God Is Love

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. Understanding the deep love of God. I don't think it's understandable, okay? There's where I'm gonna go right there. So I don't think it's comprehensible. I don't think it's digestible. I don't think I can put it on a bumper sticker. I don't think I can tell you what I'm feeling. I don't think I can grab a hold of it. I was a little bit nervous. So Pastor John asked me to preach in through First John. I love John. And when I was here, when he was on vacation, kind of went to a deep dive on John and who he is and how he wrote and what he did. But I have one of these incredibly large angsts in my life, and that is that I'm not going to be able to communicate the breadth and height and depth and power of God's love. And you know why? Because after 38 years of ministry, I have failed. I have absolutely been totally, completely inadequate at trying to communicate, at trying to get a sense of empowerment and the change that it gives. I've read books. So I want to just start with a disclaimer. I'm not going to be able to succeed at what I'm trying to do. I am not going to be able to communicate to you this one phrase. I'm thinking, oh no. So I'm going through it. There's a phrase that occurs in the scriptures, God is love. I was so afraid I was going to get that. Oh no. Pastor John is dividing up the scriptures and getting us through. And I get my assigned text and I go, oh please, no, no, no. And I couldn't remember quickly. I quickly look it up and I went, no. It is in chapter four. It's only spoken twice in the Bible, this particular phrase. And both within a few verses of one another, 1 John 4, God is love. And in classic Johannine fashion, it's simple. I mean, it's simple. In classic Johannine fashion, it's profound. It is as profound, it is simple. It is simple, it's profundity. I don't think that's a word. So that being said, there it is. So what I'm going to try to do today is communicate as best I can in scripture. We're going to take a large dose of scripture and see what God says, what he does. We're going to take a look at some song because song needs to try to capture it as well. And we'll play just a few minutes of a song that I think gets closer to giving us that sense. We're going to take a look at a little video clip that I think identifies the nature of this love that I think God has for you and for me. And that I feel so inadequate in communicating this morning. And I want to go from there and continue to see the impact it's had on people's lives. Because even though I can't hold it for you, I can't hold it up for you, I can't describe it eloquently, I can't point you to people who have experienced it and will never, ever, ever, ever be the same because of it. You ever sit down at a, imagine yourself sitting down at a sort of incredible banquet feast and you're surrounded by food at this big table. That's what I feel like this is like. It's like, you know what? I know I'm not going to be able to eat it all, but I can't even tell you what I'm going to eat. I hope that you get just a morsel, just a taste, because that's all, that's all it will take to change you and change me forever. Just reach out, let a little piece of that flow into your system. You ready to go through my inadequacies? Let's do it. Father God, we pray for your spirit to bless. John brings to us this phrase, God is love. Give us a sense, give us some power, give us an opportunity to experience exactly how that might affect our lives today and leave from here when we came home in Jesus name. God is love. So here's where it comes from. Here's the text, beloved. And again, I'll make some comments as we go along just to provide a larger context, but beloved is John's very children. He's like, you know, it's not just like, hey, you know, he's not from Brooklyn. It's like, it's endearing, it's tender. Let us love one another. There it is again. For love is from God. Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because, oh, there it is. God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love. Not the way of love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation of our sins. There it is again, beloved, loved ones. If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. This, if I were to preach on the whole thing, would keep us here till Tuesday, but wait, there's more. No infomercial intended. By this, we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us his spirit. Have seen and testify what the father has sent his son to be the savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the son of God, God abides in him and he is ...