Everyday Church
The Message Is To Love
(upbeat music) - Hello, friend. Welcome to today's podcast, Everyday Church, with Pastor Jason Keefer. Everyday Church is a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. - Hey, my friend. It's great to be with you today on the Everyday Church podcast. And I hope you're having a great day in the Lord today and hope things are going well for you. And as always, it's good to be able to get together in God's Word, and man, I'm so thankful for the platform of Everyday Church, just us being able to get together and learn together and grow together in God's Word. And so as always, again, just wanna say thank you for joining us today and let's have a good time in God's Word together, amen? So we're gonna pick up in first John chapter three and verse 11. And so we've been talking about how we know we're righteous, the evidence, I should say, of us being righteous and how you can know that you're walking in God, you're walking in Him, walking in Christ. The difference between position in Christ and practice in Christ. We've been talking a lot about that. And so as we get into the scriptures today, John makes this statement, and he makes this several times in this passage in first John. He says for this is the message, verse 11, first John three and 11, for this is the message that you heard from the beginning. So often referring to this is why this is written. This is written that you might know. This is the message. Remember we picked that up from when Jesus would speak. He would often say, I've said these things unto you where I am saying this to you so that. And so what we know is when we see that phrase, we're gonna hear something that's really gonna give us a very clear understanding as to what God's word is trying to tell us, right? And so he says, this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another. And so the message for the believer is clear after we have established that our righteousness in Christ is provided by the work of Christ. Well, what does this mean for us? Well, the message is that we should love one another, that we should love one another. And then he says in verse 12, not as Cain who was of that wicked one and slew his brother and wherefore, wherefore slew he him because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous. Marvel not my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death in the light because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abided in death. So really, there's another evidence of the righteousness, the goodness of God, the work of Christ in us in salvation. And that evidence is the love that we have toward the brethren. So the message is one of loving other people. We should love other people. And let's see how this kind of plays out in the scriptures. I think there's a few things that we can see here that'll help us. And one of the things is in loving one another, he goes immediately to the example of Cain in Abel. Remember, Cain was the son, the first son of Adam and Eve and he killed his brother Abel. Isn't it amazing when you think about the story of creation in the beginning of time with Adam and Eve and how quick that murder came on the scene and how quick hatred was found in the heart of man immediately after the fall. The man hasn't gotten worse. Man has always had hatred in his heart since the fall, since the fall of mankind, hatred has stirred in his heart. And so part of redemption, part of restoration, is that God's love is restored in our heart. And because we have been redeemed, because we have been restored, we can now love other people. And so he says, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, slew his brother and wherefore slew him, why did he kill him? Because his own works were evil and his brothers were righteous. And what do we know is Envy drew forced Cain, it pushed Cain to a place where he killed his own brother. Envy is a strong form of hate. And it's when we hate the good that's in other people. And so John is telling us that look, the message is you gotta love, you gotta love your brother. You gotta love those that are in the family of God. You gotta love one another. And we do this by not dwelling in envy, not living in envy. We rejoice in the good that comes from our brothers. We rejoice in what God's doing in other people. And man, I know people that they struggle, they really struggle when God's doing something good in somebody else's life. I've heard people say this, I've heard preachers say, they'll hear about a church that's growing and they'll say something to this effect. Well, they probably went liberal and not preaching the word anymore. They've given up on good sound doctrine. And they just assume that because a church is growing or a ministry is flourishing, they would assume that they kind of gotten off and left field with it. That's a spirit of envy, that's a spirit of jealousy. And that's a form of hate, that's not of God. And it's not born of God, it's not of his works, it's not the spirit of God. The spirit in which we work together should be one of love. Encouraging one another, rejoicing when God blesses another ministry or another family, or you can't assume, we should never assume that because God is blessing someone else, that man, there's something wrong in their life, that's horrible, right? Which is the opposite, we rejoice, we rejoice. I tell you, I don't know why the church thing came up in my mind today, but I think it's something the Lord's trying to help in my own life. There was a time where I would say that where man, if God was blessed in the ministry, I just assumed they were doing it wrong, and they were heretics, and God wants real small ministry, everybody knows that, and that's not the truth at all. That's not the truth at all. And so I think there's a spirit of envy there, a spirit of jealousy, sometimes that happens, and that's not the spirit of love. So not one of envy, right? He says, this isn't a relationship of envy. And then he goes on, he says, Marvel, not my brethren, if the world hates you. Don't be surprised that the world hates you. Don't wonder, and Marvel, you know, we get so, people get so taken back by the fact that people can hate believers, hate Christians, family members sometimes, hate other family members. The world, those that are not say they hate sometimes. The system of the world is against the system of Christ. We mentioned this a few weeks ago, in our devotion, how that the kingdom of God is in direct contrast to the kingdom of this world. Jesus said this when he was talking to his disciples. He said, if they hated me, your Lord and Master, how much more they're gonna hate you as the servant? They're gonna hate you. And so John is saying, don't listen, don't be surprised. Well, what's the importance there? What the importance is, oftentimes when we start to take in those that hate us or the world hating us and just hating what we stand for, we begin to find ways to make both relationships work. How can my relationship with God work while my relationship with the world works? It can't, like it can't. And so if you come on and you're surprised, you're taken back by the fact that the world hates you. You didn't expect that the world was gonna hate you. You're gonna be given into temptation, given temptation, or you're gonna be tempted to maybe adjust some things in your life to make it more