Living In His Love
Notes
Transcript
Good morning Church!
Announcements:
We had a wonderful time at Lighthouse Christian Camp yesterday. There were almost 400 girls there in attendance and there were well over 200 volunteers there to help make it happen, and let me tell you, there was not a single one too many.
We had a wonderful time. Everyone loved serving those girls, and they had a blast.
The boys Christmas party is coming up this Saturday. If you want to volunteer, you will need to be there by 8:00 AM. They will get you sorted from 8-9, and then the buses will start rolling in around 9. It is a long day, but it is a rewarding day.
12/11/2022
Christmas Play during our Sunday School hour.
There will be a youth party afterwards.
12/14/2022
We will be doing our fruit baskets this Wed evening.
12/18/2022
Thanksgiving/Christmas Dinner after the service.
Praise Reports:
Joe Thomason has gone to be with the Lord.
Prayer Requests:
Mrs. Brenda Thomason. She also has the flu and sounds rough.
Keshia is still sick. Please pray for her.
Tithes
Children’s Church
Doxology:
This is my Bible. It is God’s Holy Word. It is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path, and I will hide its words within my heart that I might not sin against God! Amen!!!
Open Bibles To: John 3:16
God is good! Even when we are going through rough times, God is good. Even in the midst of sorrow, God is good! No matter what happens in this life, we can always trust and believe one thing, and that is that God loves us. He has shown that love to us. He has proven that love to us. He has promised His love for us. God’s love will never fade. If nothing else in this life is worth shouting over..........that is! God is good!!!
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Context
Context
A pharisee has come to see Jesus. It is in the middle of the night, because he is afraid to be seen with him in broad daylight. He comes asking questions about Jesus and His teachings.
Jesus astounds this man, along with everyone else sitting there with His words.
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
This man is a Pharisee. That means he is a teacher of God’s Word. He is a man that stands in the synagogues and tells others about God, yet he himself does not understand the simple truths that Jesus speaks of.
Jesus has literally blown this man’s mind. He is speaking concerning a second birth. He tells Nicodemus that in order for a man to go to heaven, he must be born a second time. Nicodemus simply cannot grasp what Jesus is saying. He is thinking in physical terms, but Jesus is speaking in spiritual terms.
I wonder if we ever miss God’s intention for our lives because we are in physical mode and miss the spiritual blessings He is trying to send our way.
Now for those who may not know, Pharisees were religious leaders, but their teachings had ventured far from God. Though they would base their teachings on scripture, their understanding of God’s Word was vague at best. Because of this, they were leading many people away from God.
Nicodemus considered himself to be a believer of God. He taught the Word of God to people on a regular basis, but Jesus wanted him to know the true meaning of salvation.
With that in mind, Jesus begins to speak concerning the salvation of God.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Content
Content
For God
For God
The first thing that Nicodemus needed to understand, was what it meant to believe that God was God.
To believe that God is God, means that nothing else is.
It is to admit that there is nothing else in this world worthy of 1st place in your life.
It is to allow God to be on the throne of your life and agree with what He says.
It is to surrender yourself to Him in complete obedience, and determine in your heart that His will, will be your will.
And what is God’s will?
God so loved the world.
He sacrificed everything so that every single person that would ever live could be saved.
This is His will.........Therefore, if God is God, it must be our will as well.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
love is the character trait of a Christian. One who does not love others, does not know God (v. 8)
Notice what type of love this is. This is the love of those who have not loved you yet. He loved us before we loved Him. (10)
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
To believe that God is God, is to live out His will in our lives.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
If you are in the condemning business, then you are not in the business of God. God’s business is all about salvation. If you’re words, or your works, have any purpose other than the salvation of God, then you are not walking in the will of God.
18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Everyone has to make the choice of whether they will allow God to be the God of their life or not.
Everyone has to make the choice of whether they will remove themselves from the throne of their own life.
Everyone has to make the choice of whether they will truly love God. To love God is to keep His commandments, and His commandment is to love others. If you refuse to love others, then you refuse to love God. If you refuse to love God, then you choose the condemnation of God. This is the choice.
It says right here in the next verse:
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Evil people, which is simply all of those who have refused to allow God to be God of their lives, choose to walk in darkness instead of the light of God.
How do I know the difference? How do I know if I am walking in the light or not?
It already told us that:
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
If your actions and words are to the glory of God and the saving of lost souls, then you are in His will.
If your actions are anything other than that, then you are walking in darkness.
Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost.
If the lost denied Him, He did not run around and spread a bunch of mess about them all over Jerusalem. He prayed for them and simply moved on to another group of people who would listen and believe the words that He spoke.
Jesus loved people. We are to love people. If you are not loving others, even those who do not love you, then you are refusing the light that has come into this world to save your soul. If you choose to allow the cares of this world to drown out the supernatural love of God, then you are choosing hell.
Someone might be setting here and saying, that is a little harsh, Bro. Thomas. Not according to God. Look at the next verse:
20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Those who practice evil “Hate” the light. Why do they hate it? “Because if they approach it, their deeds are exposed.”
Those who are truthfully serving God, do not operate on secret agendas. They don’t operate behind closed doors.
Why is it so important that God is God? Because of the next phrase of the verse:
So Loved
So Loved
The natural result of God being God, is love.
God loves us, and when we make Him God of our lives, we WILL love others.
When our hearts are filled with love, everything else goes away.
There is no more fighting. There is no more bickering. There is no more trying to be on top. There is no more gossiping about others. None of that. It all goes away, when our hearts are filled with love.
It brings unity to those who truly put God first. They realize that God loved us, and that we are supposed to love others. Even those who do not love us back. That is the will of God.
The World
The World
That’s us!!! God loved us, even when we did not love Him. God gave everything so that we might be saved, and then said, “If you love me, you will do the same for others.”
16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
We don’t have a Jesus + faith. We have a Jesus only faith!!!
When did it become not enough to be saved?
When did it become not enough to have our sins forgiven?
When did it become not enough to have a Heavenly Father who loves us and gave everything for us?
When did it become not enough to have eternal security in a righteous, Holy God?
When did it become not enough to have purpose and meaning in life?
When did it become not enough to be a child of the King?
Is it not enough? Is it not enough?
It has to be enough.....Because there is nothing else. Outside of God, there is nothing else.
26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
If it is enough for us, it is enough for rest of the world. This is the message we must be sending out into the world.
A message of love.
A message of hope.
A message of unity.
A message of salvation.
Commitment
Commitment
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.