NOTES: Wonder, Part 1
Sermon: Wonder: Love
Text: 1 John 4:7-13
Date: Sunday Nov. 26, 2023
1 John 4:7-13 (ESV) 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”
Let’s Connect:
God invites our wonder when He is the object and source of our curiosity.
When it’s less than obvious, our wonder searches to find God’s purposes amidst everyday encounters.
Luke 2:16–19 (ESV)16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
Today: Wonder about the love of God
Frederick Buechner—“To say that God is love is either the last straw or the ultimate truth”
Text Explained:
“9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us
NOTES:
that God sent his only Son into the world
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John makes the abstract personal—God’s Love is made visible in Jesus.
- is thus knowable—fully human
- and also, being the fullness of God, deeply mysterious—he is Someone to wonder about
so that we might live through him.
NOTES:
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us
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and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
NOTES:
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
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12 No one has ever seen God;
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if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
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13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.”
What is THIS? That God revealed His love to us through His Son Jesus Christ.
What do we KNOW? That we are made one with Him, fully united in His perfect love.
Saul- Paul’s Story:
Ephesians 3:17–19 (ESV)
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Romans 8:31–39 (ESV) 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We wonder, what does this have to do with having love for one another?
Accepting His perfect love is accepting the reality that I am not worthy of such love, but He still loves me anyways. And besides, it’s not my love that I love others with- t’s from God.
The more we wonder about how amazing that is, we start wondering that since God so loved the world that He sacrificially gave his only Son for it, how much much more can I sacrifice my feelings and comfort to love others, even when they don’t love me (or aren’t easy to love).
Let’s Relate:
This is how we live out the wonder of His love!
God’s love will always be bigger than our greatest sin,
closer than the pain others may cause us,
lasts far longer than any sorrow or loss.
Our Challenge:
Let’s welcome His love with child-like wonder.