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Dwelling in Love

TEXT: 1 John 4:7-21, v.16

1 John 4:16 — And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

Introduction

Jeremiah 17:9 — The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

  • Being made in God's image and it being true that "God is Love", God has made us to love and to be loved (receive love).

1 Jo 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

  • "Dwelling in Love, is to Dwell in God": stay, endure, be present ---- in love (compare 1 John 3:17)
  • What is this? How? What is possible?

I. Not As Cain

1 Jo 3:11 — For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.

  • the human model: write sing talk about love: (we need and are built for it) BUT ... COME SHORT IN LOVE

One Love! One Heart! Let's get together and feel alright Hear the children crying (One Love!) Hear the children crying (One Heart!) Saying: give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel alright Saying: let's get together and feel alright. Wo wo-wo wo-wo!

  • "That's not love, that's a transaction." Love is sacrificial.

1 John 3:17 But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

II. To know of our true potential for love, we must look godward and not manward:

1 John 4:10 — Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

- The Father in Heaven Loving the Son of God the Son's Love for the Father. 
- 1 John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
- The father that received again his Prodigal Son
  1. God's love calls to us. draws us higher; intoxicates, influences

1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

  1. Are we doing God's Will? wars, fights ... not "pleasures" but "love"

James 4:1 ¶ From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

  1. Love in Deed
  • 'LOVE" is used in literature consistently more often as a "NOUN" than it is as a verb." (1800 220B, 63B; 2019 170B; 94B)

1 John 3:18 &mdahs; My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.

III. It is a developing (changing & growing) ability

  • DEGREES: To "Love" or to "Like": (worship, prefer)

1Jo 4:16-21 — 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.¶ Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 19 We love him, because he first loved us. 20 If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? 21 And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

  1. The use of "love" was Jacob saying he loved "savory meat" ("Love me a steak." have affection; like a friend)

Genesis 27:4 — And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die.

  1. "[7 Years] Seemed unto him but a few days, for the love ..."

Genesis 29:20 And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.

  1. Now my husband will love me [if she bare a son]

Genesis 29:32 — And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben: for she said, Surely the LORD hath looked upon my affliction; now therefore my husband will love me.

  1. "that Love Me [God]"

Exodus 20:6 — And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

ISAAC WATTS: Come, we that love the Lord, and let our joys be known; join in a song with sweet accord, and thus surround the throne.

  1. "Loved Joseph more than"

Genesis 37:3 — Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. 4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.

  • How dare Jacob?
  • emotional bond, a strong connection
  • Why? How? (TIME, HARMONY)

Conclusion

Psalms 40:16 — Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.

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