Maturing in Faith: The Connection Between Love and Spiritual Growth

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We're going to go ahead and open up our Bibles to First John.

So if you're not normally with us on Wednesday nights, we typically are going through a book, and we are going through First John right now.

And we are in First John chapter four.

And we've come to 1 John 4, 7.

And in my house we sing a song, 1 John 4, 7, 8.

And we sing that quite a bit.

It's one of our favorites.

I'm not going to sing it for you here this evening, but this is a verse that I think all of us should, and I believe, obviously we all should put the whole Bible to memory if we could.

But these are really good verses to put to memory because it reminds us of the importance of demonstrating the love of God that he has demonstrated to us.

And I've seen a common theme throughout our book studies here recently.

The.

The reminder that we are called to love others.

And there's a reason behind that.

And he's going to give a reason here.

He doesn't just say love other people because it's going to benefit you.

That's a material or humanistic way of thinking about love.

And.

And so many times that seeps into the church that we should love people that we believe can bring something to us.

But what we're going to see here this evening is that there's a different source or reason for the love that we are to have for other people.

And so one might call verses 7 and 8 the call to love.

And we see love maturing hopefully in the believer.

As the believer matures in his or her fellowship with God, love should mature as well.

They go hand in hand.

So if I say that I'm growing in my relationship with God, if I believe that I'm maturing in my relationship with God, love will correspond.

I wouldn't say equally, but love should and will correspond with that maturity in the believer's life.

And so verse seven, he's obviously addressing believers.

He's been talking about the importance of loving others and demonstrating that love for others.

And then he spoke in verses one through six about being deceived.

Right.

And he's mentioning different areas in our life that can cause hindrances to our fellowship with God because everything that God asks us to do stems from him, right?

We can't do what God calls us to do without tapping into his love, his grace, his forgiveness, his power.

So if God calls us to love somebody, he is demonstrating that love to us, but he's also giving us the opportunity in our lives to love other people.

If God asks us to do something, whether it be ministry or forgiveness, he's already shown us and given us the empowerment to do these things.

And so in verse seven, he jumps right into this fact of, okay, don't allow different things to hinder you.

One of those things being false teaching.

Another thing would be unrepentant sin.

He goes back to talk about a bunch of different things in John First John, chapter one, two and three, and even into chapter four.

But now in verse number seven, he says, beloved, let us love one another.

And so there's a call here to love one another.

In this context, loving other believers.

Now, we know that we are not just to love other believers.

We're to love our enemies and we're to love the unsaved.

We need to love the unsaved enough to tell them the truth of the gospel.

But in this context, he's speaking about loving one another inside the fellowship of God, the family of God.

And by the way, I want you to understand that just because we are believers in Jesus Christ and we are saved, that doesn't mean that we are walking in fellowship with God.

We could be believers, but yet walking in disobedience and therefore not being in fellowship with God.

So he warns us about what to do when we fall into these times where we drift away in our fellowship with God.

First John, chapter one.

Confess before the Lord.

And that word confess means to say the same thing, to agree with God about our disobedience and come back to him in that repentance.

He will extend that forgiveness and that restoration.

So it's a cycle of.

Of restoration.

It's a s. A cycle of repentance.

It's a cycle of revival.

And we go through that within the Christian walk.

And so that's what it means to have fellowship with God.

And so fellowship with God is manifested with fellowship with others.

So he says, beloved, let us love one another.

Why?

For love is of God.

And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God.

Now, we're going to stop there.

Just in verse number seven, we see so much that we can take away in.

In the original language, in the Greek, the Sentence basically is framed this way.

Those that are loved, those that have experienced love, should show that love to other people.

And we know that in this case, in this context, he's talking about the love of salvation, the love of God to us.

And so we're not commanded to love one another because people are worthy of God's love, that we're worthy of God's love.

Ultimately, we're called to love other people because God has shown us love.

And we are recipients of that love.

And we should live in light of that love.

And we should show other people that.

And that's how we prove to other people that God has changed our life.

