well, we are in week four of a series entitled prove it. Where we are talking about the tension that exists in our culture today between what people say they believe and then how they actually live. Long gone are the days where people could just make a statement or make a claim and people just accept it as true. Now, when you make a claim, people want to see the evidence in your life, so that how you live, how you talk, how you act, does that actually back up what you say you believe? And so we have this letter from, at the time, it was from a man who was once known as the Son of Thunder, and then because of his experience and his relationship with jesus, his connection there, his life is completely transformed and he becomes known as the disciple whom jesus loved, and he even gets described as the Apostle of Love. And so he was the last living disciple, he was the last living person in connected with the ministry of Jesus, he's about 100 years old and the last living disciple and some of his last words, he writes to a group of churches in and around the city of Ephesus, and he writes these words to us. And so we have this idea of just this encouragement and challenge that almost comes across like a spiraling staircase. And I say that because he has, he keeps circling back around, circling back around to similar topics of light and truth and love and obedience and how ultimately, as we walk in light as we walk in love, we prove what we say we believe. And so if you're taking notes, I want you to write this down. Here's the big idea for this morning and that is love is a matter of life and death. Love is a matter of life and death. You see, it is both serious and practical. Love is a matter of life and death in a serious way because it is because of love in the name of love that Jesus actually died on a cross for you and for me, The most commonly quoted verse in all of the Bible, 316, for God, so loved the world that he gave his only son. So it's in the name of love that Jesus gave his life for you and for me. And while he was on this earth, Jesus actually proclaimed that it was taken down by Matthew one of his followers and Matthew chapter 22 he described that the great command, the greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and then to love your neighbor and that it's on these two commandments anchors all of scripture, Love God love people, Jesus himself says that upon these two truths hang all of eternity and all of scripture. And so if all of history hangs on the topic of love and if Jesus gave his life so that we can love others the way that he loved us, it's a very serious topic but at the same time love is a matter of life and death because it's very practical and what I mean by that is that every one of you bring something to the table. No, we are in one of my favorite months of the year and I say that because basketball is getting started, Footballs in mid swing, you know in Arizona you can walk outside and not melt and that's exciting. And then we can laugh at the rest of the country as they start getting chilly and we're like, oh I know it's so tough, it's so cold when we went trick or treating with our kids Siri what's the temperature 67 right? You with me like the rest of the country is mad at us right now you know that. Right. Well I love that. But also with the with the holiday of thanksgiving and this this attitude of gratitude and you gather together with friends and family and then maybe maybe you gather together with family and everyone is responsible to bring a dish to share, Does anyone do this? And so that you bring something to share with the family and so real quick right now here's your chance. Okay I want you to turn to your neighbor and I want you to tell your neighbor what is the best thanksgiving side dish right now go ahead and turn your neighbor and share that. Okay, okay for me, for me, my favorite thanksgiving side dish, it's a toss up between stuffing. If I got any stuffing lovers in the crowd. Yes. Yeah. And then I also have this weird obsession with that like cranberry jell o stuff that only comes out at thanksgiving. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's not served any other time of the year and then you don't even know what's in it, but it's just it's delicious. Okay, so now everyone brings something to the table. Well what you really what you might not realize is that the same way that you might bring a side dish to a family meal at thanksgiving. You actually bring something with you into your relationships in the day to day life. So when it comes to your workplace, you bring something to the table. When it comes to your family and your friends, you're bringing something to the table and what you say, how you think, how you act actually builds up and brings life or tears down and leads down to death. And and the reason I say that and I know that sounds extreme, but it helps us to understand that there is weight and there is value in our words and our actions when we understand that we can build people up or that we can tear people down. Let me let me just do a little self test. You don't have to raise your hand. But I want you just to take this little mini test with me? Okay, when you enter a room, whether it's your friends, your sports team, your workplace, When you enter the room, like when you walked in this morning in your head, do you think to yourself here I am, I'm here, You're welcome. In fact, actually we laughed. But so the soccer players, latin, he was a famous european soccer player came over after an injury. He came over to play in the United States Soccer league, the Mls and he joined the L. A. Galaxy. And so he came and when he came to the city of L. A. He took out a full page ad and the full page ad simply read this dear L. A. You're welcome. And it was a picture of himself. Mhm. Now we laugh at that. But how many of us subconsciously have that attitude when you walk in, You're like, all right, let's do it. I'm here. Or okay. The flipside is what if you walked into the room and had the mindset? There you are. There you are. Have you ever walked into a room or maybe you've been in the room? Someone walked in like, oh, I'm so glad you're here and someone comes up to you and feels and you feel warm and you feel welcomed and you feel loved and you feel