How God's Love Changes My Life

Well, living in love is what we call our verse by verse series in the book of 1 John in the Bible. You can grab your message notes that you were handed if you are joining us in person. And if you're joining us on the live stream, you can download those at TLC.org/notes. And while you do that one more time, happy Independence Day weekend to everybody who's joining us wherever you're at. Let's put our hands together. Let's celebrate the 4th of July, our country's birthday, phenomenal.

If you're in the neighborhood again, join us for our church picnic. It's after every service this weekend and wherever you are sincerely, I hope that you find the time this weekend to pray for the USA, both in gratitude for what we have and in humility for what we need. And again, I hope you sent us a selfie of you somehow decked out in red, white and blue. I came close, I tried, I really did. I got my blue shirt on, got my white shoes, which I wear one time a year. And I was really hoping for red pants, but I do not have any red pants in my closet. So I wore, are they kind of reddish brown? They're reddish brown. I came pretty close. But if you've got some red, white and blue stuff, send us a photo.

And speaking of photos, I wanna get a quick shout out to the group of people who were baptized after church last weekend. They were awesome. Put your hands together for this wonderful, sharp, good looking group of people. All this past year, instead of doing our annual big beach baptism, what we've been doing is baptizing smaller groups much more often. About once a month, we take whoever has made a commitment to Christ and we either baptize them here at church or we go down to the beach. And if you have made a commitment to Christ and you are ready to take that next step, just email lee@tlc.org because we would love to help you take this step of faith.

There's a very famous sermon in American history called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." And it was preached by Jonathan Edwards in 1741. And maybe like me, you read this sermon in high school. I went to just a public high school, but it was actually in our high school text. Show of hands, how many read this sermon actually in your high school? Several of you did. It is classic, very old school, hellfire and brimstone preaching. And it was in our history textbook, kind of as an example of that, but also because it's just great writing. It really is.

Let me just show you part of it. He preached. And you just have to imagine him preaching it in his church back in those days. The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some other loathsome insect abhors you and is dreadfully provoked. His wrath toward you burns like fire. He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire. You are 10,000 times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. That is great writing, I have to say. But is it true? Biblically. Now think about your answer.

Now I also wanna be quick to say this is not representative of Jonathan Edwards' entire ministry. If you are like the moderator of a Jonathan Edwards fan page on the web, I get that. Please do not email me. My point is this. He also preached about God's love. He also did great things for the poor. But my point is this particular sermon of his left an outsized mark on the American religious imagination. As I said, people read this in public high school and think that this is what Christians think God is like full stop. It's all they ever hear about what Christians think God is like. And I would dare say many Christians still see God exactly like this.

In fact, I read just this past week where Gary Berge, who was Wheaton College Professor of New Testament, asked his students in his intro to his New Testament class to write an essay answering the question, has your Christian life been more shaped by God's wrath or by God's grace? This isn't in the 1700s. This is right now. Over 90% of his students said, my Christian life has been more shaped by God's wrath than by God's grace. He was shocked at these results. But he gave an example. One 21 year old girl who's a student in his class said, I feel there is always something that God is punishing before. There are not enough minutes in the day for God to punish us.

Now I know she said of God's love and blessings for me and for that I am eternally grateful, but I live with this fear that one mess up and I will be punished again. If that is you, and I know it may be you, how do I know? Because this was me. I've told some of you before, I don't know why, but this is what my faith turned into. I felt that God was perpetually saying to me, René, I am so severely disappointed with you. Couldn't you do better? You did better at Bible reading, better at witnessing, better at prayer. You are just a big giant disappointment.

And so my constant prayer to God was not thank you or not, you're such a blessing to me. Thank you for your grace. My constant prayer to God was I'm so sorry, I'm so stupid, I'm so sorry, I'm so stupid, I'm so sorry, I'm so stupid. And what that turned me into was a pastor who if not a classic hellfire and brimstone pastor, as I mentioned to some of you before, I was what I call a bad dog pastor. All my sermons could really be summarized with the attitude, you people are bad dogs, bad, bad, bad dogs, bad dog. You go home and you come back and you be better now. Bad dog, why? Because I was always under this fear and feeling of God's pressure and punishment on me because I wasn't performing well enough as a human being or as a pastor.

