We love because He first loved us.We love him, because he first loved us.We love him, because he first loved us.We love, because he first loved us.
10 sermons cite this verse
… to you. You happen to be a priority to God, right? We are. For God so loved the world. That's his heart. That's his motivation. We love him because he first loved us. So it's his priority. Make it your priority. The reason I like to do it in the morning isn't because I'm a morning person, but this is my way of putting God first. He gets the first fruits of my day, right? This is Leviticus 23 that you give God the first sheaf of the harvest. You give it to him. So my first meeting of the day is with him. My first conversation of the day is with him. My first scheduled appointment is with him. For some of you that would require a little more planning. Like I'm going to go to bed at a reasonable time and get a good night's sleep. So that can happen. Proverbs 8 says, I love those who love me and those who seek me will find me. So set a time, make it a priority. …
… Now my obedience comes as a result of that love, right? We love him because he first loved us, the Bible says. Jesus says, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. So let's not get this in reverse and miss what this Bible that we're holding is saying to us. We should not do anything that would keep people from hearing the gospel. So let's bring this to the present day. Let's say that I'm a meat eater and you're a vegetarian. And by the way, I am a meat eater. I'm happy to be a meat eater. My wife took me out to a vegetarian restaurant the other day and didn't tell me until after the meal was done, I was in a vegetarian restaurant. Because she knew I wouldn't go with her. And she told me ahead of time. So I had the meal. It was very good. She said, how did you like it? She says, great. She said, there was no meat in it. No, there was. …
… He must seek us first. We love Him because He first loved us. We pursue Him because He pursues us. And this is huge. I know that in a room this size, and we're pretty packed full this morning, I know that there are some of you, whether you're students or adults, who somewhere along the way have grown cold or callous or casual and your faith and your relationship with God and your relationship with God would not be characterized by pursuing God with passion. There's a lot of us who have wandered away from God and maybe even deliberately disobeyed God. And I want you to hear this morning, based on the Word of God, that God never stops pursuing His people. We have a God who runs after us. And He's running after you. He is pursuing you by grace, not because we earn it, not because of any merit, but there's a God in heaven who never stops pursuing His people. And I pray that that will encourage you this morning. …
… Explain the relationship. Well, you know how scripture says we love him because he first loved us. That's how it works with giving. There's a word for giving. It's the word grace. The word grace means giving. So when you read the longest passage in the New Testament on giving is 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. And the word grace appears, the grace. God has given us the gift of grace. And by the grace of God, we are doing this giving. Well, God's giving to us, God's grace to us is the lightning. but where there is lightning there is always thunder and the thunder back to god is our giving to him our giving to him and to help others in need in the name of jesus and if you are not a giver you are not entering into the grace of god in your life and and i mean god can live without your money, but you can't live without his grace. And he's extending his grace to you every time you give. And it's like, I'm just going to give back to you. R.G. Letourneau invented earth moving machines and gave away 90% of his income. And he said, and he made these gigantic shovels, you know, and he said, God shovels it in, I shovel it back, but God has a bigger shovel. It just keeps coming in. These royalties just keep coming in. And by the way, I'd written a couple of books before we started giving away all the royalties, …
… unless you are first received? it says we love him because he first loved us why is love so important to him why is it so important for him to require of me that that i would love him and i would love others why would that be his number one priority for my life because the implication is i can't do it unless i become the recipient of his love see it's like worship in John 4 the great story of the woman at the well and Jesus gives this incredible revelation of worship he said the time is coming and now is when those who worship God will worship in spirit and in truth he says the father is looking for worshipers who will worship him in spirit and truth. Why is the Father looking for worshiping? It doesn't say he's looking for worship. He's not an egotist in need of our applause. He's not insecure. He's not looking for our affirmation. He has his little interest in public opinion. …
… Or how can I grow my love for Christ? the Bible says in 1 John 4 19 that we love him because he first loved us that for you and I to grow in our love for Christ there must be this recognition that the reason we love him at all is because he first loved us that as you and I examine Christ with the eyes of love that we would recognize that his great love demands a response from us There has to be a response. Spurgeon put it this way, and this is the way that only Spurgeon can put it. He says this, our love to Jesus begins with trust. We experience his goodness and then we love him in return. Then Spurgeon quotes the very verse we looked at. We love him because he first loved us. They say that love is blind, and I should think it is from what I have seen in some people. but love to Christ might have 10,000 eyes and yet be justified in loving him. …
… First john chapter number four, verse number 19. We love because he first loved us. Short verse today for you to start. Just a simple verse. First John chapter four, verse 19. We love because he, everybody put up your number ones, like we were playing the game uno. We love because he first loved us. I want to start a new series today. The title of our series is called Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places. And I want to encourage you on the first and the best place to find love. And that is first, before we learn how to love others, we first learn how to receive the love of God. We love because he first loved us. All of your love starts with receiving before it leads to giving. I cannot give away love if I do not first receive love. So we love because he first loved us. Now I just want to teach us for a few weeks on how to love well. And I'm just believing that God will teach us about how to date well, how to have a great marriage. Any married people in the house today? …
… But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If someone says, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God must love his brother also. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. and everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten of him. By this we know, that's a repeated phrase. Here's how we know, here's how we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome for whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world? …
… without bumping into pure gold. We love him because he first loved us. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we could be called sons of God. all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life, and the absolute banger that we're going to read today. If you have sin and confess it, he's going to forgive it. How good is that? It's been called the believer's bar of soap. I mean, it is. One commentary I read called 1 John a masterpiece of edification, an absolute magnum opus when it comes to edifying the church. And I'm calling this first of eight messages that I'm going to preach consecutively by God's grace, something old, something new. There's nothing borrowed, nothing blue. Don't worry. We're not going full down the aisle, full send down the aisle. But that is really a theme and a flavor to this. Not only both in the fact that we as believers, if we are believers, are a part of the bride of Christ. And hopefully we will make it to the marriage supper of the land. There is a homesickness for heaven. And we do long for what is promised to us there in God's presence. But also that is a part of John's strategy of helping us to deal with things that are presented to us that are new truths by looking back and …
… you will be satisfied. If you long for me. What does it mean to set your love on God? It means you've received his love. Do you know that? Do you know the scriptures is we love him because he first loved us? Do you know when I love him, I'm only loving him back with what he gave me? When I opened up my heart to receive his love, he gave me the capacity to love him back. strangely in scripture you see instruction on the husband to love the wife but the wife to respect the husband why because if the husband does a good job loving the wife she doesn't need to be commanded to love in return and all the women said yes amen but you you get the point you get the point the point is is is it's it's actually carried on in the illustration of christ and his church the husband and the wife Because he has set his love upon me, therefore I will deliver him. …