WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.560 Today we are going to take a posture of peace by responding to the love of God. 2 00:00:07.920 --> 00:00:12.640 Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind you God is with you in everything. 3 00:00:13.200 --> 00:00:17.440 Together we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace. 4 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:26.160 So this week we've been talking about love, the love of God, and I encouraged you to 5 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:34.720 receive the love of God, to rely on the love of God, and today I want to encourage you to 6 00:00:34.720 --> 00:00:44.480 respond to the love of God. We are back today in 1 John chapter 4. This chapter is so rich. 7 00:00:44.480 --> 00:00:48.960 I encourage you to read the whole chapter in its entirety today. We're going to be reading portions 8 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:54.800 of it together starting in verses 7 through 11, and today I'm reading from the Passion Translation. 9 00:00:54.800 --> 00:00:55.920 It says, 10 00:01:24.800 --> 00:01:47.360 Listen to this language. 11 00:01:54.800 --> 00:01:58.400 Loving one another should be our way of life. 12 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:04.320 Now I said it before, if you've been a Christian for a while you've probably, 13 00:02:04.320 --> 00:02:11.360 I mean well you hopefully have heard about the love of God many many times. Honestly I think 14 00:02:11.360 --> 00:02:17.600 I've heard of it about it so many times that I had started taking it for granted. I didn't even 15 00:02:17.600 --> 00:02:22.800 realize it, but I think that's why the Holy Spirit has even recently in his kindness tapped me on the 16 00:02:22.800 --> 00:02:29.360 shoulder and brought me back to this truth of God's love so that I can plant myself here and 17 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:35.440 soak it all up again. And with the Holy Spirit's help, I've been practicing getting this truth 18 00:02:35.440 --> 00:02:41.200 about God's love out of my head and into my heart, so that it's not just head knowledge, 19 00:02:41.200 --> 00:02:48.400 but it's a truth that is informing my emotions and influencing my actions. It's not just a truth 20 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:57.040 that I know, but that I'm actively participating in. And 1 John chapter 4 makes it very clear. 21 00:02:57.920 --> 00:03:05.360 This is a love that God initiated with us. I didn't make it happen. You didn't start it. 22 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:13.680 We didn't earn it, but we can respond to it. We are in a relationship with God that he initiated 23 00:03:13.680 --> 00:03:20.880 with us. How cool is that? And now we get to respond to it by receiving his love for us, 24 00:03:21.440 --> 00:03:28.160 loving him in return, and loving everyone we encounter with his love. It flows to us, 25 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:36.480 it flows in us, so that it can flow through us. Now this is not an easy practice, I won't pretend 26 00:03:36.480 --> 00:03:42.480 that it is, because it is so counterculture to the world that we live in. The world only knows 27 00:03:42.480 --> 00:03:48.400 imperfect forms of love. The world is only participating in and responding to imperfect 28 00:03:48.400 --> 00:03:53.200 forms of love. Now I know this is a silly example, but it's a real life example that kind of just 29 00:03:54.160 --> 00:03:58.560 hits the nail on the head. We see people on social media all the time call for love and 30 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:03.920 unity. It is a deep, I believe, genuine desire of the hearts of all people. But then we see those 31 00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:09.440 same people moments later turn and do something and say something very unloving with someone that 32 00:04:09.440 --> 00:04:15.840 they disagree with online. For the world, love is just an ideal, it's not a reality. 33 00:04:16.880 --> 00:04:23.200 But for the people of the kingdom of God, like you and me, we have been empowered to bring the 34 00:04:23.200 --> 00:04:29.920 reality of heaven to earth. And I used to view that responsibility as almost in a militant mindset, 35 00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:35.920 like it would only be achieved through grit and self-determination. But then I looked to the life 36 00:04:35.920 --> 00:04:43.040 of Jesus when he was here on earth, and I realized Jesus lived in total response to the Father's 37 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:50.080 love for him. He knew that he knew that he knew he was loved by the Father. He so deeply trusted 38 00:04:50.080 --> 00:04:56.880 that truth through temptation and testing and trials, through receiving accusations, 39 00:04:56.880 --> 00:05:00.000 being misunderstood when he was misrepresented. 40 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:06.360 left alone, left behind. He did not waver. He knew that the father loved him and 41 00:05:06.360 --> 00:05:10.600 from that relationship with the father flowed a genuine love for the people 42 00:05:10.600 --> 00:05:17.600 around him and heaven was brought to earth. You know, I used to get angry, be 43 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:21.880 bitter, live in constant disappointment with this world and their inconsistent, 44 00:05:21.880 --> 00:05:28.240 often contradictory, demonstrations of love. But I realized it's because I 45 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:32.040 wasn't responding to the perfect love of the father, I was just reacting to the 46 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:37.200 imperfection of this world. And unfortunately through my participation 47 00:05:37.200 --> 00:05:42.440 in that imperfect flow and my obsession with it really, I ended up looking more 48 00:05:42.440 --> 00:05:47.320 like the world than I looked like my heavenly father. Because where we 49 00:05:47.320 --> 00:05:55.720 participate, we replicate. So what does it look like to respond to God's love? 50 00:05:55.720 --> 00:06:01.400 Well, another great chapter in the Bible, Galatians 5, Paul writes about the 51 00:06:01.400 --> 00:06:06.880 freedom that we have in Christ and he talks about how there's nothing gained 52 00:06:06.880 --> 00:06:11.440 by performing rituals. There's no justification that comes from our own 53 00:06:11.440 --> 00:06:17.840 performance. All of that comes through Christ. And in verse 6, he writes 54 00:06:17.840 --> 00:06:23.880 something very interesting. He says, the only thing that counts is faith 55 00:06:23.880 --> 00:06:33.240 expressing itself through love. A trust demonstrated by love. So here's the 56 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:41.080 response that I've been practicing. Trusting God so completely, trusting in 57 00:06:41.080 --> 00:06:47.200 his perfect love for me so completely, that I do not feel threatened, diminished, 58 00:06:47.200 --> 00:06:52.120 or depleted by the imperfection of this world. Instead, in the midst of the 59 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:58.880 imperfection, I'm empowered and free to allow his love to flow in me and through 60 00:06:58.880 --> 00:07:04.160 me. Paul writes later in chapter 5 in verse 13, he says, do not use your freedom 61 00:07:04.160 --> 00:07:11.200 to indulge the flesh. Rather, serve one another humbly in love. Going back to 62 00:07:11.200 --> 00:07:18.600 1st John chapter 4, in verse 19, it says this, we love because he first loved us. 63 00:07:18.600 --> 00:07:25.760 Again, God initiated this, not us. It takes God to love God. It takes God to 64 00:07:25.760 --> 00:07:33.120 love others. His nature is becoming our nature. As we receive and rely on and 65 00:07:33.120 --> 00:07:42.000 respond to his love, we look like him more every day. And what happens in that 66 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:47.960 transformation process of becoming more like him, being made into his image and 67 00:07:47.960 --> 00:07:58.280 likeness, is the reality of 1st John 4, verse 17, where it says, as he is, so are 68 00:07:58.280 --> 00:08:02.200 we in this world.