How We Know Love 1 John 3:16-20

Adapted from a Steve Shepherd sermon

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/how-we-know-love-steve-shepherd-sermon-on-gods-love-148972.asp

1 John 3:16 NET We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus

we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. 17 But whoever has the world's

possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him,

how can the love of God reside in such a person?

18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth. 19 And by this

we will know that we are of the truth and will convince our conscience in his presence, 20

that if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience and knows all

things.

The movie, Love Story, came out in 1970 starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw. The film is considered one of the most romantic movies

of all time by the American Film Institute.

Harvard Law student Oliver Barrett IV and music student Jennifer Cavilleri shared a chemistry

they could not deny - and a love they could not ignore.

When they marry, Oliver's wealthy father threatens to disown him. Jenny tries to reconcile

the Barrett men, but to no avail. Oliver and Jenny continue to build their life together.

Relying only on each other, they believe love can fix anything. But fate has other plans.After failing to have a child, they consult a

medical specialist, who after repeated tests, informs Oliver that Jenny is ill and will soon die.

While this is not stated explicitly, she appears to have leukemia.

From her hospital bed, Jenny speaks with her father about funeral arrangements, then asks for

Oliver. She tells him to avoid blaming himself, and asks him to embrace her tightly before she

dies.

It’s a love story but also a sad love story. And they believed that love could fix anything. Well, it can if it’s the right kind of love. But romantic love won’t fix what ails the world! What this

world really needs now is God’s love manifested in Jesus Christ!

Love comes in various forms: romantic love, parental love, brotherly love, but the greatest of all is GODLY LOVE! It’s the love that God had for mankind when He sent Jesus into the world to become a sacrifice for our sins. THERE IS

NO GREATER LOVE THAN THIS.John 3:16 NET For this is the way God loved the

world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but

have eternal life.

That is God’s love in action! That is the kind of love this world needs to know. It’s the very love

that caused Jesus to leave Heaven for earth and become our Savior!

How can we come to know what true love is? Are we listening to Hollywood, the world or to

our Holy God?

This text teaches us the truth about real love.How we know what true love is:

1- By understanding Jesus’ death

2- By sharing material possessions

3- By resting in God’s presence

BY UNDERSTANDING JESUS’ DEATH

16 We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to

lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.It all happened on January 13, 1982, in the Potomac River. Do you remember? Do you

know what I’m referring to?

The crash of Air Florida Flight 90, into the Potomac River. IT WAS BIG NEWS, if for no

other reason, because of one person. Remember his name? LENNY SKUTNIK. Lenny dove into that river to help save someone from

drowning.Priscilla Tirado, was too weak to grab the line

dropped from a helicopter. Hundreds of people were watching, including emergency services

personnel.

Skutnik saw the situation, and stripped off his coat and boots and, in short sleeves, dove into

the icy water and swam out to assist her.He succeeded in getting her to the river shore, from where she was taken to hospital, saving her life. Lenny Skutnik did risk his own life for

that woman. But there is another story. Here’s a one-upper.

Arland Dean Williams Jr. was a passenger aboard the same flight that crashed on take-off in Washington, D.C. killing 78 people. He was

among the six people to initially survive the crash. His actions after the crash, handling the

initial rescue efforts as a first responder, became a well-known example of extraordinary heroism,

although it cost him his life.

He did not know any of the other victims personally. In fact, his identity was not even known until after the bodies were recovered.The next day, the Washington Post described

his heroism: “He was about 50 years old, one of half a dozen survivors clinging to twisted

wreckage bobbing in the icy Potomac when the first helicopter arrived. To the copter's two-man

Park Police crew he seemed the most alert.

Life vests were dropped, then a flotation ball. The man passed them to the others. On two

occasions he handed away a life line from the hovering machine that could have dragged him

to safety. The helicopter crew - who rescued five people, the only persons who survived from the jetliner - lifted a woman to the riverbank, then dragged three more persons across the ice to

safety.

Then the life line saved a woman who was trying to swim away from the sinking wreckage,

and the helicopter pilot, Donald W. Usher, returned to the scene, but the man was gone.

The passenger who had survived the crash and had repeatedly given up the rescue lines to other survivors before drowning was later

identified as a 46-year-old bank examiner from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Arland D.

Williams Jr.

The coroner determined that Williams was the only passenger recovered from the river whose body revealed that he had died from drowning

rather than impact injuries suffered in the crash. Arland Williams was from Mattoon, IL, and an

elementary school is named for him. John 15:12 NET My commandment is this — to love one

another just as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this — that one lays down his

life for his friends.

As great as the sacrifice of Arland Williams was, there is one greater still!

16 We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to

lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.

Hebrews 2:9 NET but we see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, (Psalm 8) now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by God's

grace he would experience death on behalf of everyone.

1 Peter 2:24 NET He himself bore our sins (Isaiah 53) in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed. (Isaiah 53)

2 Corinthians 5:21 NET God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.

The death of the Lord Jesus shows us what true love is. His death shows us the greatest love

this world has ever known!

BY SHARING MATERIAL POSSESSIONS

17 But whoever has the world's possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts

off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person? 18 Little

children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and truth.

WELFARE APPLICATIONSThe following quotations are taken from actual letters received by the Welfare Department in

applications for support of receiving payments.

- I am writing the welfare department to say that my baby was born two years old. When do I get my money?

- Mrs. Jones has not had any clothes for two years and has been visited regularly by the clergy.- I cannot get sick pay. I have six children can you tell me why? - I am glad to report that my husband who is missing is dead. - This is my eighth child. What are you going to do about it?

