Fireproof- #2 1 John 4:7-19
 

The story of Roger Bannister is legendary in the annals of sports history.

On May 6, 1954, Bannister broke the four-minute mile barrier. People said it was humanly impossible to run a mile under four minutes. They thought we were incapable of covering that amount of distance in that amount of time.

For 9 full years the record was 4:01.4, set by a Swedish runner in 1945. All but a few dreamers thought a 4 minute mile just couldn’t be done. But 46 days after Bannister broke the four-minute barrier, an Australian lowered the record still further. Once Bannister proved it could be done, many others did it. Today, hundreds of runners have eclipsed four minutes. John Walker did it 129 times. Steve Scott did it 136 times. Bannister ran a 3:59. The record today is 3:43.

Until somebody finally did it, nobody thought it could be done!

Most of us have difficulty doing things we’ve never seen or experienced before.

Last Sunday, I began a series of messages about relationships borrowing themes from Fireproof, a film about a marriage teetering on the brink of divorce. The husband, a fireman named Caleb Holt, decided that, just like you never walk out on a partner in a fire, so you never walk out on a partner in a marriage. He tries to save his marriage, but realizes that mere good intentions are just not enough.

The messages in this series will give you practical tools to help you to be a better husband, wife, neighbor, and friend, using the wisdom of the Scripture; illustrations from life, and my own experiences as a Christian. But for this message, I want to point you to the source of good relational behavior.

Like the sub-four-minute mile, many of us have missed out on an experience that God says is essential for the human soul: we’ve missed out on experiencing love at the deepest level. What you have not seen or experienced, you will not duplicate. This morning I want to point you towards God and His love, so that you can see and experience love.

Despite all kinds of talk about love in our pop culture, some us grew up in homes where we never experienced anything like true, deep, unconditional love. Not knowing what that kind of love felt like, we found that loving another is a tough, if not impossible, assignment!

Today’s premise is simple, yet profound.

            Before we can give love, all of us need to be loved.

Let me show this to you in very practical terms.

Text- 1 John 4:7-19 Pew Bible page 1902

 John was the youngest of Jesus’ twelve disciples. At the very beginning of His ministry, in Matthew 4, Jesus calls John and his brother James out of their fishing boat and says, “Follow me.” John did. For 3 years, he watched Jesus love others, listened to Him teach, ate meals with him, heard Him pray to His Father, watched Him die on the Cross; and finally was a witness to the resurrected Christ, which proved who Jesus was really was! .

John concluded that, in Jesus, he had found the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

In obedience to Jesus’ call and with enthusiasm, he devoted his life to telling others about God’s love. He did that for 50 years, then 60 years. Finally, when he was advanced in age, John writes to a group of people that matter deeply to him. In this little letter he calls them, “Dear children, my dear children,” and “dear friends.”

By the time John writes this letter, he’s learned something everyone of us needs to know:

that relationships are important! The toys, the titles, the promotions, the events, at the end of life, matter little when we are wrapping it all up. Relationships outlast achievement!

Listen, or better yet, follow along as I read God’s Word spoken through John, the Beloved Disciple:

Let me show you a few things from this passage. Look at the first verse we read:

∙          “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God… Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

– In one verse, he uses the word “love,” five times. The Spirit revealed an amazing fact to John - Love is of first line importance in the Christian life. Must be a quality of love far superior to the romantic notions we attach to the word, love, wouldn’t you conclude?

I find it most interesting that John’s test of true discipleship is not about right doctrine or perfect morality! Instead, he writes about loving others! Relationships are the true test.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

What does this have to do with you? Everything.

Most of us long to be loved, but we don’t know how to get it.

Many of us long to give love, but we keep sabotaging our own efforts and making things worse.

Some of us feel like we’ve tried to love those around us, but it never quite works out, so we toy with just going off on our own and giving up on the whole relationship thing. Isn’t that true?

Let me show you five principles of relationships from what John, this wise and loving old man, has said to us here.

This first principle may be more implied than stated, but it’s true.

1. When people have profound experiences, they want to share them.

I remember the day, February 10, 1977 when my first child was born! When the nurse in Hackettstown Hospital laid that tiny 6 lb. 4 oz. boy in my arms, I cried tears of joy and fear that I thought might never stop. Then, after leaving the hospital, I stopped at a little diner for breakfast, where I breathlessly announced to anyone who would listen, “my wife had a baby boy this morning.” I didn’t care if they were interested or not. It was something I just had to talk about, wanted to share!

You’ve had some great moments like that too, haven’t you?

When something so good happened, you just wanted to share it with everyone?

John says, Since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. – 1 John 4:12

2. An encounter with God’s love is a profound experience.

And when we have profound experiences, we naturally want to share them.

