August 29, 2021

Love One Another

Pastor: Jeff Bedwell Series: One Another Topic: Love Scripture: John 13:31–35

Series: One Another
Messge: Love One Another
Scripture: John 13:31-35

What sets Christ followers apart from the rest of the world? 

Final Instructions In The Upper Room

1. The Proclamation of Christ
  • His Death 
  • His Deity 

2. Christ’s Exhortation to His followers

  • The Command to love
  • The Standard of love

3. The Identification of love

  • An Outward testimony
  • An Ownership testimony

A Clarification

“We love because he first loved us.” (1 John 4:19, ESV)

Our Capacity to love as Jesus loved is dependent upon us receiving and abiding in His love for us.

The Nature Of Love

“I define love simply as, seeking and doing the best for another.” John Townsend 
At its heart, love is not primarily a Feeling, but a value that impacts our thinking and our actions.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–8, ESV)

The Invitation To Love 
Paul Tripp

  1. LOVE IS... being willing to have your life complicated by the needs and struggles of others without impatience or anger
  2. LOVE IS... actively fighting the temptation to be critical and judgmental toward another while looking for ways to encourage and praise.
  3. LOVE IS... making a daily commitment to resist the needless moments of conflict that come from pointing out and responding to minor offenses.
  4. LOVE IS... being lovingly honest and humbly approachable in times of misunderstanding.
  5. LOVE IS... being more committed to unity and understanding than you are to winning, accusing, or being right.
  6. LOVE IS... making a daily commitment to admit your sin, weakness, and failure and to resist the temptation to offer an excuse or shift the blame.
  7. LOVE IS... being willing, when confronted by another, to examine your heart rather than rising to your defense or shifting the focus.
  8. LOVE IS... making a daily commitment to grow in love so that the love you offer to another is increasingly selfless, mature, and patient.  
  9. LOVE IS... being unwilling to do what is wrong when you have been wronged, but looking for concrete and specific ways to overcome evil with good.
  10. LOVE IS... being a good student of another, looking for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs so that in some way you can remove the burden, support them as they carry it, or encourage them along the way.
  11. LOVE IS... being willing to invest the time necessary to discuss, examine, and understand the relational problems you face, staying on task until the problem is removed or you have agreed upon a strategy of response.
  12. LOVE IS... being willing to always ask for forgiveness and always being committed to grant forgiveness when it is requested.
  13. LOVE IS... recognizing the high value of trust in a relationship and being faithful to your promises and true to your word.
  14. LOVE IS... speaking kindly and gently, even in moments of disagreement, refusing to attack the other person’s character or assault their intelligence.
  15. LOVE IS... being unwilling to flatter, lie, manipulate, or deceive in any way in order to co-opt the other person into giving you what you want or doing something your way.
  16. LOVE IS... being unwilling to ask another person to be the source of your identity, meaning, and purpose, or inner sense of well-being, while refusing to be the source of theirs.
  17. LOVE IS... the willingness to have less free time, less sleep, and a busier schedule in order to be faithful to what God has called you to be and to do as a spouse, parent, neighbor, etc.
  18. LOVE IS... a commitment to say no to selfish instincts and to do everything that is within your ability to promote real unity, functional understanding, and active love in your relationships.
  19. LOVE IS... staying faithful to your commitment to treat another with appreciation, respect, and grace, even in moments when the other person doesn’t seem deservingor is unwilling to reciprocate.
  20. LOVE IS... the willingness to make regular and costlysacrifices for the sake of a relationship without asking for anything in return or using your sacrifices to place the other person in your debt.
  21. LOVE IS... being unwilling to make any personal decision or choice that would harm a relationship, hurt the other person, or weaken the bond of trust between you.
  22. LOVE IS... refusing to be self-focused or demanding, but instead looking for specific ways to serve, support, and encourage, even when you are busy or tired.
  23. LOVE IS... daily admitting to yourself, the other person, and God that you are unable to be driven by a cruciform love without God’s protecting, providing, forgiving, rescuing, and delivering grace.

Questions To Consider:

  • Have I ever received God’s love for me personally? Have I placed my faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the forgiver of my sin and the rightful leader and Lord of my life?
  • How am I resting in God’s love for me on a daily basis?
  • Who are the people in my life that we are seeking to live out God’s love toward one another?
  • Spend time taking an inventory using the scripture and descriptions above. Begin making any adjustments that you sense God is directing you to begin to live out.

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other sermons in this series

Oct 24

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Serve One Another

Pastor: Jeff Bedwell Scripture: 1 Peter 4:7–11 Series: One Another

Oct 10

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Unity in Diversity

Pastor: Jeff Bedwell Scripture: Romans 14:1–23 Series: One Another