That's how we prove to other people that God is real to us.

That's how we prove to other people that God is worth believing in, that God has changed us, that he can transform their life as well.

And so I think about this love, and I think about a love that's sacrificial.

I think about a love that is serving, right?

If.

If I say that I love somebody, I'm willing to serve them.

And so it says here and everyone that loveth is born of God.

And it's talking about this distinct type of love, this different type of love.

And he says, if you understand this love, you.

You can demonstrate it through the fact that you have that fellowship with God.

You're born of God and knoweth God.

And that that word knoweth is more than just knowing intellectually God, right?

We could all sit in this room and say, yeah, I know that God exists.

I know that there is someone who loves me.

I know that there is someone who saved me.

But it's more than just knowing it intellectually.

That word there really has the understanding of experiencing God.

So basically, it's this.

Those that have experienced the love of God, those that have experienced the change of God, those that have experienced the forgiveness of God, show other people that same thing that happened to you.

And so John emphasizes love among the brethren.

He emphasizes it in chapter 2, verses 9 through 11.

He emphasizes it in John 3 all the way to the verse 18.

And now he's bringing it back up again.

He's repeating himself.

And he.

He shows here why it's so important.

Because if love is of God, so it's from God, then those who claim to be born again, those who claim to be in the family of God, that claim to know God, that have experienced God, must be able to show the love of Christ to other people around them.

And so part of the maturity process as a believer Is understanding that the reason or the motivation behind my love, it's understanding the necessity of my love for other people.

And it's hard because let's all be honest.

In our flesh we are selfish.

In our flesh we want to be loved, but we don't necessarily want to love other people with this type of agape love.

Now remember, agape love is sacrificial.

It's not self seeking.

And that's the type of love that he's talking about here.

And so John is making his point that there is a connection between the love of God experienced and the love of God displayed in our life.

And so if someone sits here and says, why I've experienced the love of God, I've tasted of his forgiveness, I've tasted of his grace.

But in no way does their life demonstrate that type of love and grace to any degree.

There is a disconnect between what they are saying and what they are doing that goes back to chapter three, when he says not just to love in word, but also indeed to, to love in truth.

And it's been so easy for me even in my own life to say that I love somebody.

Love you brother, I'm praying for you.

But the truth is, is where, where does our, our life stop when it comes to us proclaiming our love for someone?

Does it stop with just a verbal proclamation of our love or does it continue on with actually the demonstration and the follow through?

And, and I'm convicted as I've been reading this passage this week.

I've been really convicted with this understanding of yes, I know that I tell people I love them, but do I really show them that I love them?

And that's really what John is talking about here, putting our words to action.

You know, you've heard it say, you know, someone can talk to talk, but do they walk the walk?

And I'm going to tell you, talk.

It speaks.

But walk always speaks louder than our talk.

What we do always is going to speak louder than what we say.

And so that's what John is talking about here.

And he's talking about the connection between the love of God and the love of the believer.

So there are obviously a lot of words in, in scripture that we could say.

Okay, for example, the word know K n o w K n o w could, could mean a lot of different things.

And, and so this type of no is an experiential knowledge.

It's being personal with.

It's John is saying, basically when we experience God, it changes us, it changes our hearts and it changes our mind, it changes our actions, it changes our friendship, it changes the way that we work, it changes the way that we serve.

It changes everything.

And so it's an experiential knowledge.

Obviously it's never going to be completely perfected on this side of heaven.

But what he's explaining here is that it must be maturing.

If we are desiring to know God more and we are growing in our faith, this will be manifested by the way that we live.

And so he goes on further.

He says, he that loveth not, knoweth not God.

Now again, remember what that word knoweth means.

It means experiencing God, fellowshipping with God.

So what is he saying?

He says the, the Christian who cannot love, he, he, he cannot love.

Someone who is difficult is someone who is not experiencing God.

It doesn't mean that they're not saved.

It just means that in that context, in that area, he or she is not experiencing the power of God in their life.

