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.
35Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
. We are to live as examples of Jesus Christ.
. When Benjamin Franklin wished to interest the people of Philadelphia in street lighting, he didn’t try to persuade them by talking about it—instead, he hung a beautiful lantern on a long bracket before his own door. Then he kept the glass brightly polished, and carefully hung it at the approach of dusk.
People wandering about on the dark street saw Franklin’s light a long way off and came under the influence of its friendly glow with grateful hearts. To each one it seemed to say; “Come along, my friend! Here is a safe place to walk. See that cobblestone sticking out? Don’t stumble over it! I shall be here to help you again tomorrow night, if you should come this way.”
It wasn’t long before Franklin’s neighbors began placing lights in brackets before their homes and soon the entire city awoke to the value of street lighting and took up the matter with interest and enthusiasm.
Our lives must be an example of love. That is Jesus’ command to us.
. Next we see the:
. Origin Of Love
.Look at verses 7&8.
. 7Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
8But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
. God is Love.
. Sounds simple, hard to define.
. How do you see God? Do you see him as a God of love or maybe a God of punishment? A God of rules and regulations?
. Listen to how some children see God.
- Dear God, I would like to know why all the things you said are in red?—Joanne
- Dear God, Is Reverend Coe a friend of yours, or do you just know him through business?—Donny
- Dear God, Did you really mean ‘do unto others as they do unto you,’ because if you did, then I’m going to fix my brother.—Darla
- Dear God, Thank you for the baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy.—Joyce
- Dear God, I bet it is very hard for you to love all of everybody in the world. There are only four people in our family and I can never do it.
. John writes that God is defined as Love.
. A man tells of the time he overheard one of his children admonishing the other, “You must be good or Father won’t love you.”
Calling the boy to him he said, “Son, that isn’t really true.” The boy then said, “But you won’t love us if we are bad, will you?”
“Yes, I will love you whether you are good or bad,” the father explained. “But there will be a difference in my love. When you are good I will love you with a love that makes me glad; and when you are not good I will love you with a love that hurts me.”
. I don’t know if we will ever understand the depths of God’s love this side of eternity but John writes that God is the origin of love.
. Next we see the:
. Enabler Of Love
. Look at verses 12&13 with me.
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.
13And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.
. The spirit of God, The Holy Spirit that resides in all Christians is the enabler of love.
. Without God’s spirit living within a person, they could possibly be what everybody would consider a good person, but when it is all said and done, we would be self centered people who really only care about themselves and those that are close to them.
. The Spirit, the enabler allows us to love people who are hard to love.
. I know we all have some people in our life who are hard to love. If you don’t, you need to broaden your base of acquaintances. These people are not easy to love.
. The only way that we can possibly love them is through the Holy Spirit.
. In our humanness, The natural thing for us to do is either lash out or disengage. Through the enabler though, we can love them and consider them a brother or sister.
. The Holy Spirit that lives in us is the Enabler of Love.
. Next we see the:
. Ultimate Gift Of Love
.Look at verses 9&10 again.
9God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
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.
. God modeled love for us by dying for us.
. Look at what Paul wrote to the church in Rome in 5:6-8.
6When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.
7Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.
8But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
. An old woman, hearing of some preachers who dwelt on the doctrine of predestination, said: “Ah, I have long settled that point, for if God had not chosen me before I was born. I am sure He would have seen nothing in me to have chosen me afterward.”
. God chose to die for us, even though we don’t deserve it.
. Folks, that is the ultimate gift of love.
. Finally, we see the:
. Test Of Love
. Look at verse 20 with me.
20If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?
. You see that’s the test. Do you love others. Especially your brothers and sisters in Christ.
.John writes that we cannot possibly love God whom we cannot see if we can’t even love those we can see.
. John goes so far as to tell us that if we can’t love others then we are liars.
. We are lying about being a Christian. We don’t have the enabler living within us so that we can love others.
. You see, it’s impossible to do this on our own.
. We don’t possess enough love within ourselves.
. Only through God, the creator and enabler of love will we be able to follow the command that Jesus gave us.
. “ Love each other, just as I have loved you”
. Those who don’t love, John tells us, just know about Jesus.
. Those who understand and practice love are the real deal.
. These are the people who know Jesus and understand what real love is.
. Do you really understand what that real love is this morning?
Invitation
*** To my Christian brothers and sisters, thank you for taking the time to read this sermon. I ask that you take another second and score this for me. I am always open to feedback so that I can continue to grow in the proclamation of God’s word.
May God bless you as you continue to strive to walk worthy of His calling.
Sources: The Holy Bible, NLT
Love Love Love, Steve Shepherd: (sermon central)
Illustrations from sermon central