comfortable or palatable in your walk with the Lord, so that people will, you follow in line with the world system. They'll accept you, right? We see that in all areas of our life today. If you can take a lower stand in morality, the world will accept that. They'll accept that. If you can take a lower stand on God's word, if you can, you don't have to be passionate about God's word. You know, the world system will tell you that. They're tolerant of a little bit, but man, when you fall in line with God and fall in line with loving him and serving him and just passionately committing and surrendering to him, hey, the world hates that. Well, why did they hate that? Well, darkness hates light. Remember what Jesus said in John chapter three? Men come not, they don't come to light unless their deeds should be reproved. And so darkness hates light and death in life. Their contrast, their in contrast one to another. So he draws that out again. And so I think that also what we understand here is when a man, when you think about loving someone, it's gonna cause you to do a couple of things, right? It's gonna cause you to examine your works and your motives, going back to Cain and Abel. So what was it that Tripp came up? Well, God didn't accept his works, right? Remember, he brought an offering of the ground, of the vegetation that he had grown, the garden he had worked so hard and labored in and to him that was sacrificed, but it wasn't what God wanted. But Abel, on the other hand, he brought from the first of his livestock, right? He brought a blood sacrifice and that was what God wanted. That's what God would accept. And so what messed Cain up was his works. And I think oftentimes if there's a spirit in me there, if we could step back and maybe look at, you know, okay, am I doing, first of all, am I doing what God wants me to do, right? Is there a reason? Is there something that's gotten off track and maybe I've gotten off track and I'm doing some things, they're good things, but they're not what God wants me to do, right? Because when my works and my motives aren't lined up with the Lord, I'm gonna look at other people and see the blessings God has on their life. And I'm gonna be prone to jealousy, to envy. Man, God's blessing them and God. Man, they're just reaping the reward of God's blessings in their life, being fruitful, spiritually fruitful. As a believer, I'm called to love my brother. And if there's an issue there and I'm struggling with envy, that's a powerful form of hate. Envy is a powerful, powerful, powerful form of hate to the point that it'll drive you to, it will, it drove Cain to murder. That's pretty, that's pretty powerful. So for the believer, because we're born of God, because we have new life in us, the evidence, it's evidenced in loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. Loving one, loving one another. There are several scriptures that come to mind. John 15, 19, if you are the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. The system of the world hates you knowing that you've been, look, Satan knows that you were taken out of the world. You were once walked in, according to the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience is what Ephesians chapter two says. So it was because of that, because of that, the world, the world will hate you. And so a lot of believers, they get really discouraged when they realize that the world doesn't have anything to offer them. And Fran, I wanna tell you, it can be discouraging, it can be hard. But if you know ahead of time that this world has nothing for me, like hate is a pretty strong word, right? Marvel, not my brother in the world hates you. And so I think that's something that we have to guard against in our personal life. And so who's whoever hated this brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer have eternal life abiding in him. And so what do we know this morning, or this afternoon, or whatever time of day it is that you're listening to this? What do we know is believers, part of restoration that works from redemption is God restoring that love in our heart. Next time we're together, we'll get to the method of love. How is it that we actually love people? Which I think is important, 'cause I think a lot of times we just say, well, you know, I love so-and-so, and I love, yeah, I love my brothers in Christ. Okay, well, how do we display that, right? So we'll talk about that next time. But hopefully today, this has helped you with encouragement to you. Maybe you're struggling with some envy. Maybe you're struggling with some pride. Maybe there's something down in there that you know is caused. Maybe you've had to go through some hard times and you're having a hard time reconciling that in your mind. And it's caused some anger to flourish up in you. It can happen, it can happen. It can be easy to look back and see people be experiencing some blessings maybe that you can see, and feel like that, man, I, for whatever reason, I'm not experiencing that and we envy can grow in our heart. That's not love. You gotta check that. If there's things in your heart that's hindering you from expressing your love toward your brothers in Christ or toward people, that's a relationship with God issue. And when we take that to Him, He'll restore that ability to love. He restores that capacity to love with His love. And so I hope that's a help to you and a blessing to you today. I want to encourage you to continue reading in the Bible, continue reading in your word. And next time we're together, we'll talk about how we actually, the method of loving others. But today was the message of love. Look, this is the message John said that you heard from the beginning. You gotta love, you love one another. Deuteronomy chapter, say love the Lord I got with all that heart, with all I so and all my mind. And also to love thy brother, Jesus said in the second commandment is like unto the first that we would love our neighbor. And so loving one another is putting shoes, or feet I should say is putting feet on the love of God in your life. It's an action, it's putting into action God's love in your life. So you can't say that, look, I love God and not express love toward your brother. And so there's simply no truth in that. So I hope that's helped you today and encouragement to you. Praying for you today, I love you. I'd love to hear from you. And shoot a text, a message, an email. Sometimes I hear people just in passing. They'll say pastor, this is encouragement to me. And I hope it is. So please help us get it out and share it and let people know about what God is doing. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask that He be with us today. Father, thank you for your love, for your mercies, for your goodness to us. Father, we pray Lord throughout the day as we go doing whatever it is, whether it's heading to work or at home or wherever it is among our friends. Father, that we could learn to love others by the way that pleases you. Father, that's the message you said that we would love one another. Help us do that, we pray, your precious name. Amen. Hope you have a great day. (upbeat music) Thank you for listening to Every Day Church, a daily podcast where believers learn together, grow together, and serve together. If this episode was an encouragement to you, be sure to hit like, share it, and subscribe for future content. (upbeat music)