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Refocus Church

Series 3

16. I am a Messenger of His Love
   

Underlying Theme:    How specific things help me be fulfilled as a part of the Church

   

Focal Idea No.4:  I have found the God of love and am a source of salvation for the world that hasn't yet found it.

   

A. A Starting Place

 

Jn 13:34  “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

 

Jn 15:12    “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”

 

Jn 15:17    “This is my command: Love each other.”

 

1 Jn 3:11   “This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.”

 

1 Jn 3:16  “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

 

1 Jn 4:19  “We love because he first loved us.”

 

They had the “love your neighbour” from the Law

This almost came as a surprise – “Duh! Love one another?”

As they thought about it (John) it was to love as Jesus had loved them

 

   

B. Recipients First!

 

i) Need for Experience

 

•  Before we can think about passing on and conveying God's love, we really have to know it ourselves first.
•  How many use the words but don't have the experience of God's love

   

ii) Need for Understanding

 

•  If we don't understand what love is
  •  we won't recognise it when it comes to us
  •  we won't know what it is that we have to pass on to others

 

iii) So what is it?

• Previously we first looked at love in the first series about loving God – and we love because He first loved us
• We saw
  • Filial : this love connects us to those with whom we have some blood relationship.
  • Eros : sexual love; the act of marriage speaks of complete union.
  • Agape : self sacrificing love – the total giving of oneself for the good of another.

 

•  It is this last one that is the characteristic of God – God is love (1 Jn 4:8,16)
•  But perhaps some of us have heard about this too much, we're too familiar with it.
•  We need a new definition -

 

        Love is “selfless, sacrificial, unrestricted, good will towards others”

 

 

C. What is the message we have

 

Let's unpack that as seen in God:

 

Love is “selfless, sacrificial, unrestricted, good will towards others”

 

i) Selfless = not caring about self, all-concerned for the other

 

•  When Father, Son & HS planned the world they knew that giving us free will would mean we were free to sin, and we would, and therefore there was an issue to be dealt with which only the godhead to do – hence the Cross
•  In that

- Jesus agree to leave his glory in heaven

- the Father agreed to suffer his absence from heaven

- Jesus agreed on the Cross to be separated from his Father

- the Father agreed to be separated from His Son

- Jesus agreed that descending into hell, he would be separated from the Father

- the Father agreed in that to be separated from the Son

 

•  All these are acts of utter selflessness – love for us.
•  Selflessness refers to the ‘attitude' or ‘outlook'

 

ii) Sacrificial = giving up things for the sake of others

 

•  All of those things were also acts of sacrifice – of giving up

  - Jesus left his glory in heaven

  - the Father lost His fellowship with His Son for a very limited fellowship

  - Jesus agreed on the Cross to give up his life

  - the Father agreed to let go His beloved Son to the evil deeds of mankind

  - Jesus by descending into hell, gave up all future

  - the Father lost total contact with the Son

 

iii) Unrestricted = no limit on this selfless, sacrificial good will

 

•  However awful the sin of the world would be, God's love would reach it.

 

iv) Good will = good hearted, kind feeling towards

 

•  The expression of this good will is usually how we recognise love

 

v) Towards others = it is always an outward expression

 

•  Because it is selfless it is always expressed towards others.
•  This is how God has and does love us

 

 

D. Being a Blessing to Others

 

Now this is about being a messenger of God's love

Jesus was God's messenger to the world

 

i) selfless = not caring about self, all-concerned for all others

 

•  He gave up three years to be there for the 12 and for countless others

 

ii) sacrificial = giving up things for the sake of others 

 

•  He gave up the comfort of home to live on the road.

 

iii) Unrestricted = no limit on this selfless, sacrificial good will

 

•  He never limited it, he never complained or took short cuts
•  It didn't matter how bad people were, he accepted them just as they were

 

iv) Good will = good hearted, kind feeling towards 

   

•  He was there to bless all he encountered

 

v) Towards others = it is always an outward expression

 

•  Because it is selfless it is always expressed towards others.

 

 

E. How to be a messenger of God's love … just let Him out!

 

“God IS love” ( 1 Jn 4:8 ) Yes?

The Holy Spirit is love? Yes?

“God's Spirit lives in you” ( 1 Cor 3:16 ) Yes?

So HIS love lives in you? Yes?

 

… and when you let Him out….

… He will love others through you…

(and you'll naturally bless them)

… He will tell others of Himself through you….

(and you'll naturally tell them)

But

•  He does need your permission to do that

•  He does need your co-operation to do that

… His love through you will be:

•  Selfless (just concerned for them)

•  Sacrificial (not caring about yourself)

•  Unrestricted (not limited by who they are)

•  Good will for whoever (bringing good to them)