They're trusting in something else to give them their fuel for love or their fuel for grace or their fuel for forgiveness.

And ultimately all of our fuses will run out if we're trusting in anything outside of the love of God.

Because there's all of us will reach that point where we go, okay, no more.

I can't love anymore.

I can't serve anymore.

I can't sacrifice anymore.

But when we go back to what God has done for us, it frames it in our mind, okay, I, God could have said that about me.

He should have said that about me.

And so first John 4, 7, 8 is just simply this, you should love.

This is why you love.

And if you say that you love, but you don't demonstrate that you don't experience God, you're not experiencing God.

He says, why?

Because God is love for God is love.

Not just God is loving, but God is love.

And I think that's so important.

He that loveth not, knoweth not God.

For God is love.

Love is of God and God is love.

The love John speaks of here is, is that word agape.

It's that sacrificial love.

And we know that time and time again.

The Bible says that Jesus proved his love.

God proved his love for us because he died for us.

There's verse after verse that we could go to, I think of in the book of John.

It says that true love, right?

The true love is when someone will give their life for someone else.

And that's what exactly what Jesus Christ did for us.

So this doesn't mean that every act of Love in the world is from a Christian.

That's not what we're saying here.

It doesn't mean that every person in the world that has ever said that they love and demonstrate their love must be a Christian.

But ultimately we see that God has graced the world with this type of love.

And therefore, if we're experiencing God, this will be a character trait that is manifested in our life.

And so the, the, the end of verse eight is such a glorious truth.

It's, it's this, it's that God is love.

Love describes not only the action of God, but the character of God.

The, the, the source of our love is not just, hey, we're all sitting around a fire and singing Kumbaya and everyone's happy.

No, we see that the source of love that we have is, is coming from the Creator of the universe.

And he has demonstrated that to us so that we might demonstrate that to others.

And we know that that's one of the greatest acts that we can do when it comes to sharing the gospel with somebody.

If, if I share the gospel with someone and I prove my love for them, the gospel is going to resonate a lot more than if I just come to someone, throw them, you know, a track.

And I'm not, I'm not speaking against tracks, by the way.

I think that's an amazing tool.

But what I am saying is, is that if we reduce the gospel down to words on the paper, we ourselves are not completely presenting the gospel because the Bible says that we are demonstrations of the love of God.

So therefore, if I reduce it down to something on a paper and say, well, here, read this, could they get saved?

Of course.

But what we see Jesus doing in Scripture is having compassion for those that are in need of the truth, compassion for those who that are in need of salvation.

And so for us as Christians, I think it's taking the step further of saying, yes, we love our community, we do events for our community, we pass out flyers in our community.

But how much more I think the gospel would resonate if we demonstrate our love and did things for people not because they deserve it, but because God tells us to love them and do things that point them to the truth of Jesus Christ.

Now, I always pause when I'm talking about love because I think it needs to be clear.

We're not talking about accepting everybody.

We're not talking about the love that the world says means, I approve of what you are doing.

I think we all can understand what it means to love somebody but not approve of what they're doing.

And, and the truth is, is that we, we can still show people love when we are in disapproval of their actions and their lifestyle.

So, so what do, what do I mean by that?

I, I think what I mean by that would be this.

I love someone enough to tell them the truth and I don't condone what they're doing, but I still need to show them the love of Christ.

I still need to show them grace and forgiveness.

And a word that I like to use sometimes in the area of forgiveness is what's called forbearance.

Forbearance would be offering that forgiveness.

Now whether or not that person comes in repentance or that person comes and gets right with God, hey, that's for them.

But ultimately we as Christians have to offer that gift of grace, offer that gift of forbearance after that gift of patience and service to them.

And so he says, he that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love.

Now I know this is difficult.

I know that there's a lot of things that hinder our love for people, hinder our love for the unsaved specifically.

Now I know that in the context here, it's talking about other Christians.

And by the way, I think sometimes we as Christians struggle enough with other Christians loving them that we don't even need to.

