Sunday 2017-08-27

Order of Worship 7:45, 9:00, & 10:30


I John 4:7-21

7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us. 20Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

 

Why do we question God’s love for us?

  1. We don’t love ourselves.
  2. We’ve been told (by word or actions) that we’re unloveable.
  3. We’ve come to believe that sin separates us from the LOVE of God and since we've sinned (and are sinners who continue to sin), we can’t possibly be loved.
  4. We haven’t lived up to someone’s expectations…..or our own. 
  5. We have a hard time loving people who are ‘like us’......who have committed the sins that we’ve committed; who have caused the damage that we’ve caused; who've disappointed others as we have, etc., etc.

Here are just a few of the Scriptures that prove God's unconditional love for us.

  • Today's Scripture.....all of it.
  •  Romans 5:8
  •  Jeremiah 31:3
  •  Galatians 2:20
  •  Romans 8:35-39
  •  Ephesians 2:4-5

Debbie Reese 1 Up.png

TODAY'S PREACHER

Debbie Reese is Co-Directing Pastor of Calvary UMC