And so why wasn't my church doing better? It's because of these lazy people, so you're bad dogs. So that the punishment and anger that I imagined from God, I directed toward my congregation. Now, thank God I had changed my view of God by the time I got here to Twin Lakes Church, that poor church I pastored in Tahoe though, had to deal with that. But maybe that's you. I remember when I first discovered the principles that John's been teaching us in the book of 1 John, I told my wife, I feel like my life has changed from black and white to technicolor. I feel like I've been born again, again.

And I hope that some of you are going to sense the same thing happen in your spiritual life as we talk about how God's love changes my life. In 1 John 4, verses 16 through 5, 4, open your Bibles to that passage or your Bible app and as you do, little context in the verses leading up to this, John's been rhapsodizing about the love of God. In fact, this is really part two of the message from last weekend and if you have a chance, go online and watch that one, it's called radical and sustainable love. We address the verses right before this, where John talks about how astonishing God's unconditional love is.

He says, this is how we know what love is. God sent his one and only son to be an atoning sacrifice for our sin and he wraps up that section by saying God is love and whoever lives in God. That means rests in that love of God, that unconditional, astonishing, sacrificial love of God. If you live in that love, then God lives in you and your life is absolutely transformed and then in these next verses, that was last week, now in these next verses, he unwraps some of the implications of the love of God.

He would probably correct Jonathan Edwards. He would say, you're not sinners in the hands of an angry God, you are sinners in the hands of a loving God. And when you realize that there's four ways that God's love transforms you, here's what happens inside of you when you let that astonishingly unconditional sacrificial love of God kind of capture your imagination. These four things happen to you and I'm gonna spend most of my time on this first point, I grow in confidence. I grow in confidence.

Look at these next two amazing verses, 1 John 4:17, this is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. You mean I don't have to be afraid of the day of judgment? John, are you telling me that when I die and I stand before God, I can be absolutely 100% confident? Yes, because in this world, we are like Jesus. What, like Jesus? How am I like Jesus? Well, he's been saying, you're loved like Jesus. God sees you as his child like Jesus. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for your sins so that means that now you have the imputed righteousness of Jesus. Before God, you are like Jesus.

So, here's the consequence of that, there is no fear. Fear's gone. There's no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear, he's talking about fear of God, fear of your own future in God's hands. Fear has to do with what? Punishment, he's saying, you don't have to be afraid of God because now in Christ, there is no more punishment. It's like this, I've used this analogy with some of you before, ever adopt a stray dog from an animal shelter? How many of you have ever adopted a stray dog or cat from a shelter? Okay, you know what I'm talking about. If, let's say, this little dog had a previous owner who was abusive, now you didn't know that, but that dog was taken away from that abusive owner, then let's say you want to throw a ball to your dog or throw a treat to your dog, every time you raise your hand, what is that dog gonna do? It's gonna cringe, maybe it's gonna act out, maybe it's gonna bite, maybe it's gonna run away and hide. Why? What does it think you're going to do? It thinks you're gonna hit it.

Is that the kind of dog that is likely to eagerly come running when you call? No, that's the dog that's likely to always be running away. If you could, you would say, little dog, when I raise my hand, it's to toss you a toy or give you a treat, not to hit you, I'm never gonna hit you. And in this verse, John says, let me tell you about the master, your new master. Perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment and there is now no more punishment. Let me ask you this question, why would God send Jesus to bear our punishment on the cross 2000 years ago and then say, you know what, that wasn't good enough, I'm gonna punish you too? That would be heresy because that would be saying that Jesus Christ didn't do enough. And Christian theology tells us that Jesus did it all, once for all time and when we fail to understand the point John is making in this verse, what we start doing is we start cringing, we start expecting God to punish us and we start looking for his punishment.

Every time something goes wrong, maybe that's God getting back at me. You know, life happens and you lose a job or you get in an accident, you get sick and you think, God must be repaying me for that sin I did five or 10 or 20 years ago because I expect my master to hit me. But John is saying when your new master raises his hand, it's to bless you. Let me say something that's going to startle some of you and you're gonna wanna argue with me, but I'm going to tell you this is what John and the Apostle Paul and Jesus all taught and that is this, a Christian is not punished. A Christian is disciplined and there's a big difference between punishment and discipline. The purpose of punishment is punitive to even the score, to make you pay your debt, but that's already been done. The purpose of discipline is growth. The focus of punishment is the past, misdeeds. The focus of discipline is the future potential. We're never punished, but of course we are disciplined so we don't need to fear any punishment.

