Sermon scripture: 1John4:7-12,16
Sermon title: God is Love
Introduction:
The scripture today is all about love. Usually, when we think of love, we will relate to marriage. How many of you here are married? How many of you are wishing to be married? Friendships lead to marriage can be a great blessing from our God. If we know how to have happy loving relationships with others, it will be a big benefit to all of us, whether you are in marriage now, or you are going to have marriage in future. Many people are eager to be in a good marriage. So we are beginning a series of message for next two months on relationship and marriage. In the beginning of this sermon series, we will learn about love first. We need to know how to love. Where does love come from? Love is the foundation of all the relationships. And our God is a God who wants us to enjoy love and relationships.
First let’s see where does love come from? From the verses we just read, we know love comes from God. God is Love.
How Do We Know that God Loves Man/Humans?
Let’s go back to the beginning of creation to see God’s love. From Genesis1 and 2 we know, God created all kinds of creation, He created trees, light and stars, day and night, fruits and animals, seas and lands. And a beautiful garden for man to live in. He prepared all the things for their needs and then created them. God abundantly gave them all that they needed. God not only loves man, but He is a God of relationship. He is real, like we are and wants a personal relationship with us.
He wants to know us. He wants to talk to us. In Genesis3:8-9says:” Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man,’ Where are you?’” From here we know, God was walking in the garden, and was talking to the man ”where are you?”
What did the man do when he heard the sound of the LORD God? He hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Why? What happened? Adam and Eve broke their beautiful relationship with God by disobeying Him In Gensis2:16-17 says:” And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘ You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.’” In Gensis3:6 says:” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.” They ate the food which God didn’t allow them to eat. . And this brought sin and death into the world. Death means separation from God. They broke their relationship with God.
The result of our disobeying God means our relationship with God is broken. Because of sin, man’s relationship with God was ended. does God still love us? Yes, He does still love us even we sin, God does still love us even we are in the darkness, even when we have no hope in ourselves.
How did God restore His relationship with us/mankind? How did God love us after we broke the relationship with Him? In John 3:16:” For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” Let’s read this together. In 1John4:9-10:” This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one 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.” Atoning sacrifice means that Jesus Himself took all the sins and in order to wash away those sins so He died on the cross, and if He did this, and our sins were taken by Him. He took the punishment of our sins. God will not punish the persons who personally believe in Jesus Christ. So through Jesus Christ, we may have eternal and loving life. Jesus Christ died on the cross to wash away our sins, and we are considered righteousness in Christ, so we could have loving relationship with God again.
So we know, love comes from God, He is love, and through Jesus Christ, we have a loving relationship with God again. How are we transformed if we know this and experience God’s salvation? By loving one another. If we truly believe in Christ, we are the people who are born of God and be considered knowing God. And the Bible here says everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.(1John4:7) So this type of person has love inside of them. So “love one another” is a command of God. “Love one another” also shows we belong to Jesus Christ. Many of us
Are interested in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship of love, but how well
Are we showing love to others?
How can we learn to love like God’s love? . How do we really love one another? How do we love each other? We can’t love as human beings, but if we more rely on the Holy Spirit, we will learn how to love. The Holy Spirit teaches us who God is, helps us to love each other, and helps us to heal our broken relationships with God and others. In 1John4:19-21:”. If anyone says,’ I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” Is this your situation? Do you love your brother or dislike other people around you? ? This “brother” refers to your wife, your husband, your friend, your mom, your dad, , and even the people who upset us..What does the Bible ask us to do in order to build good relationships with others, which will also help us in having good boyfriend-girlfriend relationships or a lasting marriage? In Colossians3:12-14says:” Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Sophia has experienced this in her personal life, she would like to share with you personally how would God let her love and forgive? Welcome her.
So dear brothers and sisters, I want you to think about some questions like this: do you love someone who mistreats you? Do you love someone who is unloving? Do you love someone who has hurt you before? Can you love and forgive someone who you don’t like? . We need to learn love and practice love for our whole life. We still have some persons we need to forgive in our deep hearts. We may love others superficially, but we maybe don’t like their behaviors in our hearts. Dear brothers and sisters, are you eager to have loving relationship with God? Do you want
To enjoy loving relationships that lead to a wonderful marriage? Let us ask the Holy Spirit who lives in us to help us really love others? Is there anyone you don’t love? Take a moment to think about this and pray for God to give you power to forgive the one you hate and love that person again.
What are the results of having loving relationship with God? God lives in us, and we live in God. God’s love is made complete in us.
Relate to marriage:
If we truly know God and have a personal relationship with Him, and have practiced showing love to others, this loving relationship will lead us into a satisfied marriage relationship. Whether we are in marriage now or not, first we need to ask God to help us to develop the loving relationship with Him and others. And in the following sermons of this series we will figure out some topics like: love and respect, listening and understanding, speaking in love, forgiving others, helping others, Love the person in the way which they expect. We need to practice each one specifically. So if you have any problems on relationships, if you want to do well in your relationships, I would encourage you to join in this special series this summer. And may this will benefit you guys, and we could enjoy our relationships which God prepares for us.
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