We, we'll get to the world in a minute.

We need to deal with loving other Christians.

And I think that's where sometimes we are ineffective in our witness for, for the gospel because the people on the outside of the church look in and say that those Christians can't even get together and love each other.

Why, why, why should I accept the love of God?

Why should I believe in the love of God if the people that say they follow him can't even get along and they're fighting and they're at odds with each other.

And so it's a wake up call for us to check ourselves before we start proclaiming the love to the world.

Do we have the type of love that God has called us to have within the church?

Are we in one accord?

Are we unified?

I was reading some passages of scripture for Friend Day, and one of the passages of scripture that I came across that really resonated with me was Psalm 133.

If you go there, you can see it with me.

And I think that this is, I believe, one of the prayers that I'm going to start praying.

And I think it's good to pray through scripture.

I think it's a really great tool to look at a passage of Scripture, specifically the Psalms, right?

And, and use those as prayers.

Now, I don't think that that means that every single time we read something on paper that it's heartfelt, you could read these verses and not mean it.

But if we read these verses and we, and it's something that's real to us, I think it's something that we can lift up to the Lord.

So Psalm 133, verse 1.

Some of you, once you read this, you'll understand why a pastor would want to pray this.

But any Christian should pray this.

It says, behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.

What the psalmist is saying here is it's such a blessing, it's such a wonderful thing when brethren, when fellow people, fellow Christians in this context of the church can dwell together in unity.

He, he goes on to describe what it's like.

He says, it's this beautiful thing, it's this precious thing.

And I think that's something that we have to think about when it comes to love and when it comes to the context of the church.

You know, my love for my fellow brother or sister in Christ matters.

It doesn't just matter with our personal relationship.

Even though it does, it's a testimony, testimony of my relationship with God.

And it's a testimony to the world about our change that we have in our life when it comes to being in the family of God.

I think about the early church in the book of Acts, right?

We saw one of the character traits of that church was that they were in one accord, they were in unity.

And over and over again the Bible speaks of this unity and this fellowship.

It doesn't mean that there's not going to be conflict.

There will always be conflict.

If we're human beings, there will always be conflict.

There will always be issues, there will always be disagreements.

There will always be criticisms.

There will always be questions.

So it doesn't.

The Bible never says stop having criticisms or stop having conflict.

Because the reality is, is that we always will have conflict because we have opinions.

We're different.

God didn't create us all as robots having.

And I don't think that we should all be the same way.

I think it's good that we are different and we see things from different perspectives.

Because if everything was done through my perspective, it would all be one way and we would miss a lot.

We would, we would miss a lot of things.

But that's the beauty of the brethren, the church, the family of God.

Coming together with different perspectives.

But when there's different perspectives, sometimes there's hardships and there's confusion and there's, you know, people can get upset with that.

And the Bible says that there's ways that we can deal with that conflict.

But what I will say is this.

Dealing with conflict in love will always win when it comes to the will of God.

Just.

Just to love somebody means to see it in a selfless way, not a selfish way.

So if I'm coming to, and this is something I'm working on, by the way, let me just explain this to you as a pastor and as a teacher.

When I preach or teach something, it doesn't mean that I'm perfect in this.

It means that I'm actually preaching to myself.

Okay?

So in this conflict, let's say this hypothetical conflict that comes up, someone's upset with something in a selfish, fleshly way.

It's like I come and I see it my way, right?

Selfishly, my way is the right way because I'm right and therefore I'm going to stand in being right.

But if I'm going to deal with a confrontation in love and the type of love in the Bible, agape love, remember selfless.

So selfless means not selfish.

It's the opposite of selfish, which would mean this.

I need to see it from their perspective.

That's hard to do.

For me to come in and be so sure that I'm the right one and come in with the conflict and go, well, let me see it from your perspective.

Instead of lashing, I'll say, well, give me your thoughts.

Give me your perspective on this.

And I think a lot of conflict would resolve right then and there when we could just talk it out.

