Luke's Gospel

1 John chapter 4 and we're gonna begin to read verse 7. Dear friends, let us love 1 another. For love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God, whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us.

He sent his 1 and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love 1 another. No 1 has ever seen God. But if we love 1 another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Well, good morning. My name is Pete Woodcock. We've been working our way through 1 John, section by section, you can get those talks online if if you've not heard those. I guess if you ask someone that has any sort of knowledge of the bible at all, what is the love? What's the what's the love chapter?

In the bible. I I reckon most people, and probably most of us would shout out, 1 Corinthians 13. Because it's all about love, and it is. It's all about love. It's in the magnificent chapter about love in the in in the bible.

It's the the the part of the bible that is read at people's special day, their wedding day, and it's all about love. So people People know that. But actually, it is all about love. It only uses the word love 8 times. But if you come to 1 John chapter 4, it uses the word love 27 times.

And in these few verses that we're gonna look at today, 6 verses is 13 times the word love. This is actually the love chapter. Of the Bible, if you wanna turn to a love chapter of the Bible. Because love just dominates this chapter. I mean, look at verse 8.

I mean, you could pick on any Phil picked on verse 10 right at the beginning of the service, but look at verse 8. Whoever does not love does not know God. But because God is love. Now, that is an outstanding statement In a whole chapter that is full of outstanding statements about love, So we're right at the heart of biblical Christianity. When we look at this, right at the very center because where right in the essence of God, who is the God of the bible?

Those last 3 words of verse 8 are 1 of the most profound statements in the whole of the Bible. God is love we're told. And I want to show you that that little 3 word statement pulsates with life and power and beauty, and relationship, and giving, and serving, and being and knowing. It's an extraordinary little 3 words, full of those things. And it's even more profoundly wonderful if you understand the word that John chooses to use for love in in this description of God.

There are a number of Greek words as many of you may may know. There's a word for love that is sensual, romantic, sexual, you know, it's when the lover is intoxicated with the 1 that he he loves. It's that sort of word. There's a word for affection that would be used for a parent with a child, that sort of love, a natural love if you like. There's a love that is a warm bonding, a sort of comradeship love.

It's often called brotherly love. There's that word. And then there's this word that John chooses. Agapay love. It's the highest of all of the loves.

Used in the Greek. It's immeasurable love, uncomparable love. It's beyond reason. In fact, it defies reason It seems ridiculous. It's a love for the unlovable.

It's a love that doesn't get anything out of it, It doesn't need the 1 it's giving its love to. It's sacrificial. It's selfless. And that's the Greek word that is rarely used outside of the New Testament that John chooses to use here to describe God. God is agape, love, selfless, He doesn't need any.

He doesn't need that which he's loving, but he loves. So that's my first point that I want you to get. God is love. And I I I'd love it if we if these 3 words would change everything. I guess that's what I'm after here this morning.

That it isn't just a sort of talk from me, but actually that love would change everything. God is love. Everything we understand about life and the world and the future and ourselves is radically reborn if we understand those 3 words. God is Agape. Love.

God is love. Selfgiving, other centered AGope, love. God, in his very nature, God is love. It's the essence of who he is. Love is not something God does, of course it is, but it's it's in this context It's much more than something that he does.

It's what he is. If you could cut him open which you can't because he's spirit, he's love. All the way through. He's love. His eternal being, his eternal nature always has been, always will be, is love.

It's not 1 of his activities. Every activity God does is a loving activity. His justice is a loving justice, his righteousness, is a loving righteousness, his truth is a loving truth, Why? Because God is in himself, in his nature, love. Now there are other statements in the bible that tell us who and what God is, if you go to John's Gospel for instance, Not not 1 John, he wrote this letter, and he also wrote a gospel, a sort of biography of Jesus.

He has Jesus speaking to a Samaritan woman, and Jesus explains that God is spirit. God is spirit. He's immaterial. He's an unseen spirit. Come back to that in a minute.

That's God. In 1 John 1 verse 5, we've already seen in this letter God is light. God is spirit. God is light. Light portrays that he has all knowledge.

He has all wisdom. This He's not in the dark about anything. It also portrays that he's holy, he's pure. There's no shadow of evil in him. If you go to another book in the new testament, Hebrews chapter 12, we're we're told God is a consuming fire.

