New Covenant Church in Christ
Sermons and Services for New Covenant Church in Christ (Marion, NC)
New Covenant Church in Christ
Practicing Godly Love
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I John 3:16-23
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Okay. Um time for intercessory prayer with J.
SPEAKER_04Does anybody have anything they would like to have another room?
SPEAKER_02Um it's late and uh swelling and it's full of shirt a little bit.
SPEAKER_04What is that?
SPEAKER_01I know. Okay.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
SPEAKER_02Don't manage any prayer. Okay.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Anybody else? Gracious to the Father. We are so grateful we can come to you today with asking for aid, and we know that if we ask, then you you'll give it to the people who need it, Heather Father. And we ask you for Earl and Don and Kim. And we just ask that you intervene in their lives and give them healing and bless them and bless those around them who are there to support them. Because we know that all of your children are loved by you, and we know that through your power and your strength, that you can get them through everything that we have through this life. So we just thank you so much for the blessing that we have to be able to talk to you and come to you with anything that we need, have the father instead of thanks to your son. Jesus Christ. We had Tony for Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00All right, Thanksgiving prayer. Anybody? I know some of you just gotta be happy because it's hot as it'll be outside. I'll have to say, much as I hate to say it, I'm thankful. Like I said, I spent most of the day yesterday, Bush Hogan field full of allergies. But uh trying to get called up. But other than that, all right, let's bow our heads. Again, Father, we come to you thanking you. Thank you so much for the beauty of this new the newness of creation that we get to experience this time of year. We thank you for it. We thank you so much, Father, for bringing us back another week, uh, for going with us this past week and giving us the things we needed to sustain us and to carry us through. We pray, Father, that you would uh certainly continue to be with us and bless us. We thank you for all the many things that you've given us. Most importantly, Lord Jesus, we thank you for taking on our sin debt and allowing us to be children of God. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' holy name. Amen. All right, Gene.
SPEAKER_03I'm going to read Psalms 16, 8 through eleven. I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in his hope, for you have not led my soul in Shawn, nor will you allow your holy one to be corrupt. You will show me the path of life, and your presence is the fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
SPEAKER_00So just put your offering in the plate back there if you whenever you choose to do so. So I guess we shall move right along. This is one of them uh Sunday services we need during football season. Brief. We're gonna be looking at love, which uh, as most of you know, just a couple of weeks ago now, we celebrated Valentine's Day. Well, some of us celebrated Valentine's Day, but and if you did, I hope each and every one of you felt very loved. But obviously, we look around the world today, we don't see a whole lot of love. What struck me as interesting as I was digging around last week about Valentine's Day was the cost associated with it. This year, now I know they hadn't got all the final numbers in, but they estimated that we would spend roughly 2.5 billion dollars on candy. 2.5 billion dollars on candy. 2.9 billion dollars was spent on flowers with over 250 million roses sold. Now most of you I think growing up or still currently probably do a little gardening. Imagine the size of a plot you would need to raise yourself 250 million roses. That'd be a chunk of land. Also, there was an expected 220,000 couples getting engaged for marriage, resulting in nearly seven billion dollars spent on jewelry. Now, this might seem like an astronomical amount to be spent on love, and it is, but it pales in comparison to the actual cost of true love. We all know in the book, John 3 verse 16. This is the most famous scripture in all the Christian Bible, both Christian and non-Christian, believer and non-believer, angel and demon, Muslim and Jew. What other comparisons can I come up with? Atheist and agnostic, cab drivers and a few country music singers. Everyone knows this verse. John 3 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Here we see in that verse the true meaning of the word love. True love gives. That we should be called children of God. In our human nature, we most often are compelled to define love as a feeling rather than an action. That's why we see the divorce rate as high as it is throughout all walks of society, Christian or non-Christian. They get divorced because they didn't feel like they is loved anymore. There are four basic words in the Greek which the original writers of the New Testament used to define love. Four different words. The first is scorge. S-T-O-R-G-E. I don't know if that's how the Greek spelled it, but that's how it's spelled in my dictionary. Storge. This identifies as familial affection. The love that a son or a daughter would have for