WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? #3
Manifested Love
Greg Howse, October 5, 2014
SO FAR WE HAVE LEARNED . . .
1. God is love
2. God does not love us because we are so good that we deserve His love
3. God does not love us because we are in such bad shape we need His love
4. God is love, and therefore, He loves us . . . there is nothing in us that causes Him
to love us
5. God first loved us . . . then we responded to His love by loving Him
6. God’s love language is OBEDIENCE
7. Obedience provides access to the presence of God
John 14:15,21,23
15“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
21“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
23Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”
John 15:10
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
We have God’s commandments
We keep God’s commandments . . . Obedience is God’s love language . . . all the time
. . . not occasionally
Jesus will manifest Himself to us
MANIFEST HIMSELF? What can we expect?
· Supernatural experiences in the presence of God
John 16:13-15
13However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 14He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. 15All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
If Jesus is our Lord and Savior, He is responsible to care for our well being
Jesus is not an absentee Savior or Lord
Jesus does not have a hearing or speaking problem
We are the ones with the listening and seeing problem
We have access to everything in God the Father
THE POINT OF LOVING ONE ANOTHER
John 17:6-26
6“I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. 7Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. 8For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
9“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. 11Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are. 12While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
13But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. 14I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. 16They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. 18As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
20“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; 21that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. 22And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: 23I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
24“Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. 25O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. 26And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”
John 13:34,35
34A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
THE LAST QUARTER OF 2014
Dangerous Times . . . FEAR
Economic tension . . . sinking U.S. economy / unemployment
emerging China & India economies
Rise of Islam . . . ISIS
International tension
Violence in the streets of Chicago
1. We are intentionally moving into the future
NOEL WOODROFFE:
We are not driven by our historical past; we are drawn by our prophetic future.
PAST: Hurt; wounds; disappointments of failure; pride of success
FUTURE: Moving by faith with expectation; great potential
We prefer to remain in a comfort zone
In a comfortable place we will not discover the force by which God will break through all resistance
As long as we are comfortable, we will not be challenged by faith
· Work on relationships
· Deeds of kindness
· Prayer
2. We are intentionally receiving the Word of God into our lives
NOEL WOODROFFE:
A Word from God lifts us into a spiritual formation that aligns with His nature and character. God is drawing us upward!
Whenever God speaks, the context of life changes - our motivations, thoughts, impulses and priorities have to fundamentally change.
Psalm 119:12-16
12Blessed are You, O Lord! Teach me Your statutes.
13With my lips I have declared all the judgments of Your mouth.
14I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches.
15I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate
Your ways.
16I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget
Your word.
· Reading the Bible every day, trusting God for revelation
3. We are intentionally building our spiritual strength to live in holiness
ANDY STANLEY:
If every Christian just took a 3-month vacation from Porn, Weed, Premarital Sex, Adultery; and every church foster a couple of kids, we would feel a change in our culture.
As our spiritual core modifies, as the Spirit of God within us moves, the structures of our humanness must adapt, develop and move toward a position of overcoming power
GRAHAM KING:
Engagement and Invasion can only be effective from a correct inner life.
Corporate cohesion begins with the integrity of the structures of individual lives.
· Eliminate pre-planned, pre-meditated acts of sin
· Wisdom to make righteous choices in the moment
4. We are intentionally going to love one another
John 13:34,35
34A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
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