Summer of Love | Proof of Life — Forrest Coleman

Summer of Love | Love You Bro — Forrest Coleman | 1 John 3:11-14

Transcript

Forrest 0:06

Hey, I'm Pastor Forrest, and welcome to the Multiply Church Podcast. Each week we open God's word together to help you meet God and multiply good in your everyday life. We're so glad that you've taken time to join us for this week's sermon. And if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe and follow us on social media so you never miss a message. Now, let's dive into this week's sermon. Your love has changed my life. Is there anybody in the house today that the love of God has changed their life? The love of God has met you when you had nowhere to go and you couldn't save yourself, and you came to your end and you didn't have anybody else. And the love of God met you. Can we take a second and praise God for this weekend of kids and what God did? His love poured out. You stepped into a church who loves the next generation, who cares about the next generation, coming to know Jesus as their savior and experiencing the love of God. Which has been a part of the story. You walked in today to a church, we turned four years old. The faith that God would work in power and we'd be able to be a blessing and for God to do a work here in Frankfurt and to then be a blessing in Frankfurt and beyond. And we've gotten to experience that and some crazy faith that God provided for us to be in this space a month before our second birthday. Anybody remember some of y'all with anybody remember when we moved into this house? And God provided for us to move into this space in two years' time, debt-free in Jesus' name. And that morning we moved into this house, and I stood up here with at least the space next door, saying, What if, what if God would allow us to take this whole space and to turn that into a space for kids and for youth next door, a whole nother seven and a half thousand square feet. And here I have the sign lease right now, this morning, for the space next door for 250 kids and teenagers.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

In Jesus' name, for the love of God, we make no for the next generation. For the love of God, these love kids, we have children, enough children, children.

