This is the eighth and final sermon it the “Renewal of the Church” series. We need to cooperate with the Father God, so that the church might bear much fruit.
Renewal in the Christian’s life must not overlook the renewal of its most important quality—love. Love is essential in the life of a Christian and of the church. We must first learn and observe the order of love.
1 John 4:19 NIV We love because he first loved us. “We love him, because he first loved us.”
By forgetting his love for us. We start to think first of our love for him and for ourselves. This is not enough. We get the love relationship reversed. First is His love for us.
Our love is renewed by concentrating on God’s love for us. By thinking, reviewing, and meditating on his first love. Go over it again and again, “We love because he first loved us, We love because he first loved us, we love because he first loved us”.
When we really understand this, we become so full of his love for us that we have a new love inside us. Our love starts to be renewed and restored.
Scripture Reading:
1 John 4:7-19 NLT Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. We love each other because he loved us first.
Sermon Scripture
Revelation 2:1-7 NIV “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Text:
Revelation 2:4 NIV Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.
1 John 4:19 NIV We love because he first loved us.
Introduction
We've been talking about renewal of the church through renewal of us the believers who are the church
Renewal in the Christian’s life must not overlook the renewal of its most important quality—love.
Love is essential in the life of a Christian and of the church.
Ephesians 4:15-16 NLT Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
This scripture calls attention to our “speaking the truth in love” and “the edifying of [the church] in love.” Without love there is no true growth.
Jesus said in His letter to the church at Ephesus that it had left its first love. The Lord Jesus Christ reveals how important “first love” truly is.
According to 1 Corinthians 13, a church may have many things, but without love it is nothing!
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 NLT If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing
It has been about two and a half years ago but I had a sermon series titled, “Love the Badge of the Christian”, and Jeanette made up some badges that said "Love" that we all wore during that series.
In that series we learned what love is. , I’m talking about agape, the kind of love that God has for us which is unconditional, the kind of love described in the first half of verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 13
Love is patient, love is kind.
and then verse 7 of that same chapter.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
That’s what unconditional love is and does.
What unconditional love is not and does not do is described in
The second half of verse 4 of 1 Corinthians 13 through verse 6
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
How can Jesus' desire and demands that first love be returned to the Christian’s life be renewed?
The answer is by observing the order of love.
1 John 4:19 NIV We love because he first loved us.
“We love him, because he first loved us.”
First love is His love for us. First love is so full of his love for us that love is our response to him and to others.
So, how is our first love lost?
By forgetting his love for us. We start to think first of our love for him and for ourselves. This is not enough. We get the love relationship reversed. First is His love for us.
If we have lost our first love how is our love renewed?
It’s renewed by concentrating on God’s love for us. By thinking, reviewing, and meditating on his first love. Go over it again and again, “We love because he first loved us, We love because he first loved us, We love because he first loved us”.
When we really understand this, we become so full of his love for us that we have a new love inside us. Our love starts to be renewed and restored.
There are two basic thoughts about love that I want to talk about today.
God’s unconditional love for us, and
Our unconditional love for others
I. God’s unconditional love for us.
Anything that is unconditional is not subject to conditions or limitations. It is not dependent on certain responses being produced.
So, how does God love us unconditionally?
A. God does not love us sentimentally, His love is not marked or governed by feeling, sensibility, or emotional idealism, resulting from feeling rather than reason or thought.
His love corrects us and disciplines us.
Proverbs 3:11-12 NIV My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.
In His letter to the church Laodicea Jesus said
Revelation 3:19 NIV Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
B. God’s unconditional love has no limits. God loves us whether we respond or not.
He loves all people everywhere. His love is not limited to friends; it also includes enemies.
Romans 5:8-10 NIV But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
His unconditional love is also not limited as to how long it lasts.
Psalms 103:17-18 NIV But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children— with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.
Isaiah 54:10 NIV Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
At the end of every verse of Psalm 136 it says His love endures forever.
D. God’s unconditional love is not based on our performance.
He loves us in spite of our disobedience, rebellion, selfishness, and weakness.
Romans 5:6-8 NIV You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
E. God’s unconditional love cares for each of us as someone special to Him.
John 3:16 NIV For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Matthew 18:12-14 NIV “What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
1 Peter 2:9-10 NIV But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
II. Now let's look at our unconditional love for others.
If God loves us unconditionally, we ought to love ourselves and others without strings attached. When we love unconditionally, we do the following:
A. We love others whatever their response.
B. We love others without setting limits for our love. We love everyone. We refuse no one. We love constantly, even as Jesus loved his disciples. He loved them to the very end.
John 17:10-19 NIV All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
C. We love others based not on what they do but on who they are. We all make many mistakes. Our love is not based on another person’s performance.
D. We love others without expectations. When we love with expectations and those expectations are not fulfilled, we tend to become inwardly hurt. If we yield our expectations of the other person to God, not only are we free to love, but the other person is free to respond.
Matthew 5:43-48 NIV “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
What if we expressed true unconditional love in our families, in our communities, and in our churches? This is the way we are supposed to love, but how is it possible?
1. First let's admit that we cannot love unconditionally on our own. It's God's command but we can't do it..
The only way that we can love like this is with the help of the Holy Spirit. We must be filled with the Holy Spirit and as I have said often, to be filled by the Holy Spirit is to be controlled by the Holy Spirit and not our flesh because our flesh is selfish. When we allow ourselves to be filled and controlled by the Holy Spirit we will be selfless and not selfish.
Ephesians 5:15-20 NIV Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. The only way we can love as God loves is to have his love in us. We have to yield ourselves to the Lord to let his love flow through us and to others.
Last week we said that the secret to renewal is yielding ourselves to God by surrendering ourselves to Him.
Romans 12:1 NKJV 1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
When we yield ourselves to God then His love is perfected in us.
1 John 4:19 NIV We love because he first loved us.
God's love is released when we yield to Him and then His love for all mankind is released when we obey Jesus' commission and command.
Matthew 28:18-20 NIV Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Conclusion
When we are full of God’s love for us, our love is renewed with all its capabilities. Why not determine right now to let God’s love in you love someone else? Think about or write down the name of someone that comes to mind and let God’s love in you tell you how to love that person. You will be amazed at what begins to happen!
Father as we end this series on our renewal and renewal of the church, we ask that you renew and revive us again. Fill your people with your Holy Spirit. Lord, help us to make the most of and take every opportunity to shine the light of the gospel in the darkness. May the churches again be filled with people serving Jesus with all their hearts. Smile your blessing smile on us.
In Jesus name Amen
Sermon Audio