So his burning holiness will either purify us or burn us up. So God is spirit. God is light. God is a consuming fire, and now we're told God is Agapay love. And none of these contradict each other.

You've got to get that. God is never, ever less than love. It's not that sometimes he's holy and sometimes he's love, sometimes he's righteous, sometimes he's angry, sometimes he's love, God cannot be anything other than right than pure than holy than love? It's interesting because That little statement, God is love, has been used in the past and should be, I think, used today, to explain what Christians mean by the trinity or God is a try unity. He's 1 God, we believe in 1 God, in 3 persons.

So let me just go go on that, because we're just worth rubbing this in, and it'll help us with the rest of the stuff. God in the Bible is not a digital 1. He's he's not a singular entity. If he was, if God was just a digital 1, a singular entity, he could not be in his very nature agape love. He couldn't be.

Because agape love is a self giving love, a selfless love, a love that gives to another. Do you see that? So, God is love. If he is love, as this statement says, and he is love, that means he's he's always been in love. His eternal nature is love, then he couldn't be a singular entity.

You see, God, the Bible doesn't say God came love or became loving after he created the world. No. He is love and always has been love. Just to see the difference. So God is a complex 1.

1 God, 3 persons, Father, son, holy spirit. 1 God, 3 persons. And here, God can be a a guppy love. He's not on his own in loneliness. For all eternity, he's always had someone to love.

The father loves the son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Loving others being other focused is not a novelty to God. It's his utter root. It is who he is. It is who he's always been.

Do you see the difference? A solitary god, like Allah, in Islam, can have nobody or nothing to love until he creates. So it's possible he could become loving but it is not possible that he is love. Do you see the difference? Love for others, is clearly not at the heartbeat of a solitary god at a digital 1.

His very nature is fundamentally wrapped up with himself because he's the only 1 that existed. Let me read this, because I think it really helps. CS Lewis always comes to, you know, he always comes to helped, doesn't he? And when CS Lewis has got something, no 1 can put it better, so you have to quote him. It's slightly irritating, but he is brilliant.

He's just so brilliant. In his little novel called screw tape letters, It's it's it's a whole load of letters. It's pretend, it's not real, obviously, from a senior devil to a junior devil and how to tempt a Christian. It's a brilliant read. If you've never read it, you should.

So here's a senior devil writing to a younger devil about the horror that Godies love. He hates it, remember because he's the devil. Listen to what he writes. 1 must face the fact that all the talk about his love for men and his service being perfect freedom is not as 1 would gladly believe mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of himself, creatures, whose life on its miniature scale will be qualitatively, like his own.

Not because he has absorbed them, but because their wills freely conform to his. Listen to this. We want cattle who will finally become our food. He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in.

He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled. He is full and overflows. That's the difference. And every deity other than the God of the Bible is like that devil.

He wants to suck. He wants everything. He wants you to submit He doesn't want you as sons, but here the God of the Bible, at the very heart of who he is, is a lover is into relationships. He's a giver. A giver of love is agape.

That's the very heart of Christianity. And when you know that, when you get that, it changes everything. In how you see everything in life, and that's what John goes on to do. So my first point is, God is love, and grasp that, and you suddenly see that God isn't some just demanding, ruling monster, but a god that wants to bring us into his family. A God that tells us truth because it's for our good, it's loving.

And so John applies that. So here's my second point. We should love 1 another because it's God's eternal nature. That's the theological reason. He lays down who God is and now we should love 1 another because it's God's nature.

Look at verses 7 and 8, see what he does. Dear friends, let us love Same word by the way, agape love, let us love 1 another for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love, does not know God because God is love. God is love, and so everyone born of God must be about what God is about.

Love. We're born of God, If you're sons of God, then your children of love, he's saying. If that's the essence of who God is in all eternity, love, then if we're born of God, then that essence is in us, and and to love confirms our nature. It confirms who is our father. It confirms whose family we belong to.

God is the other person focused. So if we're of God, we're other person focused. If a hose is connected to a water supply, water will flow flow through the hose. Yeah? If a wire is connected to the electrical source, electricity will flow through the wire.

If a branch is connected to the tree trunk, then sap will flow flow through the branch. If a man or a woman is connected to the God who is love, then love will flow through. Do you see that? So God is love, first point, second point, we should love 1 another because God is love, his eternal nature. Here's the third point.