Forrest 2:49

And our permits are in with the state for construction, and we'll be getting those back for construction to begin. We didn't know. We didn't know. I didn't know when to sit up here that there was gonna be a flood. And that space over there was then gonna, we were gonna connect the dots for FEMA to be in that space for months and months to help people. We didn't know all that. But faith in the power of our God and his mighty love. Let me pray over us, God. Right now we return our hearts to you in gratitude. Father, not for anything we've done, but everything that you have done. God, we are grateful. We stand thankful and grateful, God, for the many people who have been changed by your love in this house, outside of it, men, women, children. God, thank you for the many more that are gonna come to faith in you. And God, I'm grateful today, Lord, for the fact that the faith around this room to press through and say, God, we we know that you've called us and that Lord, you you you love me, and even when I don't feel it, God, I know that you're there, and I know that you love me. And we've experienced your love on the cross. And so, God, today, Lord, as we as we open up our hearts to you, God, we we start first with saying thank you and gratitude. Gratitude for expanding the kingdom and what's happening next door. God, right now, Lord, we we turn our heart and God. The the posture of our heart, God, is one now to receive your love to flow through us. In the mighty name of Jesus. Everybody said amen. As you grab your seat, we're jumping into this second week of our series, Summer of Love. And last week we jumped into it as we were looking at the book of 1 John, and we started where love begins last week, that we love because he first loved us. And today he is going to show us what happens after we've received the love of God and then how it becomes visible in our lives. And so we're gonna keep going with this book of John and learning his love. Given to us loved us first on the cross, and then motivating our love for others, visible, tangible. I uh I this is the TV remote from my house. It's the actual remote. I uh I have a favorite button on this TV remote. It's the mute button. Because I hate listening to commercials. And now with streaming, they show you the same three commercials ten times on the course of one episode. I guess it's just y'all know what I'm talking about. I just can't, I can't stand it. And I don't know if you ever wish that you might be able to use a mute button on somebody that you know. Hopefully, not the person sitting next to you right now. But but but let me look at it a different way. What if someone pressed mute on your life? What if nobody could hear what you say, the claims that you make, you explaining what you believe in? Would people still see that you love God and love his people? What would tip them off? If your life was on mute, what would tip them off that the love of God was throwing through you? Maybe they would see you come to church, maybe see you reading your Bible, maybe see you praying, maybe giving. But what would they see from your life and the love of God and the way that you treat other people? Would they see you having patience with that annoying coworker again? Kindness, generosity, having an open heart towards others, an open hand towards other's margin and your schedule, an open schedule to be able to love others, what would they see? Would they see you moving towards somebody who was hurting? Would they see you moving towards somebody that that needed the love of God to help them, even if it cost you something? See, how much of a case would be made for our faith if we weren't able to explain the things that we believed in? And what would the what would the case be made? If you weren't able to give any kind of story about what it was that you believe. We've all heard it before. Actions speak louder than words. And we're gonna see in 1 John that's even more illuminating the fact that our actions tell the truth about our love. If you've been around church at all, you've you've probably heard this saying at some time. Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words. Now that sounds really deep until you think about it for about eight seconds. The gospel is good news. And good news has to be announced. Paul says that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. And so for you just to have a nice smile and face at work is not going to explain the cross and the resurrection to anybody. We have to both proclaim the truth about Jesus, not just with our words, but also with our actions, that our words tell the story about the love that we have received from God as we proclaim Jesus that we have lives that are open up enough that people are able to see, and that the words that you believe about Christ are then revealed in your life. And if that's not happening, you have so much more to learn. So today we're gonna turn the volume down and we're gonna look at love and action. Love that lays down its life and opens up its heart and acts out the truth in love. Actions, the evidence, the proof. The title of my message today is Proof of Life. I saw that on display this last couple days at KidCon. Um, after Friday night, and worship teams here and helping with kids. It's all volunteering. How's it going? They said, I'm tired. I said, I'm sure you are tired. I imagine so. I wonder if during KidCon, at some point, the KidCon was put on mute. I'm sure some of the volunteers wish it was on mute with all these kids screaming, going wild. But if you put it on mute, what you would have seen is you would have seen the love of God being poured out. You would have seen people showing up with energy, you would have seen people loving kids, you would have seen people getting down on their level and serving families and having energy and giving attention to and having this visible display of the gospel. And if the volume got turned up, then you would also hear these talking about Jesus and the gospel being preached to kids and then learning about Jesus. And you would get to see a church that went beyond just saying, Oh, I yeah, we love kids, but actually making it visible. And so, where we're going today, my burden for today is that for all of us that are in Christ, that have eternal life in Christ, that now we are ball paid for by the cross and the blood of Christ, his death, burial, resurrection, and heading to heaven, that the eternal life that is in you should leave evidence of love through you. That's where we're going. And we're gonna look at what those evidences are from 1 John. See, because there's a reality that's possible for us as believers that we can come to church, learn