- I am very much annoyed to find out that you have branded my son illiterate. This is a dirty lie as I was married a week before he was born. - Unless I get my husband's money pretty soon, I will be forced to lead an immortal life. - You have changed my little boy to a girl, will this make any difference?

- I want money as quick as I can get it. I have been in bed with the doctor for two weeks and he doesn't do me any good. If things don't improve, I will have to send for another doctor.

As silly as these applications are, there are people who are truly needy in this world. Do we help them? Can we help them? No doubt there are many users. We’ve all seen them. We’ve had them come to church and ask for money.

Still, there are truly needy people who could be helped by us.

A preacher of the SonRise Community Church in Debary, FL, named, Carl Kadolph, wrote

about a preacher in Guyana, South America (Northwest) next to Venezuela and Brazil.

Carl wrote: When you arrive you find yourself very deep in the most beautiful jungle

imaginable but of course the living conditions are very tough due to the lack of running water,

electricity etc.

The pastor that we work with is Ellis Alphonso who is native Amerindian which is considered

the lowest level of society on the Guyana scale. He is the most gentle, loving and true man of

God you would ever want to meet.

Last July while there we found Pastor Ellis wife Sharon, almost 6 months pregnant with their 6th

child.

There was some worry because at 35 years old and with the difficult life that the Amerindians

live, she is considered too old to have another child. But while we were there she continued to

haul water, care for the 5 children, fulfill the duties of "Pastors wife" as well as continue as

Worship leader of the church.

We begged her to slow down and be careful but she felt honored that we had come from the U.S. to serve them and she wanted to make sure she was a part of our work in the area. At the close

of our 2 week stay we learned that Ellis, Sharon, two of their children as well as many others in

the village had contracted Malaria.

The normal treatment in that area for Malaria is to poison the patient with strychnine and break the body down to the point that the blood is so

weak that it won't support the malaria in the blood and hopefully the malaria dies before the patient does. Nobody was sure what to do with

a pregnant lady but after our return we were told that they had treated her and she seemed to be

doing much better.

Last Thursday Sharon delivered a healthy baby boy Jonathon 7 lbs 11 oz. Since conditions are so very different in that area than they are here,

new mothers stay in bed and rest and regain their strength for a couple of days after the

birthing experience. On Friday morning Sharon sent word to her sister asking her to bring some

rice and water.

When her sister came to deliver the nourishment that she needed she found Sharon

dead with the baby quietly laying beside her.If this story doesn’t touch your heart then

something is wrong! The point is simply: when we are faced with honest needs, how can we not respond and

share? And this sharing is evidence of God’s love in our

hearts.

BY RESTING IN GOD’S PRESENCE19 And by this we will know that we are of the truth and will convince our conscience in his

presence, 20 that if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience and

knows all things. convince (a) "to convince"; (b) "to persuade,

appeal to"; (c) "to win over, strive to please"; or (d) "to conciliate, pacify, set at ease or rest"

(NETnotes)

1 John 3:19 CEV When we love others, we know that we belong to the truth, and we feel at

ease in the presence of God.

1John 3:19 NIV This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our

hearts at rest in his presence

1 John 3:19 (Da Jesus Book) So, wen us guys get dat kine love an aloha, den we know dat we

stick wit wass true. We tell our own heart dat everyting stay okay now, da way God see us.

(Hawai`i Pidgin New Testament)Do you feel at ease in God’s presence? Or do you rest easy in His presence? I’m sure you probably do while you’re in church but what

about at other times?

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year

olds. After explaining the commandment to "honor thy father and thy mother," she asked, "Is

there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat one little boy answered, "Thou shall not

kill."

I would say that if you want to kill someone or hurt someone or get even with them then you

probably wouldn’t feel at ease with God either. If anger or hatred dwells in our heart, how can we be at peace with God? How can we rest easy

with God?Do you feel at ease with God at all times? At home? Out shopping? At Wal-mart, the bank,

the mall? While dinning out? While playing? On vacation?

In Yorkshire, England, during the early 1800s, two sons were born to a family named Taylor.

The older one set out to make a name for himself by entering Parliament and gaining

public prestige. But the younger son chose to give his life to Christ. He later recalled, “Well do I remember, as in unreserved consecration I put

myself, my life, my friends, my all, upon the altar. I felt I was in the presence of God, entering into covenant with the Almighty.”

With that commitment, Hudson Taylor turned his face toward China and obscurity. As a result, he is known and honored on every continent as a faithful missionary and the founder of the China

Inland Mission (now known as Overseas Missionary Fellowship).

For the other son, however, there is no lasting monument. I googled Hudson Taylor & found

lots of info. I tried & tried to find info on his brother & could find nothing! These two brothers are perhaps a small “case & point” example of what John wrote in: 1 John 2:17 NET And the

world is passing away with all its desires, but the person who does the will of God remains

forever.

I am saying that we rest easy in God’s presence most of all when we are right with Him and right

in serving Him. Many people, even many Christian people are so involved with the world that they have no time to serve the Lord in any

shape or form. And they may well feel somewhat uneasy about God.

There is only one way to feel at ease in God’s presence and that’s to be in His presence every day, as much as possible. And serve Him every

chance we get. And when we rest easy with God we can know His love better than ever.

1 John 2:15 NET Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world,

the love of the Father is not in him,

Someone once said that some Christians have just enough religion to make them miserable:

too much to be happy at dances and too little to be happy at prayer meeting.

The idea is that we all straddle the fence somewhat when it comes to the world. But are we going to be guided by the world or by God

and His Word?

Are we listening to God more than we are the world?

The only way we can know true love is by listening to God and walking with Him.