We should love 1 another, because God's supreme act is 1 of love. We should love 1 another because God's supreme act is 1 of love. Look at verses 9 and 10 now. Of 1 John 4. This is how God showed his love among us.

He sent his 1 and only son into the world. That we might live through him. This is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. God is love.

It's not just an abstract thought. It's not just an theological concept. God is love is demonstrated. You can see it He's demonstrated it. He's expressed his love in giving us the greatest gift he could ever give anybody.

God is love and the ultimate proof, the ultimate demonstration that God is love is the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, an extraordinary act of love. God, with perfect justice, could have damned a lot of us. Because what we deserve, every 1 of us, And he would have been righteous to have done so. There'd be no argument You wouldn't have been able to say, well, hold it, God, that's a little harsh. He had every right but he doesn't.

Because God is Agapay love, and he loves the unlovable. And he loves the unlovable by sending the 1 he absolutely is bold over with in love. His son, the 1 that he's known for all eternity, and the son willingly comes. And lays down his life for our salvation. The ultimate demonstration of God's love is the coming of Jesus and he willingly atoning for our sins, making us at 1 with God by his sacrifice on the cross.

Now hold that. Look at verse 10. This is love, not that we love God. It's nothing to do with you. It's not that you love God.

He doesn't love you because you love him. He loves you when you didn't love him. This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. That means making us 1 with God by him dying on the cross. Now hold it.

Let's go back because this is unbelievably important. Do you see why John is absolutely into the truth test. Remember John, he goes in a spiral, he's saying the same test to see whether we're a genuine Christian, again and again. He he just he deals with a subject, then another subject, then another subject, then he's back to the first subject, and it's like climbing a a spiral staircase and the column of the truth that he wants us to know is in the middle, and we're going around looking at different angles of it. He's always repeating himself.

Again, as we'll see in a minute. But last week, we were dealing with the truth test. So 1 1 of the things that we're authentic Christian is that we believe the truth about Jesus. Just have a look at chapter 4 verses 1 to 4. Let me just remind you of them, because this is what we were looking at last week.

Dear friends do not believe every spirit, so be careful what you believe, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. It's a truth test. Because many force prophets have gone into the world, This is how you can recognize the spirit of God. So here's the truth test. Every spirit that acknowledges and we saw that word means not just says, but actually lives in the light of it really confesses.

Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit that does not acknowledge that Jesus that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist. Listen. The truth test and the love test are absolutely inseparable.

This is why I preached the sermon last week on the truth test. You cannot, and I really mean this, you cannot believe in a God of love or a God of agape love, if you do not believe that God sent Jesus as an atoning sacrifice. You don't believe in the God of love like that. Now, there are lots of books out at the moment, in Christian bookshops, sadly to say. That are denying that Jesus is the atoning sacrifice.

But want to claim that they're talking about a loving God. No, they're not. Says John. No, they're not. A demonstration that God is the God of agape love is that Jesus has come as the atoning sacrifice.

If you say you don't believe that. If you don't live in acknowledgement of that, You don't believe in the God of love. You don't. The demonstration that God loves you is the death of his darling, sung the Lord Jesus Christ. This is love that we not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his son as the toning sacrifice for our sins.

If Jesus is not who he claims to be in those verses, If he isn't God, come in the flesh as we were soaring, seeing last week. Then you have no demonstration of his love, and therefore, you don't believe in the love of the God of love. So it's very important, but let's get back to us. This Christ likes self sacrificial, other focused love transforms the apostle. It's lovely, if you read his gospel, The sort of biography of Jesus he writes, John's gospel.

If you read that, he refers to himself not as John. It's really lovely, actually. Do you know what he refers himself as? The disciple Jesus loved. The disciple Jesus loved.

Now, I don't think I think some people get this wrong. He's not sort of having a go at the other 11 disciples. I'm the disciple Jesus loves. He doesn't love you. He's not that is not his thinking.

Yeah? I I'm pretty sure it's not. Yeah? I think he keeps saying that because he's the 1 writing because he's so utterly bowled over. The fact that God in Jesus would love anyone, but particularly me, people are self identifying with all kinds of things, haven't they?

Have you is that? You know, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a they're doing this constantly. If you said John, how do you self identify? He says, I'm the disciple Jesus loves. And when he's because he's self identifying as that, it totally transforms him.