noticed. So we all have that desire to be noticed. They say sometimes we forget the names of people we talked to and the responses because when we're listening, we're actually thinking about our reply. Have you ever done that? Like, maybe, well, no one would ever do this. Um, but I do this. Maybe you can, maybe I'm the only one, but have you ever been in an argument, or we'll say a friendly debate with somebody and they were speaking, and rather than listening to what they were saying, you were already figuring out your response in your head. You know what some of you are nodding and some of you are elbowing the person next to you, So that's okay? So you, so you understand what I'm talking about, So someone's speaking and they say something to you and you're already thinking about your response. That's a here I am mindset, right? It's different when we listen to understand, as opposed to listening to reply the same way. It's different to enter a room. Is thinking, here I am, versus there you are, there you are. Imagine walking into your workplace and you see the group of people that you enter there. You are so good to see you today. How are you feeling? How are you doing? And you start giving and connecting and building relationships. You see what you bring to the table in a relationship is an attitude and actions that lead to life or ultimately lead to darkness and even death? Well, john that's pretty intense to say that my actions lead to death. Okay, but you probably have that person in the workplace that when they walk in the room, you know, something negative is coming out of their mouth, right? No one has ever said, man, I'm so glad that person is bitter. I'm so grateful. I love it when they get angry. It's awesome. Right? Oh, complaining is the best. Okay, we don't, we don't we acknowledge it, but yet just take self inventory. How often do we walk in and we immediately think what's wrong? We immediately think you're just frustrated with the situation. Well, that's a here I am mindset. And so we want to challenge you today to take out of that mindset of here I am. And start actually entering the room entering your relationships with the thought process of saying, oh, there you are. That's what it means to love is that you can build up and you can give and you can serve in a way that makes a difference. So go ahead and in your bibles first, john chapter three, we're gonna walk through this verse by verse and I'm gonna kind of give the structure as we read this, you can kind of understand the background and the context as we go. So the first part of this passage, it actually serves as what I would call a command sandwich. So in the very first verse and then the last verse, you have the same thing repeated. And yes, I just talked about thanksgiving dinner and now I'm talking about sandwiches, I'm hungry, I'm sorry, but so we have this command sandwich. Let's read these verses here. First john chapter three verse 11 and then I'm gonna also read verse 23 for this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. There's the command Then in verse 23 and this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, jesus christ and that we love one another just as he commanded us. So the command is to love other people. Now earlier in the letter and first john chapter two verses seven through 11, he actually says it's both an old and a new commandment. And the reason it's a new commandment is that when jesus entered the scene, he was in the upper room with his disciples, he ultimately washes their feet, he takes the lowest posture of a servant and he washes the feet of his disciples and then he tells people I want you to love one another as I have loved you and it's when you love people like jesus loves people then that you will know and you will prove to be his disciple and so it's an old commandment and that we're called to love. But then it's a new commandment and that we're supposed to call love people in a jesus kind of way. And so what does this look like? Well, then he breaks this down and God actually gives us a really practical and understandable argument of why and how we're supposed to love one another. So he moves from the command, Love one another, and he gives us two extreme examples. He talks about cain and then he talks about Jesus. Kane is the first sibling pair with Abel cain, and Abel in genesis chapter four, And let me let me just read these verses here, Starting in verse 12, we should not be like cain Who was of the Evil one and murdered his brother, and why did he murder him because of his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteousness do not be surprised brothers that the world hates you. Now, I want to pause there for a moment and just give a little bit of context. So, adam, adam and Eva in the garden with God, they sin, they get kicked out of the garden, they start having lots of kids that ends up becoming humanity, but the two kids that start off cain and Abel, so Kane is working the crops, he's kind of the farmer and then you have able, who takes care of the animals, some more of the rancher style, and so you've got animals and crops and together they're supposed to be bringing an offering to God, and in genesis chapter four, Abel's sacrifice is received by God because he does it with a clean heart, where Kane does it more with a bitter heart. And so his offering is rejected by God. And so Kane gets so jealous and gets angry that ultimately he kills his brother. And so he kills his brother. And then when God asked him what happened, he lies about it. And so, you see early on in the bible, one of the first stories we have, we have a story that engages in hatred and lying and jealousy that ultimately leads to murder. And so we see this extreme example. But what I found interesting is that one of the first sins was between two religious people and over religious things. Isn't it interesting that Christianity is supposed to be this religion of love? But yet sometimes in churches, people fight and argue, well, this goes all the way back to the very beginning that jealousy and lying in hatred and the purity of heart matter. And so it makes sense that Kane is the bad example. But I didn't understand at first if you notice that verse 12 is about Kane, but then in verse 13, it says, do not be surprised