The Redemption Of Christ Jesus

You are listening to a message from Thrive Community Church, a church located in Southwest Florida. For more info, visit us at thrive-fl.org. Good to see you here today as we continue our laid back vacation kind of mood throughout the summer. If you're not on our newsletter list, by the way, let me know. We'll get you on that, okay? Because there's lots of things, and I'm sorry, you've got to scroll through the whole thing because there's quite a few things coming up, and people, oh, I didn't know that, yeah, I know, it was probably about six stories down. So just recognize that. We have learned through the summer a lot about love, and I have a feeling next week we're going to love, learn more. Carl Galec will be preaching again, which is fantastic, again, again. Once a month I'm getting somebody else to take my place in preaching, which frees me up to do a little more of the campus ministry side and also gives you a break. You get some good preaching once in a while, okay? So he wrote a book called Love Paradox. Did you mention that already in your sermons? They're for sale in the lobby. You can buy the t-shirt, the mug, the swag that goes with it as well. Next week, you're getting the verses, man, right? First John 4, you know, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. Yeah, I don't have those this week. I might refer to a little, but I'm not going to steal your thunder, I don't think. We are on First John chapter 4, verses 1 through 6, and we're going to learn about what the deep love of God is all about and that it is found in the person of Jesus Christ who came in the flesh and how important that is. And yes, sometimes that means there are particularities about the Christian gospel that some people may find offensive, but we celebrate them because it frees us to not be so concerned about ourselves, but can be focused on God's love for us and for others and makes us humble. Believe it or not, it might not seem like it this morning right up here, but it can make us humble servants for the sake of the world and for the sake of others. We're going to look at that as we read First John 4, 1 through 6. You can follow along, by the way, in the You version of the Bible app. We've got notes for this that are listed there. You can follow along with that, and you can take notes as well in that, but we're going to read right now, First John 4, 1 through 6. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Now you might be going like, wait a minute, what does love got to do with this? You singing the song already? It's a good song actually, right? It's a good song, man. I couldn't, yeah, I'm not even going to try. Because this passage is talking about the spirit of truth, the spirit of error, about right and wrong, and that leads down a path that you might go like, ooh. One of the great problems the world has with Christianity, and actually with all religions, not just Christianity, is its exclusivity, its claim to have a truth, okay? And they think that's the big stumbling block, if you just get rid of truth you can be loving to each other. And the reality is, from this passage, as well as the rest of First John, if you want to have deep love, that is kippona aloha, you cannot separate truth and love into two different categories, have a little truth and a lot of love, ain't going to work. The only kind of love the Bible really knows is love that is truthful, that is authentic and genuine and transparent and honest, and there is no such thing as truth without love as well, by the way. That's just cruelty sometimes, I'm just going to tell it like it is, it's a good power play people do on others, I'm speaking truth, but you're not doing it in love, it's not really true. That's the scriptural understanding of deep love, and we're going to be looking at this in this text. Some of us are a little older than others here, and I remember a time when, back in my childhood, if you'd ask people and interview them on the street, what's the biggest problem in the world that's causing the most peace and fractions and divisions? They would respond, politics, specifically political ideologies of communism, capitalism, proletarian governments, other whatevers, right? Political theories ...