Sermon Recording Sermon OutlineSpeaker: Rev. Scott Strickman
Sermon Series: Faith, Hope & Love

1 John 4:7-21 (ESV)
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Sermon OutlineThere is one relationship that changes all relationships.

1. Do you love people?

2. v21 “… commandment… whoever loves God must also love his brother”

3. v12 “no one has ever seen God”

4. v20 “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen”

5. What is God offering you?

6. v9 “the love of God was made manifest”

7. v14 “we have seen and testify”

8. v16 “so we have come to know and believe the love God has for us”

9. How are you living differently?

10. v11 “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another”

11. v17 “By this is love perfected in us… as he is so also are we in this world”

Prayer of ConfessionO Lord, have mercy upon us. Our failure to love others exposes how love is not natural to us. You have not kept yourself hidden, but we have not known you as you have revealed yourself. Our faith has been weak and misguided. Forgive us for the assumptions we have made about you. Forgive the specific ways we have sinned against you and against others. Thank you for loving us even while we were sinners. Work your love into the very depths of who we are and transform us by the power of your Spirit. Give us hearts to truly love others. May we manifest the reality of your love and Spirit in how we love one another, and may you receive all the honor and glory for it. Amen.

Questions for Reflection

1. What is easy about loving God? What is hard? Do you find it easier to love God than people? Why or why not?
2. Can people be themselves around you? Are you good at listening and understanding people?
3. How do people come to know God, and deepen in that knowledge? What do you do?
4. What desires shape who you believe God to be (based on who you want God to be)? What fears shape your understanding of who God is? How do you keep from forming a distorted sense of who God is?
5. Why is it important that sinners know that God is love? How is John’s message that God loved you when you didn’t love Him meant to help you?
6. What changes when you are free of fear of condemnation? Do you believe the message the Jesus died so that full forgiveness is offered to you by God? Where do you have difficulty believing that, and why?
7. How do you love others with God’s love? What kinds of processes help you so that your relationship with God changes how you relate to others?
8. What are things you can do when called to love someone who isn’t easy to love? How does reflection on God’s love for you prepare and direct your own choices and actions?