brothers whether the world hates you. So, he goes all the way back in the beginning of history and then he looks at the camera, it's like when the show the office they're interacting and all of a sudden they turn to the camera and they say something directly to the audience, right, they break the fourth wall and they look right in, that's what john's doing here. He says, okay, here's what happened to Kane by the way. Don't be surprised if the world hates you. I was like, that's kind of a weird concept, like why would you talk about cain? And then all of a sudden turn the lens back on us. Well, he does that because he says, look Abel was killed and he did everything right. And that sin darkness, death Never just impacts one person and that. Do not be surprised surprised when the world attacks you for living out your faith. Some people believe in Christianity, believe in jesus and think, well all my problems are gonna be solved. It's gonna be great, john here who had been persecuted, he had been, they tried to boil him alive, didn't work. His brother was killed, His other disciples were killed for his faith and he says, look, you need to understand that if you believe in God, that doesn't make the road easy, It makes the road worth it. So, don't be surprised when the world comes after you able, one of the first sons in all of history was killed and he did nothing wrong. And so hatred darkness impacts a lot of people. And so john is saying, look from the very beginning, hatred leads to death, Love leads to life. That's why love is a matter of life and death. Let's keep reading verse 14, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death, that phrase passed out of life and are out of death into life. Is this idea of like moving houses, if you've ever moved, you've packed up boxes and you took everything out of one house and you moved it into another, you had a change of address. What john is saying here is that when you love people, what you're showing is that you have a new mailing address and that you've actually moved out of sin out of death and you've moved into a new home, you moved out of darkness into light, You moved out of Lies into truth. You moved out of hate into love. Therefore walk and Love and Love is the confirmation of your new address. It's your new P. O. Box. Where do you say? Well, the love of God defines my life. I have a brand new mailing address. If you've got an issue, send the bill to this address, not this one. So let's keep reading. Let's keep reading verse 15. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. Oh man, okay, now it's just a little more personal because someone could read this story and say, well cain killed his brother, why didn't do that? So I'm good. But now this apostle actually quotes jesus and he says, no, if you hate your brother, that's like committing murder in your heart, he says, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him? So you have this example of cain leads to hatred, jealousy line darkness, death. Okay, it's on this canvas that Jesus enters the scene and notice the stark contrast to Jesus right here, verse 16. And by this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Kane, I was selfish and bitter and angry and therefore he took life jesus with the motivation of love, gave life one killed another one, laid it down. So you see these pictures and you have to say, okay, does my life more reflect this? Or does my life more reflect jesus? So we have the command. We have the picture. But what does loving one another actually look like? If we want to live like jesus and we want to love like jesus, what does it actually look like? one verse 17 and 18, John tells us this, he says, but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little Children? Let us and again he says, little Children, not because we're kids, but because he's like 100 and everyone's younger and so young in their faith? And so it's like dear loved ones beloved Children lean in and he says, let us not love and word or talk, But indeed and truth, what does it mean? How do we love one another? First thing is we can meet a need. The first way to love somebody is to meet a need. You see a need in someone's life, maybe it's physical, maybe it's emotional, maybe it's mental, maybe it's spiritual when you see a need in someone's life and then you meet that need that is an action of love. Four weeks ago we gave a challenge to our congregation where we challenged everyone to multiply the blessing. We gave everybody a challenge card and actually a little bit of money and we said go and bless somebody in the community. And the stories that have been funneling in have been amazing. If you have a story about how you loved and served somebody in our community and if you're not shared that with us, please do so write that on the comment card or the connection card, fill out the form that's online at our website, let us know so that we can celebrate that with you. Let me just share a couple stories with you. There was a lady who was in the pharmacy and she was gonna getting ready to pay for her prescription and this is these are our own church people. This is what I love. These are not sermon illustrations pulled out from somewhere, but this is from within our community right here at mission growth. So someone was in line at the pharmacy and noticed that a lady was not gonna be able to pay for her medicine and so she went ahead and actually paid so that this other person gonna receive their medicine and go home. Another story I heard was that someone was in a donut shop, great start, I love food and so it was there and noticed somebody in the corner just kind of depressed, sitting alone and so he went up and started having a conversation with a person, turns out the person was battling depression and was fighting through issues and so he went ahead and bought them breakfast bottom coffee and sat down and prayed over this person who had felt alone in that moment. And even just this morning I had a conversation with a friend from our setup team and talked about how he was driving home late at night and saw a car pulled off on the side of the road and rather than pass them by when it was late at night coming home from work, he could have just passed him by instead pulled over, turned out it was a college