the word. We can talk about love, we can preach about love, we can sing about love, we can talk about love, but then at the same time have our heart closed off to others. You can tell the Bible stories you grew up knowing Noah's Ark, Daniels and the Lions down. You can go to camp, you can walk the aisle, you can have a grandma's Bible. And still your whole relationship with God live in the past. And God just kind of this backstory of your life. And there's no present movement in your life of love towards God or other people. What God is doing in his people, what he's doing in the world. Just everything about God just being this kind of distant memory in your life. But don't don't just only pick don't only picture people who don't go to church. Because you can sit in church and still have a closed-off life. You can sit in church and still be grateful for a Savior who laid his life down for you, but then not lay your life down in any way with your schedule or your finances or your attention or your forgiveness to others or your compassion towards others, others. And first John confronts this and speaks directly to what we see as a need in our brothers and sisters and how we respond. John he writes this letter to a church that has become unsettled because there are people who are claiming to have knowledge of Jesus, but their life is not matching up with the love of Jesus. And the the passage right before what we're gonna read today, John says that the children of God, that they're they're children of God by the evidence of the fact that their righteousness and their love for brothers and sisters. And he's calling back to this message that they heard from the beginning with Jesus as he commanded his disciples to love one another. And last week we looked at 1 John chapter 4. This week we're gonna look at chapter 3 as John examines our spiritual life, our eternal life through the lens of our love. And so if you have your Bible with you, turn to 1 John chapter 3. If you have the Bible on your phone, please pull that out and look it up. You want to highlight these verses, it'll also be on the screen in the NLT, starting in verse 11 of chapter 3. This is the message you have heard from the beginning. You should love one another. We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil and his brother had been doing what was righteous. Don't be so don't be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. John comes out the gate talking about the love that we have for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and that there's actual proof that comes with our love. That the proof is that it's evidence of the fact that if you have the love of God flowing through you to brothers and sisters in Christ, then it's evidence of the fact that you have passed from death to life. That you are no longer dead in sin and you're no longer dead in your trespasses, but that if you have the love of God, that now you are made alive in Christ as Jesus has been made alive. And that the love of God is flowing out from you. And I know for me at times it's so easy for me to get distracted with the busyness and the constant church activity to miss this personal love that John's talking about. Or maybe for you, your spiritual life or your Christian walk is just something in the background, or it's just a part of your history. You know the Christian words, you know the Christian habits, but the love of God's people is not in your priorities. And what John says is that your love for others, it's proof. It proves, it checks your heart. And so, if we're gonna have evidence of the love of God and the life that we have in God, what we need to do is to let love check your pulse. Are you alive? This evidence that John is talking about is not you purchasing your own salvation because how much you love other people, how good you are. No, you can't earn it, but that there is an evidence of the work that's been done in your heart that you have been saved, that you have been bought with a price when you have the vital sign of love and the fact that you have been made alive. And we know we know what the enemy wants to put in our mind or what people you've heard people say before. Well, you know, yeah, I believe in God. I grew up in church. Yeah, I know what I believe. I'm just not a people person. People are difficult. The world's condition does not determine the condition of our heart. And the love that's a vital sign of the eternal life that's within us. You gotta check your pulse. Let's let's go back to middle school health. Everybody take two fingers like this, put it up to your neck like so. You should be feeling a pulse. If you don't, don't call 911. You just aren't doing it right. This pulse that you have, this pulse, this is the pulse doesn't create the life, it's the evidence of the life that's present in you. John tells us to check the pulse of our spiritual lives. Are you alive? And so the question is not, oh, did I attend church? The question is, who actually experiences love through me? Who is actually experiencing the love of God through me? And then John takes it to the next level in verse 15. Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don't have eternal life within them. We know what real love is. Everybody say real love. We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. John is calling back to this famous sermon of Jesus, the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, where Jesus gives the evidence of what happens in the human heart, where Jesus says in Matthew 5, 21, he says, You've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, but whoever murders will be liable of judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to counsel. Whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount says, What you have heard is, but I tell you, what you've heard is don't murder. But Jesus thing goes to the heart and says, but if if if you're even angry with if you're if you're someone who has hate in your heart for someone, then you're in danger of the vital check of is the love of God even in you? And man, I get frustrated at people sometimes. I get I get upset with people, maybe you do too. And when you're getting upset with people, you may say, well, you know what? I you know, I don't hate anybody. I don't I don't hate hate hate's too strong of a word. I just don't want to ever see them again. I don't hate them. I just wish a dog would bite them. I don't hate them. I just wish they didn't work anymore. I don't hate them. I just want to apologize first. They hurt me. What we see. John tell us the vital sign of our love is if your love is willing to sacrifice for someone else's life. That's my second point. A sacrifice