So when you experience God’s love, you naturally want to share that love with the people you love. Did you follow that?

Though I have been a follower of Jesus since my childhood, I was 30 years of age, when I really experienced the love of God in the most powerful way in my life! I had always believed that God loved the world, like it says in John 3:16. What had never occurred to me before was that God loved me, just me, for who I was.

On March 23, 1985 a 2 yr. old foster son in my care, wandered into Dad’s farm pond and nearly drowned. Initially, when I pulled his body from the pond, he was lifeless, not breathing, without a pulse. After extensive CPR, minimal signs of life emerged and for the next 24 hours he hung between life and death, on life support. Guilt and remorse overwhelmed me. Never before had I felt such a sense of failure and despair.

That night, when we left the baby in intensive care the Doctor’s words just kept running through my mind, “This child will not live, and if he does, he will never walk or talk again.”

I was so overcome with emotion, I could not even drive home from the hospital. But, about 10 PM, God showed up in our bedroom, and comforted me in a way that I cannot put into words. It was a bath in love!

I was never the same. Yes, I am imperfect, but I’ve never doubted God’s grace and love, for me or for others since that awful and wonderful night. It was a profound experience.

By the way, that child recovered entirely and two weeks later, on Easter Sunday morning, I stood him right here on this stage, where he pointed to Heaven as I sang, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so...”

When you experience God’s love in such a profound way, you will naturally want to share it. Nohting in this world can compare with experiencing God’s love.

You can receive God’s love today! We’re going to pray together before I finish today.

Principle #3:

3.         Those who live close to God find that their love for others is always increasing.

Let me prove this to you. John says in v. 16.  God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

In this way, love is made complete among us. – 1 John 4:16-17

When you live close to God, you find your love increasing. It’s like when you hang around someone who’s really good at what they do.

∙          If you hang around with a great athlete, you’ll find yourself thinking about sports, eating better, exercising more, working to get better at one or more sports.

∙          If you hang around a focused businessperson, you’ll find yourself thinking about setting and achieving goals, being more productive, taking advantage of opportunities as they come your way.

∙          If you hang around a mom, you’ll find yourself noticing her children, thinking about their welfare.

Greatness is contagious. If you hang around it, it’ll rub off on you.

God’s love is so great that if you live close to Him, you will find yourself becoming more like Him, valuing what He values, acting like He acts. When you get close to God, you will find yourself becoming more loving, and that’s the key to all relationships.

“So, how do you get close to God?”

You hang out with Him, just like you’d hang out with a friend.

∙          You talk to Him, you invite Him to go with you during your day, and you learn to be aware of the Holy Spirit’s Presence with you everywhere!

∙          You pray, which means that you talk with Him.

∙          You read the Bible. The more I read this book, the more His thoughts become my thoughts, and the more His thoughts become my thoughts, the closer I feel to Him.

∙          You come to church, because this is where the rest of God’s friends hang out, and when you’re close friends, you start to hang out with your friend’s friends.

The closer I feel to Him, the more my love increases – yes, for Him, but also for my wife and friends, and acquaintances, and people I don’t even know.

The more you know God, the better you will become at loving people.

John says, “God is love.” Not, “God has love,” but, “God is love.”

People, you cannot give what you do not have. God is love. If you have Him, you have love. If you do not have Him, you only think you have love because God not only has not only cornered the market on love, God is the market when it comes to love.

If you take nothing else from what I say today, take that. The more you know God, the better you will become at loving people.

You cannot give what you do not have! However, when you have God’s love, you then have the ability to give everyone a quality of love that will make their lives richer.

But there is a first step you must take. Friends, there is nothing stopping you for become close to God.

The first step isn’t hard and it isn’t complicated - but it is costly! You have to let go of ownership of your life and invite the Lord Jesus Christ to take over. He’s already invited you, and now the decision is yours!

In the book of Revelation, Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.” – Revelation 3:20

In the Jewish faith, there is nothing closer than having a meal together. God says He is eager to have a meal with us. All we have to do is open the door. He’s there, He’s willing, He’s waiting. If you want to get closer to God, you just need to open the door Opening the door is a metaphor for inviting Christ into your life. Some of you may want to do that today. We will pray together in a few minutes. But let me complete this thought first.

Once you’ve gotten close to God by opening the door of your life to Him, the key is to stay close.

Staying close to God is a daily choice. It’s not complicated, but it is costly because it requires time and discipline!

One of my favorite writers, Richard Foster, has written about the choices that open us to the experience of God’s Spirit and to the transformation of our character into the likeness of Jesus.