kid out of gas, took them to the gas station, got gas, got him settled in the conversation. The person who never are you a christian ended up having a conversation. This is awesome. I love this when people within our own church family are going out and loving people in a practical way, buying a meal serving the homeless, helping someone pay for their medicines or helping someone get gasoline in their car. These are practical expressions of love and it happens when you meet a need. The second way to show love is to make a difference to make a difference. Maybe there's not even an initial need, but there's a way or an expression of how you can demonstrate the love of God. It says there in verse 18 that we should love not just in talk but in action and in truth, I heard a story about someone who brought snacks into the employees at T Mobile where they were getting their phone work done and that rather than demanding stuff from then they brought in supplies to encourage the workers at a store. Somebody else turned in a story how they created what are called boo baskets. I love this. They filled pumpkin containers with candy toys, decorations, cupcake mix coffee and a little note and they left it in front of the door of new families that moved into the neighborhood to say, hey, they're welcomed and loved. Isn't that awesome that in a holiday that's focused on scaring everybody. They went around flipped it and actually blessed people in their neighborhood and said, there you are, there you are and we're glad you're here. I love this. To one of my favorite stories actually is from one of the Children in our congregation. They heard of a single lady who um works really hard, but then is starting radiation treatments for cancer. And so one of our own grove kids took their on his own wrote a note basically saying that must be difficult. I'm praying for you. You can use this more than I need it and gave $20 to this lady in need a kid. What does it look like to love one another, meet a need and make a difference when you do that, you're the hands and feet of jesus and the world takes notice. What are the benefits of Lemon other? Let's keep reading verse 19 by this, we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him. For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart. And he knows everything beloved. If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ and Love one another as he he brings that commandment back in. So what are the benefits? What happens when we love one another? The way jesus loved us. I believe there are five from this passage. The first benefit is that we have assurance of faith, we have assurance of faith. Now I cannot speak for the ladies in the room. But I think I can speak for most guys And see if you track with me on this. I do this every single time to get out of the car and maybe you do this to you. Get out of the car, you lock the door, you walk about 30 ft. And what do you do? You hit the button, you locked it, you know, you locked it, you heard the click. But what do you do? You gotta hear the beep, right? Just is anyone with me they attract if they do that, right? Does anyone make fun of their spouse for doing that a little bit? They're like, no, I'm just glad that the car is locked. I do that. Every single time we get out, I locked the door. I don't know what the distance is that it seems. But I never never like five ft. It's always like 30 ft. I'm like wait, wait on. Okay, I'm good. They go why? We love confirmation. We love confirmation of it. We got to hear the beep when you love other people, that's hearing the beep of your belief in the life of a christian. You hear you have assurance of your faith when you love somebody like that. When you love somebody and you serve them and you bless them. The feeling and the expression on their face and then the feeling in your heart is assurance that what you believe is true. So you have assurance of faith. The second thing is that it brings comfort of heart. Some of you walked into this room had been walking through some difficulty and you've come specifically this morning, I believe for this verse verse 20 for whatever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart underline or highlight that. Whether it's in a physical copy or digital copy, whatever that is, God is greater than your heart. What that means is that when you don't feel good enough, when you feel shame, when you feel like you're stuck in a pattern of sin, when you feel like you're stuck in a pattern of doubt when you are doubting what john is saying here. Don't doubt God doubt your doubts. Our salvation is not based on a feeling. It is based on the God who created the universe and died for you and for me. And then if my God, that I pray to is not bigger than my feelings, then I don't know if I can trust that God. But when you believe that the power that rose, jesus from the dead now lives in you, that it's not about your feelings, it's about God's foundation. It's not about what you think, but it's about who jesus is, it's not about what you've done, but what jesus did and that that's still true yesterday, today and tomorrow, and that whatever battle you're facing, whether it's shame, whether it's depression whether it's difficulties and circumstances, whenever you are doubting you feel alone and pulled back, you have to know that God is greater than your heart and he is greater than your feelings and that his word is true, and you are a child of God, and you are saved by grace and grace alone, amen. So when you battle that negative inner voice, remember this verse that God is greater than your heart. And you know that when you love and serve others, third benefit. That when your heart is feeling convicted, you remember that God is greater than your heart. But when your heart is connected, then you actually gain confidence in God. So when you love others, you gain confidence in God. You start to walk with a little humble swag. And by that, here's what I mean is that if you have everything in the world at your disposal disposal that you you are not trying to walk into every room, get something from someone. If you just won the lottery, you don't have to walk in the room going, hey, can I borrow a dollar? Can I borrow $5? Can I have this? You don't walk into the room trying to get