for somebody else. John tells us that we see real love in the fact that Jesus gave up his life for us. And then goes on to say that we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. Well, what does that mean? What does that mean, John? John calls back to the first murder in the scripture where Cain is so angry with his and jealous of his brother Abel that he kills him. And Cain, controlled by his anger, he sacrifices his brother. And we see a picture of Jesus, the one who will sacrifice himself for his brothers and sisters. And John has heard Jesus say this, he's watched Jesus do it, and now he's telling you to do it too. He's telling the church to do this as well. That Jesus laid down his life for us, that we ought to lay down our life for others. And he says that's what real love is. This real love is this word agape. See, in in uh English, we just have one word for love. I love this cheeseburger, I love my wife. But in Greek, there's There's some options for the word love. And the word that was most commonly used was this Greek word phileo, which was a brotherly love or an emotional love. You've heard of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love. But this word agape was much less used and much less common. Actually, Plato, the Greek uh thinker and writer, used agape zero times in his writings. Plutarch, another writer, used it once. But in the New Testament, the New Testament uses it 116 times. Because the word agape, what it means is not this common emotional love that Phileo means. Agape love means a sacrificial love. And so this word that it already existed in this time and in the Greek language, but what ended up happening was the early church followers in the early church took this word, and this word got remade in the image of Jesus. This word agape that became a picture of and a word to describe what they saw on the cross and the sacrifice of Jesus and allowed Jesus to define what love is. And it begs the question for us: what does love require of you? What does love require of me? And then John gets real practical. In verse 17. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or a sister in need but shows no compassion, how can God's love be in that person? Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other. Let us show the truth by our actions. Say actions. So we will be confident when we stand before God. John says, if you see somebody, you've got enough money, you see somebody who is in need, that you show no compassion, how could the love of God be in that person? Some translations say that if you close your heart to someone, if you close yourself off when someone needs to receive the love of God and you close yourself off, you have no compassion towards someone, how then can the love of God be in you? And gets real practical with us, which is helpful for me because as I think about how we want to see the love of God flow out of this house and flow out of multiply church of frame for it. Sometimes I think there's so many people who need the love of God, and so many things that are happening that we could try to help and to tackle. Sometimes it can be overwhelming of all the need that there is. That's why we say around here, we do for one what we wish we could do for everyone. We do for one more. So big, the problems are so big. How could I even possibly make a difference? I'm sure you've been in this situation before. Somebody's going through something that's really difficult and they're in need, and you say something like, Well, let me know if you need anything, but you actually hope that they never actually ask for anything. It's a real nice Christian thing to say, let me know if you need anything. Let me know if you need anything. Hope they don't actually let me know. Hope they don't actually reach out. Hope they actually don't need anything, but it sounds good. And so we have to examine our hearts. Are our hearts closed off the people, or do we have open hearts that are ready to show and share the love of God and flow out from us and not get overwhelmed by all the need but say, okay, God, what is right in front of me? And how do you want to open me up to them? And so for the evidence of God to flow through us, we have to, in our spiritual life, you got to have spiritual open heart surgery. What I mean by that is you need to put compassion into action, is what this passage tells us. The compassion in your heart for you to have love and compassion and say, oh man, this person, this isn't need. And then it actually translates into action. And not that the enemy tell you, and you're right, well, somebody will do something. Well, somebody else, somebody else will do it, somebody else will help. Well, maybe maybe when I get more time, when I have more money, maybe I can help. Taking love and making it an action. And not an action that purchases our eternal life. We're not working for our salvation, but that it is a tangible representation of the evidence that the love and truth of Jesus has taken root within you. That faith without works is dead. And Jesus is calling us to this higher love, this agape love, this sacrificial love. And Jesus says it so revolutionary and so plainly in John 15, 3, where Jesus says, Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends, and then Jesus did it. And then Jesus did it. Yo uh we we try to show the love of God in tangible ways outside the walls of our church, and we try to be generous. And I know so many of I love the stories across our church when I find out uh uh around the out of nowhere that somebody had helped somebody and paid off a bill, or that some small group bought groceries for somebody who was going through a hard time. I love those stories of generosity and also the fact I just love the fact that we get to to invest in and give to and love people in our city. And I praise God for already in the four years of multiply the hundreds of thousands of dollars that we've been able to invest in our city into different nonprofits and work. And I'm believing for the day when it's millions of dollars that we get to invest in kids and get to invest in nonprofits and get to invest in the kingdom of God expanding and being a witness to say, hey, the church isn't dead, the church is alive, we're relevant, we're making a difference. We actually are going to show the love that we're talking about. And so a couple of weeks ago, Collins Lane Elementary, that's right behind our church, reached out and aren't you glad that Collins Lane didn't ask multiply to solve every problem facing public education right now? I'm glad. I'm glad they didn't ask us that. What did they ask us for? They asked if we would provide school supplies for teachers and cleaning