But a lot of times, and I'm using conflict as one example, but there's many things that we could do within the family of God that could cause us to not have love.

It could be a plethora of things, but ultimately, what I want to get to is this.

When we're dealing with love, we're dealing sacrificially, we're dealing selflessly, and we come into a situation to the best of our ability to see that person's side of the coin.

Now, the reality is, is that person might be wrong, that person might be in sin, that person might have bitterness.

But that will be revealed when I bring forth that love.

Because true biblical love would be reciprocated, but it doesn't mean that I only give love when it's reciprocated.

So in First John 4, 7 and 8.

He says, you gotta love because why?

God is love.

And if God is our Father, our identity is his identity.

We want to be like him.

We want to be characterized by our love.

I know this is difficult.

I. I know that for me, some.

Here's what I do.

Sometimes, some of you are not going to want to hear this, but I'm gonna confess it to you now.

When I am coming to a situation where I'm having a difficulty with somebody or a group of people, I'm.

I'm not always listening to what they're saying.

I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to respond.

I already have my.

Like, I already have my ammunition ready to go.

And they're talking.

I'm going, huh, huh?

Okay.

I would say that to that point.

I'm gonna say that at that point instead.

I think with love comes listening, right?

Listening.

So if I love someone, I'm going to listen to them.

And sometimes I struggle with that, even with my.

My own family that I love.

You know, they come home and, you know, I had a long day and there's a lot going on, and I hear, you know, people talking, I hear noise, but I'm not comprehending what's being said.

And they go, you know what I mean?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know exactly what you mean.

Yeah, sure, yeah.

But a lot of times my selfishness.

Dad's tired, Dad's hungry, dad just wants to get.

So that selfishness.

I put those blinders up and I'm not listening.

Because my, my.

In that moment, I can't be selfish and loving at the same time.

Because if I'm loving, because when I'm selfish, I'm loving myself, right?

That's the definition of selfishness.

So selfishness is loving myself.

And if I'm loving myself in that moment, I can't be loving that person.

I have to distribute my love to that person in that case.

And so it's like put that person first.

So it's listening.

It's listening.

So he goes Forward here, verse 9.

And this was manifested, the love of God toward us.

So he's going to give a demonstration of his love.

And what was that demonstration?

Because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.

There's the gospel.

He says, okay, in case you need a reminder about God's demonstration for you, he gave his only begotten Son for you.

And that's, that's.

That's the greatest act of love.

That's the greatest sacrifice, that's the greatest act of service that anyone could ever give.

Herein is love.

Not that we love God, but that he loved us.

He says, God, God doesn't love us because we love Him.

God initiated the love.

And by the way, that's another aspect of true biblical love in the family of God is taking the initiative to be the one who starts that process of love.

I think where I sometimes fail is while I'll wait for someone to come up to me, I'll wait for someone to initiate it, then, then I'll be nice back to them.

The Bible says here that it's God if, if we want to have the type of love that God has, He's the one that initiated the love.

We love God, as we're going to see later on in this chapter, verse 19.

We love God because He first loved us.

So it's taking that initiative.

It's taking the first step, even if it means that I'm risking someone being upset with me by demonstrating my love.

And that's really where I usually come.

That's, that's where my mental gymnastics start kicking in.

I start trying to justify myself.

I say, well, you know what?

They probably don't want me to do that for them.

And I start giving myself reasons why I shouldn't demonstrate my love.

The Bible says, no, it's God's love.

Therefore we should be the ones who are initiating in verse 10 here in his love.

Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation of our sins.

We've already talked about that word propitiation.

It's a big word, but it has a very impactful meaning when it comes to our salvation.

It's the word that we use for the fact that God's wrath, his holy righteous wrath, has been satisfied by a payment.

That payment being Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the one who took the weight of Jesus is the one who took the wrath.

Jesus is the one that took the punishment.

And so therefore that is that type of love that we are all called to have.

He says, beloved, if God so loved us, so he says, this type of love that God had for us, we ought also to love one another.

