The Bethany Bullet Sermon Message - Week of May 6, 2018

Sermon: “LOVED & LOVING: Loving Them Starts with Loving Him!”

Text: 1 John 5:1-12

Jesus let love be the final word, when just before breathing His last and offering up His spirit He said, “It is Finished.”  Those “three little words” are the clearest proclamation of “I Love You” ever spoken.  No greater love is there than this, that One lays down His life for His friends. 

The words, “It is finished” are a declaration of the love of which John has been describing throughout His epistle.  How true it is that there is nothing you could do to make God love you anymore than He already does – Jesus sacrifice proves the extent of God’s love: Unconditional & Unilateral.

And there is nothing you have ever done that could cause God to love you any less, for in His ultimate demonstration of love, Jesus paid the price for love you lack for Him and neighbor. 

Thus His command that we love one another is a command to do as He has done, and to give as we have received.

The heart of such Christian Love ought to include:

Listening – Listen before you speak, get to know before making something known, desire to hear as much as you desire to share, such is at the heart of Christian love.

Overlooking - To overlook is what the catechism terms, “putting the best construction on all things.”  Before judgment is passed and a verdict rendered, before assumptions are made and conclusions drawn that serve only to demean others determine to put all things in the best possible light.

Valuing – We live in a world of identity overload.  Everyone is put into a category, sometimes of their own choosing, sometimes the survey gives us our options, sometimes society our social media put us where they’ve pigeonholed us, but Christian love must compel us to see each other’s core identity as nothing less than a child of God.  “Whoever loves the father loves his children as well”

Embodying – Christian love is nothing other than the embodiment our Lord Jesus.  “We love because He first loved us and has given us this commandment: whoever loves God must also love God’s children.”

 -Pastor Kevin Kritzer