Now some of you are still going, I don't know, it's making me uncomfortable, you're making God sound so nice. Okay, quick cross reference. The Bible says in Romans 8:1, let's read this verse together. Let me hear you read this. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Okay, let's just kind of analyze a few words here. It says, therefore there is now. You know, I did a little bit of word study on this verse, looked it up in the original Greek, and guess what that word means? It means now. It is instant. There is no probationary period. And then there's the word no. Guess what that means in the original Greek? No. But for real Greek scholars say this is an emphatic, negative adverb of time. And what that means is this is the strongest possible way in the original language to say no. Condemnation. And that is the Greek word katakrini, from which we get our English word, crispy, creamy, strangely. No, that's not true. But we do get our English word crime and criminal from it. And what Paul is saying is you did the crime, but Jesus did the time. And so now all has been forgiven. No more sentencing, no more penalty. It's over. In Christ Jesus, he says.

I love the word that's used over and over and over to describe believers, that they are in Christ. When you become a Christian, you don't just receive an idea that you believe in, a new idea. You receive a new identity that you become. You are in Christ Jesus, you're clothed with his righteousness. His point is you don't need to carry a load of guilt around. God declares you not guilty, amen? And some of you are thinking right now of that thing. That's gone in God's sight. He declares you not guilty even of that. And in case you're going, well, that's just like one verse that might be taken out of context. John doubles down on this in the next verse. He says, "The one who fears is not made perfect in love." He's saying, if you're still afraid of God, you don't get it yet. His unconditional love, we love because he first loved us. And when you get this, when you let this sink in, I mean, take it from me, it just transforms your life.

And it's still happening today. Just last week, somebody emailed me. Their small group in Idaho has been joining us every single weekend for our live stream. So everybody, hello to our friends in Idaho who are joining us for the live stream. It's awesome to have you with us. But I want you to see a couple of things that she wrote. This is very powerful, completely relates to what we're talking about today. She said, "One woman in our group felt God could never forgive her for all the wrong decisions she made in her life. And that had weighed heavily on her for many years." Now stop on, go back to this slide for just a second. For many years it had weighed heavily. This is what Jesus talks about when he talks about heavy burdens on people. Just imagine the tragedy of that, of having a heavy burden of sin or some guilt or some misdeed on you. And for years you're coming to church and you're coming to small group because you know you're a sinner and you want so bad to be rid of that guilt. And so you keep coming and it just doesn't go away. That's just so tragic.

So it weighed on her for many years. For the past year, she kept asking us to explain what we meant by saved by grace. A few weeks ago, a weight lifted off her shoulders and heart. And last week she arrived with a glow on her face and a smile on her lips. And she said, "Now I understand what grace means." She said, "Another woman shared that her," I mean, listen to this, "Her mother had given her up as a little girl and sent her away to live with others. And this study really spoke to her heart about how much God loves and cares for her and how he will never abandon her." That's it. John is saying there's no fear in love because you got a new master now and he will never abandon you. He'll never leave you as a stray by the roadside.

God will never say to you, you know what? I don't love you anymore. We used to have something, it's not there anymore. God will never say, I just cannot forgive that. God is not the mean master. God will not hit you. God is love. And John is saying, when you live in that love, when you walk around thinking, I can't believe it, but the Bible says it's true, you know what? I'm forgiven and I'm loved and I'm adopted, I'm chosen, and I know that's true because God says it's true, then what happens is you really grow in confidence. And then that overflows onto other people.

And I get to the second way that living in God's love changes me, I grow in love for others. It's just gonna overflow to other people. John says, whoever claims to love God, yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever doesn't love their brother and sister, whom they've seen, they can't love God, whom they have not seen, and he has given us this command, anyone who loves God must also love his brother and sister. John is saying, as we said earlier in this series, if your theology is not motivating you to love, then there's something wrong with your theology, because you're not being overwhelmed by the love of God for you.