Hey, John, what are you? What? What are you? I'm the 1 that Jesus loves. Way.

And so look at verse 9, look what he says. In 1 John 4. This is how God showed his love among us. That word among means in us. This is how God showed his love in us.

He sent his 1 and only son into the world that we might live through him. It's life changing. It's transforming. When I know that this God of all eternity in his very nature loves me and I'm 1 of his disciples, It transforms me, it transforms my self identification, he's in me, and everything else is different. So it leads me to my fourth point.

We should love 1 another because God is revealed by this love. Look at verse 12. No 1 has ever seen God, but if we love 1 another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. Hang on in there. These are deep truths, but wonderful.

Again, in John's Gospel, He writes right at the beginning, this amazing sentence. No 1 has ever seen God. Well, we know that God is spirit, so how could anyone 1 have seen him. But listen, no 1 has ever seen God, but The 1 and only son who is, himself, god, and is in the closest relationship with the father, has made him known. There's a lot in that sentence, but that sentence is saying at the beginning of John's gospel that no 1 seen God but Jesus is the 1 that reveals God.

He's the physical revelation of God. Now look at chapter 1 verse 4. It's like he's doing the same sentence, because he's the same writer. Yeah? Remember, in his gospel, no 1 has ever seen God, but the only, that 1 and only son who's revealed him.

Now look, no one's ever seen God. What do you expect him to say? No one's ever seen God, but Jesus has revealed him. But he doesn't say that. No one's ever seen God, but If we love 1 another, God lives in us, and his love is made complete The unseen God is revealed by the son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's now revealed by the son's family.

Us, if we love 1 another. Just take your bible and go to Ephesians chapter 3 in verse 10 and 11. Ephesians chapter 3 in verse 10 and 11. If you can't find it, don't worry. Just just listen carefully.

Because it's the same point being said. By Paul this time, not John, as he writes to the Church in Ephesus. Ephesians chapter 3, listen listen carefully. These are out. Standing words.

Listen already. His intent was that now, through the church, Now, the church isn't some old building, the church is God's people. His intent is that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realm according to His eternal purpose, that he accomplished in Christ Jesus, our Lord. His intent is that by God's people, the church, God's manifold wisdom is revealed. In John, his intent is that God is revealed by our love for 1 another.

And he talked about authorities and rulers. I mean, that's angels and the demonic realm as well. Right here, right now, there are angels says Paul in in ephesians, leaning over and looking at us. This is packed out with heavenly beings. Going, whoa, the love of god in Christ.

That is extraordinary. Do you see it? France's schaeffer doctor Francis Schaeffer, great philosopher of the last century Christian philosopher said, this is the ultimate apologetic. I've used this many times when the not when the when the atheist says, you can't show me God. I always now say hundred percent I can show you God.

I can definitely show you God. Well, where is God? Well, I can show it to you, but I I don't think you're up for it because your eyes are so blind when I show you God, you won't even see it. Oh, how dare you say that. Well, I'm saying it.

Well, where is God? Show me God. Well, I can show you God. Hundred percent. I can show you God.

Where is he then? We'll come to church. I'm not gonna believe that. Look, this is a massive This puts massive A massive, massive thing on the acts of love that you do here. Do you understand this?

I want you to revel in this. We've been learning at the prayer meeting about Whitfield. My goodness, I'd love to be him, wouldn't you? Gets up in the morning, walks out of his door, and there's 20000 people ready to hear the bible being opened up. Got honestly.

That It would faze me. I'd be scared, but I'd be so excited. And you think what an evangelist, but hey, listen. Listen. Every little act of love that you do, every agape love that you do here, is revealing God to the world.

You're an amazing evangelist. You're an amazing evangelist when you show an act of love. When you love me, I see God. When I love you, you see God. When we love each other, we're demonstrating to the world God is a gapay love.

The question is, why do people why why do people go on? You know, why don't they just Why don't we die instead of have long illnesses and lying in bed and feel like nothing so that God's people can show love to those people and that reveals who God is. My fifth reason, I'm sorry. I'll remind you of them all in a minute. We should love 1 another because God's love is made complete when we do.

Did you see verses 11 and 12? God's love for us comes to completion when we love 1 another. It's an extraordinary thing. See, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is a magnificent display of the love of God. If that didn't happen, his atoning sacrifice didn't happen, or it doesn't matter.