something from somebody. Rather you enter the room and you go, there you are. I've been blessed. Let me bless you. Well, you've been given complete forgiveness. Eternal life meaning purpose, joy and love. So what is it that we can't give to the people of this world. God's love is bigger than our circumstances. And so when you love other people. Not only do you have assurance of faith, Not only do you have comfort in your heart, but you gain confidence in God and God's plan for your life and you start to live that out in practical ways. When I see people of Mission Grove creating boo baskets and paying for people's prescriptions and buying meals and helping the homeless and buying gas for people, I gain confidence in what God is doing because I see God working through the hands and feet of the people of this church and body. Fourth when you love other people, you see answers to prayer peter when he writes a letter In fact, first Peter 3 7 he's talking to husbands and wives, husbands make sure you act well because that could hinder your prayers. Matthew 18 talks about how a story about how someone who is an unforgiving servant that if we don't forgive, forgive those around us, then we don't really understand how God has forgiven us in the same way our actions that can hinder our prayers. When we love other people, it actually enhances our prayers. It's like you have this fire that's going and then when you love other people it pours gasoline on the fire so that your will start aligning with God's will and so you start asking things of God and you start seeing answers to prayers and lives are changing and you start saying man, this is awesome. It happens when we love other people. The last thing, the last benefit of loving others. It says that you please God. In other words, you find joy in obedience, you find joy in obedience. I believe all of us have a desire to please our earthly parents in one way or another, I know that because I have young kids now, like every single day my three year old says daddy watch me, It's like jumping on trampoline. Daddy watch this, do your kids do that? Hey watch this like yay! Like you don't even know what they are not even doing anything right there. Like hey mom, dad watch this, watch me. And then have you ever have you ever tried to look at your phone when your kid was trying to do something, they're like ah dad mom, you're not watching? Okay, I'm about to american ninja warrior this from one leap from a chair to the couch and you're gonna miss it. Hey are you watching? Why? Where does that desire come up? Because we love to show off and to please our parents in the same way we long to please God when you love people, The way that jesus loved us, you please God And in doing so you find joy in obedience. So why are we called to love other people? What happens when we do that? And we see assurance of faith, we have comfort of heart, we have confidence in God. We see answers to prayer and we see joy in obedience. And then we get to this last verse verse 24, it's ok, john but how is this even possible? You don't know me, you don't know what I've been through, You don't know what situation I'm in. But John writes is in verse 24, he says, whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him and by this, we know that he abides in us, by the spirit whom he has given us. And then later actually, In Chapter four, Verse 4, it says this, go ahead and put that on the screen. It says little Children, you are from God and have overcome them for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. How can we love other people? We have the holy spirit living inside of us one last story. What does life giving love look like? Love is a matter of life and death. What does life giving love look like Water? One year anniversary, we said because everyone who came were going to give a $5 donation to a family through the Ministry of Hope. Kids hope kids is a ministry that has kids fighting life threatening illnesses like cancer and other diseases and so we said we were gonna because you came, we're going to be generous. And so we gave because you guys came, we gave over, we're going to give over $1,000 to this single mom with with two daughters, one of them facing a life threatening illness And so we were struggling to try to match up to give her this gift and she didn't know it was coming and so uh pastor Clark went down just this past week and we couldn't meet her house and so finally went down to her school, so again you have a teacher, single mom with a child facing a life threatening illness and so we said hey, on behalf of Mission Grove, we love you and God loves you and she gave her the card but she didn't open it and so later that day she went home and she opened the card and she started crying and she texted clark this this week, she said thank you so very much, I just opened it now we can fix our car door, the girls can have christmas and I can pay for devon's medications, many of which have very high copays, what a blessing now I'm crying, can you imagine receiving a text that says now my girl is gonna have a christmas that little lean in in your heart. The reason you leaned in is because that is being the hands and feet of jesus and that is a life giving love that happens when you love people the way jesus loved us, let's pray heavenly father, we thank you for your son God as we go into this time of taking communion God, I pray that we can just be in remembrance of you God for those that this is their first time here. They're not comfortable taking community. I want to just give them the blessing. They can let the elements pass, but God, for everyone in the room that believes and trusts in you as Lord and savior. When we take these elements that are passed, hang on to them, reflect on what you've done for us in a few moments that we can take these elements together in remembrance of the greatest act of love in the history of the world. When you gave your life for us, God love is a matter of life and death. Help us to have not a here I am attitude, but there you are attitude and bring a little bit of light, a little bit of truth and a little bit of love into every relationship that we have. Maybe just remember the love that you showed us when you shed your blood on the cross, your son's name. We pray amen