a father or mother. The love of family members. A love of a brother and his sister. If y'all happen to love your family. This is defined as romantic love, often associated with sexual desire and attraction. We here in the English get our word erotic from this Greek word eros. Third, we have the word phileo, which is described as brotherly love. Not family member brotherly love, but the love that you would have toward your colleagues, co-workers, neighbors. It's the love of a good friend based on respect for that individual. And lastly, we have the word agape, which we've all heard, which is defined as sacrificial, unconditional love. This is the highest form of love which is action-oriented and not dependent on merit. When the Bible speaks of the love of God and the New Testament, this is the word that's used, agape. It's used 140 times in the New Testament scriptures. Now you might think, why is this important, the lesson on love? Well, because we use the word love in our everyday lives to describe all sorts of things. Think about it. I love my boat. I love my house. I love Rocky Road ice cream. And then sometimes we even would use the word love to say something like, I'd really love to punch that dude in the nose. We use the word love very loosely. But throughout the New Testament, both God or Jesus uses the word love when he uses the word love either toward us or in commanding us. The word used is agape, unconditional, undeserved. We wouldn't speak to our, based on these translations of love. We wouldn't tell our mother that we phileo her. Hey mom, how you been? I really phileo you. See you later. That wouldn't be accurate, would it? We certainly wouldn't tell our little brother, hey boy, I air off you. It just wouldn't be very appropriate, would it? Mankind has come up with different forms of the word love. But anytime we see it in scripture, as it relates to God or Jesus, it is always the truest, highest form of love, which is agape. You and I as Christians live in a world filled with hate. And we see it every day. And the world's hate has grown increasingly strong against anything holy. We see it in every part of our lives. We see it in our politics. We see it in our entertainment on the television or on the radio or whatever the case may be. We see it in our society. People hate holiness. So how do you and I, as children of God, continue to practice godly agatha love? That takes us to our passage today, 1 John 3, and beginning in verse 16. Here John tells us by this we know love, because he, speaking of Jesus, laid down his life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in it and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God, and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us commandment. Father God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your love. We pray that it would saturate our beings today and help us to be a people of love, of godly agape love. Reveal it to us, Father. We thank you, we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. We see here in verse 16, again, John gives us both the definition and the source of true love. It is Jesus and his sacrificial action on our behalf. Jesus laid down his sinless life to save ours. That's the true meaning of Agatha Love because I don't know about any of y'all, but I can assure you that Richard Bristol never deserved a Savior. I never lived good enough to warrant getting into God's heaven based on my actions. But I am so thankful as a sinner saved by grace that Jesus Christ loved me anyway. And in doing so, he also encourages you and I, through John's word, to do the same. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. What's he saying there when he says we should lay down our lives for the brethren? He's talking about the brothers and sisters in our midst, in our family, the church. We should lay down our lives for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. We're bombarded on every side anymore. It seems like everywhere you go, somebody's got their hand out wanting money. I just thought of Saw Mouse. Somebody's wanting money. No matter what, no matter where you go, there's somebody there said, give us some money, give us some money. It's made clear here that our first priority is to our brothers and sisters in Christ and should be our main priority. What would the world look like if we made this our main priority in our daily Christian walk? Well, I can tell you this. There probably wouldn't be a Christian man or woman anywhere on welfare. There probably wouldn't be a Christian man or woman anywhere in need having to go to a food bank just to get necessary food for a week. But I know you and I live in the South. And you know there's something about us southern Christians. We don't want nobody helping us. We can do it ourselves. My lovely little old mama had a fella come over this past week because she couldn't get her favorite son over there ever, so got him over there, do a little lectural work, fixed it up, insisted on paying him, wrote him a check for $150, and he still yet ain't cashed it. And of course he goes to church with her, so she told me there Friday, I bet he won't cash it. I'll have to just skin him alive. I said, Well, Mama, what are you gonna do if he don't cash it? Some people just help people out. Well, I know, but these other people, I mean you know how stubborn my mama is. Verse 17, John goes on to give us a reality check. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? How can we call ourselves Christians, walk in the walk, talk in the talk, and walk by whenever we see one of our brothers or sisters in need? True love is demonstrated by the Christian by meeting the tangible needs of others, not just having sentimental feelings and offering words of encouragement. Well, I hope you get better. James 2 in verse 15 and 16 we read, If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? What does it good? What good does it do? We can hope joy and peace on everybody for eternity, but if we don't move and take action, it's never gonna happen. Just as Christ, a Godway love for us, required him to lay down his life for us, we too ought to be willing to take action on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Not necessarily every beggar we see at the intersection. Now, could they be Christians? Yeah, I'm sure maybe some of them are. To sound harsh, but it's our brothers and sisters that deserve our attention first. I know that so many people are in dire straits. Maybe by their own choosing, maybe not. But we're commanded to take care of our own. And hopefully, you know, maybe an opportunity arises where we can take that person on that corner into our family. Maybe they would receive Jesus as their Savior as well. But first and foremost, we owe our loyalties to our family. Verse 18, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. This is pretty well obvious what it means. Sometimes, I personally, I'll get a spiritual wake-up call in this area because someone will maybe go to telling me of their struggles and their troubles, whether at work, um, you know, you meet somebody on the street, and what's our common response? Well, I'll pray for you. I'll pray for you. And sometimes I catch myself going a few days on down the through the week before I realize that I never did. I never did. And God will gently nudge me and remind me, hey, you know, you met Johnny. He told you his troubles. You told him you was gonna pray for him. Loving someone indeed requires action. Loving someone in truth requires accountability. There are countless Christian organizations out there, we all have heard of many, whose mission is honorable, but there are also those organizations out there calling themselves Christian who exploit donors and to sending them money that never goes to their stated cause. We've all through the years heard the stories and seen the unfolding of televangelists and people who, you know, high up holy people flying around in billion-dollar airplanes. Kind of like that lady from uh Minnesota who came over here $30 and now she's got up to like 30 million. We have an obligation, whatever we give of our time or of our money, to verify who we're giving it to. There's popular commercials on what little bit of TV that I do watch, and one in particular, it just seems obvious to me that these people are begging your money and it's not going anywhere close to where they say it's going. But I'm sure there's a lot of people who can see that and have their hearts burdened down for a moment and send them plenty of money. But we have an obligation to verify and vet those that we give what God's entrusted us with, too. And in doing so, we can have the assurance that John describes for us here in verse 19. And by this we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before Him. John isn't just talking here about that warm, gooey feeling that we get when we think we've done something good. You remember that feeling? Something's going on, and you know, whether it be money or whether it be, you know, bake me a cake or donate me an old couch or something, we do that royal, we feel good for a little while. I've done something real good. That's not what God's talking about. We can be assured in our hearts, knowing that we're walking in God's will. When we act in love for our brothers and sisters in Christ. A good example of this we see over in Matthew, over in Matthew chapter 25, beginning in verse 31. Says, when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the whole all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats, and he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right hand, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. There's a lot of Bible right there. They just in those few short verses. But going on, he says, For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. They're standing around scratching their heads, looking at each other in bewilderment. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer and say to him, Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me. Whenever we are in God's will, I'm sure we don't think about it this way. But when we go do something that helps our brother or sister in Christ, we don't look at it as if that's Jesus that we just did that for. But here he tells us that that's exactly what we're doing. Back in verse 20 of John chapter 3. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things. What in the world does that mean? Well, you know, there are times when we let the devil discourage us and accuse us. Even though we are doing, the devil tries to accuse us of not doing enough. And even though we're giving, the devil tries to accuse us of not giving enough. And we get discouraged. And if we're not careful, we lay there and we'll waller in it. Because that's just exactly what the devil wants us to do. Sometimes, I'm sure you've been in this position. Whenever you hear someone say, Well, I'd like to help out, but I don't have any money to give. I can't swing a hammer anymore. All I can do is pray. Almost as if they're saying that prayer is somehow an insignificant act of love. The Bible tells us that the prayers of the righteous are as sweet as incense to our Heavenly Father. Look at Revelation 5, verse 8, sometime. Look at Revelation 8, verse 3 and 4. Don't ever think that our prayers are a second-rate act of love. When I hear people say, well, this person is sick, all I can do is pray. I try to encourage them, encourage myself. That's the very most important thing that can be done is prayer. Because when we are in communion with God, when we are in his presence in prayer with him, there's nothing that he can't do to answer that prayer if he chooses. We could have all the money in the world, we could spill it out for every cause. But without prayer, it's like throwing pennies in a wishing well. John reminds us here in verse 20 that if our heart condemns us, if we allow ourselves to be discouraged, if we think that we're not doing enough, at the end of the day, God is greater than our hearts. Praise you, Jesus. God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. Sometimes that could be scary because I've been in situations whenever I thought some things, and I'm not, God, I sure hope you don't hold me accountable for this. God knows what's in our heart before we even set out for our day. He knows our intentions. And he also knows that at times you and I are gonna fall short as humans. There are gonna be times when you know our desire is to conquer that mountain for God, but after three or four shovels at the bottom of it, we give up. God understands that. God understands that we're gonna fall. But he also knows the plans that he has established for us, as he tells us in Jeremiah 29, verse 11. So when we feel like we aren't doing enough, when we feel like we're not giving enough, we gotta remember that it's God working through us. Now, on the flip side, if you're not doing anything to spread the love of God and you're starting to feel a little bit condemned by it, then it's possible that God's trying to get your attention, wake you up, get you moving toward the goal. We continue on verse 21 and 22. We have confidence toward God that whatever we ask, we shall receive. Because we keep his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight. And I'll ask the question that most everybody asks. So, why don't I get everything I ask for? Why have I been praying for this one thing for what seems like 25 years? Well, if you dive into scripture and ask that same question, you ultimately have to ask the question: Am I asking for this to glorify God or to glorify me? Simply put, if we're walking close to God in obedience, then he will give us the desires of our hearts because our desires will be formed and shaped according to his desires. They'll match. Now, I still pray pretty regular, you know, that we would acquire an outreach pontoon. And I think at some point that may be in God's will. There's a lot of lost people out there on that lake. Finally we come to verse 23. And the whole of scripture, the whole of the gospel, here is summed up. And this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another. If you look at the Old Testament law and everything that the Jewish people had to do to be in right standing with God, many of us know all too well all the different do's and don'ts. The you shall and you shall not. You gotta do it this way and not that way. We all know how intense that was. And fast forward, here comes Jesus. Here he is hanging up there on that cross for me and you. Because it was obvious. God knew that us and our humanity, there's no way we could keep a law. We needed agape, we needed unconditional, we needed sacrificial, and we certainly didn't deserve it. God's command is so simple, but it's so profound. Believe in the name of Jesus and love one another. Obeying these commands assures God's abiding in us is guaranteed through the Holy Spirit. Agape is not a vague concept, it's practical, sacrificial, and active. It doesn't fade and it doesn't change, and it's given without expectation of repayment. And all I can say is thank you, Jesus. Thank you for dying for me. Thank you for giving me your agape love. Let's pray. Father, we do come before you in all. You're so good to us. You that's just amazing the love that you have for us. We know we don't deserve it, but we thank you so very much for it. Father, help us to be a people of love. Help us to reflect and radiate your love throughout our church, throughout our churches, throughout the body of Christ. Help us to be the light that you would have us to be. Equip us, Father, for righteousness. Equip us for loving one another as you would command us. And above all, we just thank you so much for your love. We'll pray you go with us this week and protect us. Please keep us safe and bring us back next week. And we thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Y'all talked me into it. We need to sing one more song after I turn this off.