So a lot of times we think, well, of course I can't love like God, so therefore my love's different.

No, that's not what he's saying here.

He says, God's loved you, you love like God.

Now, are we all going to fall short of that?

Of course, but that doesn't mean that we don't strive for goes back to what Paul says in Romans.

Just because the standard's up here and we can never meet that standard, that doesn't mean we just quit.

It doesn't mean that we just give in and just go back to the worldly way of thinking.

The standard is loving exactly like God.

None of us can love like God, but we can do our best to reflect those things that God has shown us in our life.

And so he says, beloved, let us love.

This is that agape.

This is that sacrifice.

He says, if you understand the love of God, if you have experienced the love of God, show that to other people.

And so the meaning of love.

And then he's going to get to the application.

The application is there in verse number 11.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

So the whole point is, is that if you've experienced the love of God, show that love to other people.

And so I think that that is a tough task.

It's.

I would.

I would even say, in many cases, it's impossible to love unless we're meditating upon resting in and experiencing the love of God in our lives.

And.

And I would say to you now, if you're struggling with somebody, maybe you're struggling in conflict, maybe you're struggling with division.

Maybe you're struggling even.

Maybe it's gone as far as, like, hatred and bitterness and malice towards another person.

Don't look at the situation and say, well, this doesn't.

I can't go back now.

The Bible says, what do we look to?

What's.

What's the focal point in the story of love?

The focal point is the gospel.

The focal point is Jesus.

The focal point is what God has done for us.

The focal point's not what has been done to me.

Now, I'm not saying, by the way, let me just clarify, because I want to make sure that I'm not confusing anybody.

I'm not saying that someone that comes and harms us, we just accept that harm and just keep taking that harm and go, well, is.

Aren't I supposed to love him?

No, that's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is, is that there's a time and a place for us as Christians to stand in the truth and to separate ourselves from people because of our love for God.

Because our love for God is always going to exceed the love that we have for other people.

So if someone else is leading me into sin, I don't have to go, well, let me Just join in with them and keep going on with them.

No, I love God.

And so I'm going to separate from them and I'm going to love them enough to tell them why I'm separating from, from them.

So love doesn't always mean condoning and joining in.

And, and what I would even say is, is justifying someone else's actions.

But what I am saying is, is that all of us as Christians must understand that loving someone means so much more than just, hey, it's good for me, it's good for them, so we can just stop there.

No, it means that we're experiencing the love of God in our lives.

Now the Bible doesn't say that we have to be best friends with everybody.

The Bible doesn't say that we have to join in with every single person and, and love them in the same way that we love everybody else.

But what the, the Bible does say is that love should be a characteristic in our life.

As a maturing Christian, if we are in fellowship with him, it's not going to be hard to get to that place of love in our life.

And he goes on and talks about it in verse number 12, he says, no man has seen God at any time.

If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us.

Meaning that we're perfected doesn't mean like completely perfect, sinless.

It means this idea of maturing and growing in us.

And so there's a huge theological truth there in verse 12.

We're not going to get into this.

But it speaks of no man has seen God and the concept that God is a spirit.

We know that through John chapter four.

But, but he says, okay, so no, no one has seen God at any time if we love one another.

So if we show that love to one another, it shows people God.

It shows that God is living within us.

And then he says, and that shows us God's love maturing in us.

And so the way that we could say it is this loving one another.

Jesus even mentions this in the Gospels.

Loving one another is, is the best tool to show that God is living within us.

And so that's, that's why we love.

We don't love because it is good for our health.

We don't love because people are going to make our lives better.

It's just a big networking event at church.

We love God because it's a demonstration of God's love to us.

It's a testimony to other people to understand that God's love can change their life.

And ultimately, it's glorifying God and obeying him.

Remember what he says?

If you love me, keep my commandments.

And so evidently here we know that it's important for us to love other people.

Even, even when, even when this guy comes to Jesus and asks him what the greatest law is, what's the greatest commandment?

