WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.520 Today we are going to take a posture of peace by relying on the love that God has for us. 2 00:00:09.120 --> 00:00:14.400 Posture is a short audible fist bump to remind you God is with you in everything. 3 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:18.640 Together we're going to be emboldened to take a daily posture of perfect peace. 4 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:26.800 So yes, we are talking more about love today. It's really the theme 5 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:33.120 of the week. The Lord has, I just think, reawakened my heart to the profound 6 00:00:33.120 --> 00:00:39.920 truth of his love for us. And so today I'm going to be reading from 1 John chapter 4, 7 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:48.240 verse 16. It says, So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. 8 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:57.520 God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 9 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:04.959 Now, I just read from the ESV translation. The NIV translation of this verse says, 10 00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:13.840 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love 11 00:01:13.920 --> 00:01:20.720 lives in God and God in them. That word rely just captured my heart. The word that's used 12 00:01:20.720 --> 00:01:26.320 here for believe or rely on, which I will not even try to pronounce in the Greek because 13 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:31.680 I'm not a Greek scholar and I don't pretend to be, but I encourage you to look up that word. 14 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:39.520 That word used here in the original Greek is so much stronger than just thinking or feeling like 15 00:01:39.520 --> 00:01:47.120 something is true. It's speaking of an activating trust, a trust that is so deep you act upon it. 16 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:56.240 You live in it. It's not like, I think this is true. No, it's I live this certain way because 17 00:01:56.240 --> 00:02:04.320 I know this is true. I know God is love. I know God loves me. I know God loves you. 18 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:11.440 Now, it may sound simplistic to some of you, especially if you've been a Christian for a while 19 00:02:11.440 --> 00:02:18.480 because you've probably heard about the love of God for years. But this is not a simplistic truth. 20 00:02:18.480 --> 00:02:26.480 This is a very big deal. I think that this is the whole deal because people who believe they are 21 00:02:26.480 --> 00:02:37.040 fully loved live differently. There is a settledness. There is a peace, a joy, a confidence 22 00:02:37.040 --> 00:02:45.280 that cannot be shaken from people who believe that they are fully loved. But for many of us, 23 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:51.200 and myself included, I'm not just picking on you, even though we may believe God is love, even though 24 00:02:51.200 --> 00:02:58.560 we may have been told a thousand times that God loves us, that God specifically, not generically, 25 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:05.840 but specifically loves you, not partially, but fully loves you. Even if we've heard that a 26 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:12.880 thousand times, we still sometimes waver with this truth. We go back and forth in our heads 27 00:03:12.880 --> 00:03:20.720 and our hearts about whether we are loved, liked, and fully accepted by God. And perhaps this is 28 00:03:20.720 --> 00:03:27.520 because we are more familiar with imperfect love than with His perfect love. Maybe it's because 29 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:32.640 we attribute to Him a love like we've experienced in this world from other people, which is often, 30 00:03:33.360 --> 00:03:38.880 it has often conditions, and it's based on our performance or our behavior, and it can 31 00:03:38.880 --> 00:03:43.840 fade or it can be exhausted or it can be frustrated. You know, we've been abandoned, 32 00:03:43.840 --> 00:03:48.800 we've been broken up with, we've been left behind by people who have said at one time 33 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:56.880 that they loved us because people are imperfect. And so their love, therefore, is imperfect. 34 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:04.560 And when we experience an imperfect love, we often put up walls to protect ourselves from ever fully 35 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:14.320 relying on imperfect love again. But in doing so, we sometimes also shut ourselves off from 36 00:04:15.040 --> 00:04:18.560 relying on the perfect love of our Heavenly Father. 37 00:04:20.320 --> 00:04:27.280 But people who believe that they are fully loved live differently. And I don't know about you, 38 00:04:27.280 --> 00:04:33.280 but I want to live differently. I don't want to live in fear or suspicion. I don't want to be 39 00:04:33.280 --> 00:04:42.480 tossed around by double-mindedness when it comes to God's love for me. What happens when we rely 40 00:04:42.480 --> 00:04:50.880 on this perfect love? Well, according to 1 John, it doesn't just flow in us, it flows through us. 41 00:04:51.520 --> 00:04:56.080 Let me read this again, starting in verse 16. So we have come to know and to believe 42 00:04:56.080 --> 00:04:59.280 or to rely on the love that God has for us. 43 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:06.480 God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. 44 00:05:07.520 --> 00:05:15.840 Verse 17, by this love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment 45 00:05:15.840 --> 00:05:25.040 because as he is speaking of Jesus so are we in this world. There is no fear in love but perfect 46 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:34.000 love cast out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been 47 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:44.560 perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. I want to encourage you today to 48 00:05:45.840 --> 00:05:52.080 become familiar with more familiar with the perfect love of our heavenly father 49 00:05:52.080 --> 00:05:59.200 than with the imperfect love of this world. I want to encourage you to begin to rely on 50 00:05:59.200 --> 00:06:06.960 this love like never before to entrust yourself to his love to no longer waver back and forth about 51 00:06:06.960 --> 00:06:14.240 whether he loves you or not whether you deserve it or not he has spoken he has proven through 52 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:21.600 the sacrifice of Jesus that you are loved and Jesus's sacrifice and resurrection established 53 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:29.200 that you are fully accepted so rely on that today because when we begin to live in full reliance 54 00:06:29.200 --> 00:06:46.000 and full assurance of this love it doesn't just flow in us it flows through us.