You don't see God's love. But it's a magnificent display of his love. It's a phenomenal display that he loves me a sinner, but it is to achieve something in me. It's not just a firework where I go, way. Look at that love.

Wow. Amazing, how beautiful, how gorgeous. Do you see the colors of that love? Did you see the sparkle of that love? Wow.

What an amazing love that God, a Gape love, that love for me, mazin. I'll go home and have a think about it. It's not just a fireworks show. It's supposed to be internalized, exploding from within us. If we just take the display of love and say, thank you very much.

I'm glad I'm special. I'm glad I'm loved. And do nothing about it. We're not completing what God intended in our lives. There's a purpose in our lives for this love.

That's why it's impossible to be a lone Christian. That's why church is utterly essential. Now, I know there are special circumstances where brothers and sisters are in solitary confinement, or the only Christian the village, they're exceptional. So don't use that as an excuse. You can't really know the love of God without being Church.

You can't just sit at home listening to the best sermons on the web. There's always gonna be fantastic preachers on the on the internet. Way better than you'll ever get here, I'm sure. But that is not. What church is about, and you'll never know the demonstration of God's love for you.

It's simply not love. Because you have to have another to give to, to complete your love. We demonstrate, where did we get this? We demonstrate the presence and the eternal nature of God when we love each other, like he loves us. His very presence is here at Cornerstone Church with every little act of love.

I can't show you god. I can't show you a picture of god, but if I show you love, I'm showing you god. God is here, when we love each other. His dynamic atoning self giving love is here. This is no ordinary meeting.

Not only are the angels here, Not only the demons wondering about this love. God is here. His very presence is here as we love each other. Isn't that extraordinary? Don't have to go on a hill, you don't have to go to Jerusalem.

You don't have to go somewhere to find God. He's here. When we love each other. So let's love each other. That person sitting next to you.

This is embarrassing there, isn't it? Love them. The people that have gone out to teach our Sunday school, love them. People have put the chairs out. Love you.

It would be flipping hard if you didn't do that. I'd have to stand for that long sermon. Thank you. I love you. I love you.

Lovely. Yeah? Thank you for that sacrificial loving. The people who are sad in this room, Going through coins of sadness is for whatever reason. He loved that person.

However, however, closed they are in 1 sense because they're so sad. We love them. People are not full of joy. You don't resent them and they've got flipping them. What's he got to be happy about?

Doesn't know my life. We love them. You know? Those that are coming towards the end of their life. You love them.

Those are beginning their life, you love them. And God's presence is here. James chapter 2, Suppose a brother or sister. It's a brother or sister. It's not just the world.

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes in daily the poor will always be among us. I'm not saying we don't do anything about the poor in the world, but this is specifically brother and sister. If you can't love your brother and sister, you won't love the world. Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food, If 1 of you says to them, go in peace. Keep warm, well fed.

But does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? It's not love. John Owen was a massive, pretty puritan head as big as this planet, I think. You try and read him, He was a great theologian. He said Christian love is to be as unconfined as the beams of the sun.

It doesn't select on whom it will shine its beams. You love even those annoying people in the church that you actually find unlovable, you love them. Okay. Here's my 6 point. I've called it aspects of love.

Yeah. I've got 6 points. Alright? So we're halfway through. Aspects of love.

This is the third time that John has spoken about love. He's come round in his circular method of teaching. You gotta remember, this isn't the mindless repetition of a an old man sort of teetering on the brink of cinility. It's the third time he's saying it, why do you think? Because we need to hear this.

Don't you? I mean, it would be amazing if you heard 1 sermon on love, and that was it. To tick that 1 off. What's the next subject? And then off we go, we're not like that.

We've got to hear these things again and again to rub them in, to understand them, to go deeper to challenge ourselves. There is in all of us, you see, selfishness, self interest, and self love that erodes loving 1 another if we're not careful. It washes it away. Sometimes we can be indifferent and cold to 1 another. Can't we?

Sometimes, we can go for long periods of time without planting love within the fellowship here. Well, let me remind you what we've seen, the aspects of love that we've seen. Let's put it all together. 1, You have a new nature, so don't suppress the new nature. The new nature is from the God of love, so love.