And remember when John says love, he doesn't mean you feel the feels, he means you actually help people. Call back to an earlier verse in this study, 1 John 3:17, if anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need, but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? You know, it's gonna overflow one way or another. I will never forget a woman here in the church, Carol Mendoza, several years back, she heard a message here about how God wants his love for us to overflow from us to other people, and she thought, but how can I do that? I don't have a lot of money to spare, things are tied, I'm not like a great cook or a great gardener and I could arrange my flowers and give them, I'm not a great teacher singer, how could I show God's love to people who need to know God's love?

And then she realized I love quilting. And she thought maybe I could make quilts for these young moms I hear about that the church helps through Embrace Grace and through the Pregnancy Resource Center who are having babies and they're single and they need to know their love and accept it, so I'm gonna make these quilts with as much love as I can pour into them and I'm gonna give them to these moms in the name of Jesus. Well, Carol made more quilts than I can count, but one day Carol called us and she told us that she was in hospice care and that the doctors had told her that she would be with Jesus very soon and she would like one of our pastors to visit.

And so Gary Williams, who at that time was our pastor of care, he went out to see her. Now get this, Carol hadn't been able to eat in three weeks. She could barely talk. And so of course, Gary thought that she'd called him over so he could comfort her and pray with her, but when he got there, Carol said, "I'm so glad you're here, I called you because I have something I need to give you before I go to heaven." And she had her daughter go out of the room and bring back two quilts she had finished while in hospice care. Carol was unable to eat. Carol literally with her final breaths made those quilts. She loved God so much it had gotten to the point where she could not stop loving.

Carol was so filled with God's love it overflowed even while she was dying. Now some of you are going, "Well, how could I do something like this?" Well, there's lots of ways that you can do this too. We talked about some of them last weekend, but one quick way you could do it, you've heard of Ask for volunteers as we regather and add more services, but frame it this way. When you volunteer to hold a child over in our nursery, when you volunteer to help with our kids and our TL Kids ministry, when you volunteer to be a greeter or an usher and just beam your smile to people who show up to church, what's happening is you are really volunteering to love people, to love people.

And if you're interested, you can email Yolanda at tlc.org to help with TL Kids or the nursery. Email Allie@tlc.org for our first impressions team. That's greeters and ushers and infodesc and so on, but again, don't do it out of obligation, do it because God's love is overflowing from you to the people who attend. Right now, what people need to know is that they are loved and your smiling face and your loving arms can provide it. So when I live in God's love, I grow in confidence, I grow in love for others.

And third, I grow in love for God. I grow in love for God. How does this happen? Well, let me show you a little bit of a video. You might've seen this, it was on USA Today's website the other day, Adrian Moreno sent me this video of a little girl who along with her sister was adopted. And I want you to listen to how she describes her love for her mommy and daddy on the day that she got adopted, watch this.

And when me and Lily was born, you know how that we got born? Well, Lily was born and came to the little babies. And then, well, it was still a baby and I was four years old. I got so big and Lily was still a baby, right? And when the time you see her, she'll smile. And when the time you see me, I was four years old. And we was very excited to meet you and our daddy. And we love you guys and we want to be here for you and daddy.

And I was very excited to meet you too. And Lily? And me? Well, girl, what happened to my heart? Well, what happened to your heart? Well, the first time I told you, I went, I saw you, my heart fell in love with you. Your heart fell in love with me? Because—

I need Kleenex up here really, really badly. But when we sense someone's love for us like that, when we were adopted by God, our heart fell in love with him. That's exactly what John is talking about because John says, "God found us when we were lost and He chose us and He adopted us into His family." And when we realize that our hearts just go out to Him and our hearts fall in love with Him. Do you remember back in chapter three, John said, "See what love the Father has poured on us that we should be called the children of God." And that is what we are, and when we get that, our hearts just fall in love with Him.

Chapter five, verse one, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well." This is how we know that we love the children of God by loving God. You know, one of my favorite memories over nearly 29 years of pastoring here at Twin Lakes Church is the time that I went to jail to lead a Bible study. It was awesome. About 20 inmates were meeting regularly to do a midweek study, and I joined them one week, and at the very start, they had about a half an hour of worship. And I have to tell you, it was worship like I had not experienced in a long, long time.