supplies for these teachers so they don't have to pay for it out of their own pocket. That's a whole nother conversation. But they've asked us for paper towels and tissues and Clorox wipes, and we said, Yeah, we'd love to do that. We'd love to. And so next week we're gonna bring in cleaning supplies to go to the local school. And also next week, we're also going to bring in tennis shoes for kids in our city in Franklin County with their initiative that they're asking for schools for shoes for the start of school. And we did it last year, and we're gonna do it again. And there's already shoes that are being delivered and coming in for kids. And we're gonna bring it next week. You can find out more about doing that at frankfurtforward.com. But the request to us was very specific, and you say, you know what? Let me do for one what I wish I could do for everybody. We're not just gonna be overwhelmed and say, okay, let's step out, let's continue to step out in love. Let's continue to step out in generosity, let's continue to love each other in this house, and that our love for one another would be proof for the love that is within us. What would happen if multiplied church got muted? Would our city still recognize the love of Jesus through us? Imagine. Imagine if we did. Imagine if there are no more sermons, couldn't share any more scripture. People could only just see our actions. Would they see the love of God flowing through us? I'm believing in faith that God is going to continue to make us into a house like that. That we're we'd be a house that we love one another, and the people in this room would love each other. So that in times of grief and in hardship and on the mountaintop of life, that we would love one another, and people who are lonely would feel the love of God. And people who have tons of friends would share that with other people, and we continue to be a tangible, visible representation to the love of God. So that people just imagine people saying, Yeah, those people over at Multiply, they did more than just tell us that God loved us, they showed us that God loves us. And that that's what John is challenging us to do. And we're gonna do that next Sunday. And love has a shopping list for next week. I wonder for me, I wonder if my life was muted. People see the love of God flowing through my life and the way I interacted and Lord, make me into somebody who has the love of God flowing out from me so much that people can see the love of God on me because you know what? When they see the love of God on you, they see life. Who in this house wants to be alive? Who in this house wants to have the love of God so that you're not dead, that you're not far away, that you can every time you love somebody else, that you're sending into the life I'm alive. Somebody sending I'm alive. Well, if you have the love of God in your life, then you're alive. You know what? When you show up to someone and you're serving kids, and you're talking about the benefits, that is life, that is the love of God. When you put in your family, when you keep inviting your family to come with you, and you keep coming to church by yourself, and you're giving yourself up, and you're not letting yourself sit on the pillow, and you say, you know what, I'm gonna give it up, and then I'm gonna show the love of God, and you say, You know what, I'm alive. I've got life, I've got life in my bones, I got life in my heart, I got the life of Christ in me. Let me show you the love of God. Yeah, I can preach it all day. I can say, I can tell it to you, but let me show you as well. Does anybody want more life? Does anybody want more love? That's what I'm praying over the believers in our church. Love for one another, love for our city. And because it's because as this fall comes, we're gonna have all kinds of busyness and stuff going on, and there's gonna be more opportunities for us to serve, and I want to make sure that my heart is in the right place, that our motivation be the love of God, that our motivation be his love. That God be the one who's glorified. I want to pray that over you as well. So would you stand to your feet right now? Maybe you're in the room today, you've not received the love of God. And today you need to receive what Jesus did for you on the cross, and you need to be saved. You need to give your life to Him. Today may be the day for you to accept Him as your Savior, that you have never received Him as your Savior, that you've never been baptized. Today is the day. So bow your heads with me now. You're in the room today, you follow Jesus, you love Jesus, and you want more of the love of God to flow through you and through your life, and for the picture and display of the gospel to be made known through you in your house with your children and your family and at your workplace, and you want the love of God to speak to the life that you have in Christ. I want to pray for you. And if that's you, you want more love flowing through you. Would you raise your hand up so I can pray for you? Yep, there's hands all over the place. Father, right now, God, your people right now are asking God for you to open up their heart, for God, you to do open heart surgery on them right now, Father. That you would work in and through their life, and that God, your love would flow through them like never before. And God, we believe in faith and we ask God that you would do that. That God, you would bring to mind anything that's that's a that's a barrier that's holding them back, anything that needs to be ripped out of their life, God, that's holding back the love from flowing through them. And God, you would expose it to them that, Lord, they would confess it to you, that they would confess it to another, that Father, they would be forgiven and healed. You can put your hands down. And you're in the house today and you have not received Christ as your Savior, but today is the day of your salvation. Today is the day for you to put your trust and faith in Christ. You've never accepted Christ, you've never been baptized. Today is the day for you to do that. Pray in your heart and mind, Jesus, save me. Give me your love. I believe that you're the Son of God and that you died on the cross for my sins, and that you walked out of the grave. I give you my life as you gave yours for mine. Forgive me, cleanse me so I can be in heaven with you one day. Thank you for saving me.

Sallie 37:14

We're so grateful you joined us for this week's message. At Multiply, we believe life was never meant to be lived alone. If today you made the decision to follow Jesus, we'd be honored to walk with you on this journey. Visit multiplyky.com to let us know. We love you and we'll see you again soon.