Don't suppress it. If you're cold and preoccupied with self, if you are suppressing your new nature If you're cold and you isolate yourself, you're going against the nature of God putting you. God has given you his nature and his spirit and he is love. Don't go against Don't act like an unbeliever. Yeah?

Unless you are an unbeliever, And that's the test, isn't it? If you've got a new nature, work on it, number 1, You have a new nature, so don't suppress that new nature. Let it out. Let it shine. Give it muscle.

Start small maybe because it's got little muscle and start to learn to agape love, which leads me to too. See how much you've been loved than love. I mean, think about how much you've been loved. You, I'm the disciple that Jesus loved, my goodness, me. How could he love me?

There was a film, wasn't there, that that I think was it called pay forward? What was it? Pay it forward. I remember enjoying it. I can't remember much about it.

But I think the fact was, if you if you've had a kindness done to you in life. Rather than, you know, you know, pay things back, you know, someone's done something nasty to me, I'll pay back. This is pay it forward. So I've had a kindness, so I'm gonna look for someone to give a kindness to. Well, that's Christianity.

How much have you been loved by the Lord Jesus Christ? Then love? Pay it forward, even to the person that's unlovable. Do you see that? So 1, you have a new nature, so don't suppress that nature.

2, see how much you've been loved and then love, and 3, if you like, I've now added a new 1, that he's paid the price for you. You're not your own. Therefore, he can command you to love 1 another. He can command you to do that. He bought you with a price, not for you to be your own solitary god, but to be part of the family of God.

He owns you, and he tells you and commands you to love 1 another. Fourthly, By loving 1 another, you are revealing God. What an extraordinary thing you are. He doesn't matter whether you're educated, uneducated, whether you've got a job that you love, or your job that you hate. It really doesn't matter that but you, as you love, reveal God to the world, it is extraordinary.

Doesn't matter how rich or poor you are? Doesn't matter if you've got a personality that you feel is very limited, and if only I could have a personality, doesn't matter. Whatever your limitation, or whatever your gifts. You can love and reveal God. That's extraordinary a levelling ground, isn't it?

Finthly, or whatever it is. I'm confused now. Love is completing God's love for you in you. There's a task for you to complete Sixly, you will have assurance, and this is why John writes. That you are a child of God when you show a gap I love.

See, I can swim. Believe it or not, I can swim. Sadly, but I can swim. I can swim. But do I really know I can swim?

Well, I remember that I swam. How how how do I know I can really swim? It's the swim, isn't it? It's not hard, is it? Jump in the river and swim.

Yeah? I know I can swim. At the moment, I'm a bit doubtful actually. I've got a memory of swimming. I think I can swim, but I'm not swimming.

So can I swim? Right? This is flipping, confusing. How do I know that you're a child of God? You love?

It's not that you did love. You've done a few loving acts. Is it? It's you're in the water and loving. Hey.

Yeah. Look. Okay. Yeah. And I'm getting better at it now.

I can do that breathing thing with my head instead of Yeah? I've got more, I know I'm la I know. You see how assurance works? I know I'm a child of God. I fail, I'm not very good at swimming, but I know I can swim because I swim.

I've got lots of improvements to do. I get puffed out very quickly, but I know that I am of God's nature because I have a gap of love. I do it, it brings assurance. It means I'm of the father. Now this will be a battle.

There's no doubt about it. Because growth is always a battle. Learning to do, your nature is always a battle. Look at the children, they have to learn to walk, and they fall over, they have to They're trying, they're learning, their nature is to walk, they keep falling over, and and we will do that. But we must love 1 another.

The old saying that many of you may have heard, to live above with those you love, that will be glory, heaven. To live above with those you love, that will be glory, to live below with those you know. That's another story. And it's right, isn't it? It's hard loving some people in this room.

But we are to do it. And as we do it, it's evidence that we're of the father. It's completing his work in my life. It's revealing God. It's obeying his command.

It's knowing that I'm so well loved that I love, and it's my new nature. And I don't want to suppress that. Dear friends. Let us love 1 another. For love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his 1 and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love, Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, dear friends.

Since God so loved us, we ought to love 1 another. No 1 has ever seen God, but If we love 1 another, God lives in us, and His love is made complete in us. Let's bow our heads and have a moment of quiet. Where is the rubber gonna hit the road for you?