Jesus says, love God.

I'm summarizing here.

Love God with everything and love your neighbor as yourself.

So tied up in everything that we do in our faith and our belief and in our actions is tied up with loving God and loving others.

Now, it doesn't mean we throw everything out, but what does he say?

He says on every, on these two things, everything hangs, the law and the prophets.

And so everything that we see in Scripture is tied together with the love of God, Demonstrated to us our love to him and then manifesting that to loving others.

And so I know that that's something that you've heard a lot.

It's.

Love is thrown around.

Like every church in Amer, every church in the world for that matter, talks about the love of God.

But that doesn't mean that every church in America is demonstrating the love of God.

And it might not even mean that every church is interpreting biblically what it means to have the love of God.

Because some churches will justify sin or at least overlook sin in the name of love.

And that's not a biblical thing.

We're not supposed to say, well, we love these people enough that we'll overlook that sin in their life.

Now, again, I'm not the arbiter of justice in this world, but what I do know is that God's word says very clearly that certain things are wrong and we must say the same thing again.

Confessing.

Confessing means homologea.

Same word.

Agree with God about what his word says.

And when we're in that, hey, you know what?

If people call us hateful, that's okay.

Okay, Because a lot of times what will happen is, is as we demonstrate the love of God, people will interpret that as hate because it's not celebrating sin.

But at the end of the day, I'm going to guarantee you you're going to.

At the end of times, at the end of this time, and then into eternity.

I don't think any of us are going to ever, like, regret standing on God's side.

I think that maybe some people will regret saying, wow, I wish I would have been more convicted in that area.

I wish I wouldn't have been compromised in this area.

And so I think that we can love.

So we.

But then on the other side, let me say this, there are some other churches that no one would ever say that they're loving, right?

Because the moment that they, Someone walks to the door, it's all about condemnation, all about how bad they are.

How about there's no hope and everyone leaves church with no hope.

It doesn't.

Again, that's, that's not love either.

So I, I think that we can be a church and believers that can be loving, but at the same time be standing in the truth of God.

I don't think those are contradictions.

I actually, I know that they're not, because biblically speaking, we can love in truth.

And so loving in truth means I love someone enough to tell them the truth.

But it doesn't mean condoning.

But what it does mean is that I can sacrifice for someone for the cause of the gospel.

I can sacrifice for somebody.

I can serve somebody that God has called me to serve because I love him more than anything else.

And so I encourage you to think about that.

Encourage you to think about, like, I want to leave you with takeaways.

Okay?

It's not really necessarily homework because I won't be able to check you on this.

But think about in your life, areas where you can say, you know what?

I'm not loving where I should in this area.

I'm not loving my family the way that I should.

I'm not loving my co worker, I'm not loving my neighbor.

I'm not loving my church family member the way that I should.

And then I would, I would have you look into the word of God and see what God would have for you to do to show that love to those people that you're thinking of.

You know, for me, the big word that keeps coming back into my mind is sacrifice.

Am I willing to sacrifice my time, my comfort, my.

My plans for somebody else?

If I'm not willing to do that, I need to grow in my love.

And what it goes back to is this.

I don't just sit there and go, well, let me just try harder to love.

What does the Bible say to do?

Go back to the focal point.

Go back to your love for God.

Go back to see what he has done for you.

And that's where we can tap into more strength in our lives when it comes to loving people that are difficult, that are.

That.

That maybe aren't loving us.

So think about that and pray about that here this week and then put it to practice.

Like, if God.

Here's what I'VE been working on again recently.

If God places somebody on my mind and in my heart, follow up with that.

Either call them or text them, or next time you see them, make an effort to ask them a question about how they're doing.

But God puts people in our hearts.

I think we could all agree with that, but we can't be everywhere all at once.

But if God does lead someone to you, maybe it's a stranger to show them the love of Christ.

Take that opportunity.

Try to take that opportunity and I know that God will be pleased when we do that.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro, Middletown BaptistChurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast.

Please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.