The book is called, the Celebration of Discipline. In it, he talks about things like:

            Meditation, Prayer, Scripture study, submission, worship, and service!

“Pastor Jerry, those things are too hard for me to do.”

No, they are not. They are choices that the Holy Spirit will help you to make.

And, too, you don’t have to do it alone! You have a family here. You can join a group like our “Foundations” class where you are helped to learn these new things.

And, as you do, you start to see a whole new dimension to life, the life of the Spirit - where you begin to know that God is here, that HE is near, and that He loves you!

Can you see this? Is this making sense? Can you see why you need God’s love in order to love others?

If you continue reading John’s words, he says something surprising in v. 18. He says,

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. – 1 John 4:18

John goes to the heart of Christianity with that statement. So much of religion is focused on fear, on trying to appease an angry God, or to earn His approval, but the Good News of Jesus Christ changes the view! God loves us right now and wants us to love Him in return.

That’s John’s fourth principle!

4. Love eliminates fear.

Most of us want to love, but we are afraid:

Afraid of failure. Afraid of rejection. Afraid we’ll be hurt or disappointed.

Fear is the belief that something nearby is harmful or dangerous. There are lots of things that are harmful and dangerous in this world, so there are lots of reasons to be fearful. - Unless you have love. Because perfect love drives out fear.

The Apostle Paul says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

Hebrews says, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can human beings do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6, TNIV)

Love eliminates fear.

As a result of staying close to Jesus, this old man named John, became a person who excelled in the fine art of loving.

When you’re loved, you start to excel at loving.

When you’re all about love, you stop fearing people.

When you have no fear of people, you stop competing with them,

            you stop trying to get them to notice you, and

you stop depending on them to make you feel good.

All of this is summed at v. 19. READ

5. We love because He first loved us.

That’s the great secret that John unveiled 2000 years ago. We love because He first loved us. We cannot give what we do not have, but once we have received love from God, if we stay close to Him, we just get better and better and better at loving people.

Roger Bannister did humanity a great favor by running the mile in 3:59. He showed us we could do something that nobody thought could be done. Since his time, many people have run sub-four minute miles. In that way, Roger was like Jesus. John says that Jesus came to show us what real love is—selfless and others-centered, and to enable us to experience it.

We cannot give what we do not have. But we can have what God is offering us, and He’s offering love this morning. Love so that we can love Him and love others.

Let me give you two Challenges, and then we’re done.

The first is,

            receive God’s love if you’ve never done so before.

This is a challenge, because it requires faith and humility on your part. Faith to believe that God really will love you and to start following His ways. Will you ask Him to take your life, to let you experience His love? Will you be humble enough to admit that He is God and you are not?

With faith, pray something like this —

                        Lord Jesus, I want to receive your love today. I believe

    You came and died for me, showing me just how much you loved me -

even when I didn’t care about you. I want to be your follower, starting today.

Come into my life today. Forgive my sinfulness and my willfulness.

Help me to change, to become like you, loving others. Amen.

 With that invitation, the Bible says you enter the Kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit of God coming to give you new life, a new inheritance as a child of God. You can experience His love every day. Don’t miss it!

If you don’t have a Bible, ask me or one of our elders, and we’ll give you one so you can read God’s thoughts and begin to think like Him. And whatever else you do, be sure to come back next weekend so you can continue to build a habit of hanging out with God’s people.

The second Challenge is a three-part-er, one part will fit who you are.

∙          Husbands:      every day this week, ask the Lord to show you one way to love your wife, and then do it.

Here’s how you can do this. Spend 4-5 minutes talking to God each morning, and at the very end of your prayer say, “Lord, show me one way I can tangibly love my wife today.”    If something comes to mind, do it. If nothing comes to mind, read 1 Corinthians 13 - nicknamed the “love chapter.” I guarantee you’ll think of something while you’re reading that. Husbands, will you take this challenge?

∙          Wives:every day this week, ask the Lord to show you one way to love your husband, and then do it.

Work the same process your husband is going to work. A few minutes of prayer, reading 1 Corinthians 13 if you don’t hear anything directly from God. Then doing whatever it is that you believe the Lord wants you to do that day to love your husband. Wives, will you take this challenge?

If you’re not married, you can still take a challenge to love. God knows there are plenty of people who need to be loved - so your challenge is similar.

∙          Make a list of 6 people - friends or co-workers- and assign a day to each of them. Then, every day this week, ask the Lord to show you one way to love the person of the day, then do it

Let’s pray. (Ask God to walk closely with each person, to strengthen their love and ability to love. Ask Him to give them ability to give love in meaningful ways each day this week.)
 

Jerry D. Scott 2008

Resource - Outreach.com