Hands were raised, eyes were closed, they were singing just as loud as they could, tears just streaming down most faces. I mean, they were singing at a close with amazing grace, and they were like half singing, half sobbing. Why all the emotion? Well, during the share time, one man after another, as we run around the circle said, "Man, I was so lost. The God by His grace found me." Do you know what I saw there? What John talks about here. When we soak in the fact that God said, "As one and only Son, as an atoning sacrifice for us, we fall in love with Him, I grow in confidence, I grow in love for others, I grow in love for God."

And then the final way that living in God's love affects me, transforms me, is I grow in obedience. I grow in obedience. Now, some of you are thinking, what? Growing obedience? Let me just do a quick show of hands, very honestly, and it's church, so you have to be honest, and if you're at home, raise your hand too. How many of you still struggle with obedience to God's commands at times? Can I see a show of hands? I know I still do. So what's John talking about? John is saying when you grow in your appreciation of God's love, your relationship to obedience changes.

It's about love, it's not about just following random, bloodless commands, or it's not about trying to earn God's favor. John says, rest of chapter five verse two, by loving God and carrying out His commands, this is love for God, to obey His commands. And His commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. We're gonna unwrap that last phrase a little bit next weekend, but I love the idea that His commands are not burdensome, not when you understand that God is love. They're not burdensome, religion is burdensome. The commands of God are not.

Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light, because the idea is when I get how much God loves me, then obeying God's commands becomes about living in His love. I don't wanna mess up that relationship. I wanna retain my, as they stay in the 12-step program, my constant, conscious contact with God. I wanna keep living in His love. I don't wanna break that. I don't want anything to interfere with that by disobeying with, He's not gonna turn His face against me, but I'm going to sense a break. I wanna stay in fellowship with Him, because He loves me and I love Him. Obedience is not about trying to avoid the angry blows of a bad master. It's about remaining in a love relationship with God.

So this is how your life can change when you live in God's love. And my life changed when I learned to live in God's love instead of constantly imagining that I was hearing God's threats of punishment, and not just me. I'll close with this. Last weekend, I mentioned how Dwight Moody, the preacher from the 1800s, who I think looks so much like a modern millennial, right? This is the guy who tends bar at port downtown. I mean, this is the same guy. Anyway, Dwight L. Moody was himself one of those hellfire and brimstone preachers, like Jonathan Edwards, who I quoted earlier. But one week, his life and ministry completely changed.

His daughter heard a traveling preacher who was speaking at a week-long conference. She said, "Dad, you have got to go hear this guy." And so Moody kind of reluctantly goes, "And every single night for a week, this man taught about God's love." Every single night, his text was one verse, John 3:16, "For God's soul loved the world that he," what? "He gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but of everlasting life." Now, remember, Moody says he was one of those hellfire and brimstone preachers himself, and he's listening to all of this. What kind of an effect did it have on him? He was already a famous preacher, changed his ministry.

Here's the way D.L. Moody described that week. "Every night for seven nights, that man preached on God's love." I never knew up to that time that God loved us so much. Now watch this. "This heart of mine began to thaw out, and I could not keep back the tears. It was like news from a far country. I just drank it in. That preacher just beat it down into our hearts, and I've never doubted it since." You know, he says, "I used to preach that God was behind the sinner with a double-edged sword, ready to hew him down. I am done with that. I preach now that God is behind the sinner with love, and if the sinner runs away, he's running away from the God of love." Have you been running? Tonight, don't run from the God of love. Run to his love. Rest in his love, and you will be transformed right now.

Let's pray. Would you bow your heads in your hearts with me? Lord, we are here because of your love. We are saved because of your love. We are breathing because of your love. It's all because of your love, because God is love. And so help us to revel in that love, treasure it, live in that love right now and forever, and let it transform us. And Lord, I pray that there would be people right in this moment joining us on livestream, or watching later joining us in person right now, who would no longer run from you, but run to you, the God of love, and receive your love in Christ Jesus, maybe for the first time, or maybe as a recommitment after years of running. And that they'd pray simply but sincerely something like this, "Lord, I need you, and I receive your love and your grace made available through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And I want to follow Jesus for the rest of my life. And God, I rejoice knowing how your love is going to transform these people." It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.