Little Children, Let Us Love One Another

I've been thinking recently about how we will end our lives and for all of us, brothers, sisters, children, it's not as important how you begin your life, but how it will end. That's the most important thing. The beautiful thing about that is, even today, you may be sitting here thinking, man, it hasn't been what it should have been.

For me, our New Year's service that we have is a good checkpoint, and every year around this time, we come together for our annual church family retreat, also a good checkpoint for me. Where am I compared to where I was last year, spiritually? And maybe you sit here and you think, it could have been better. I'm sure we all think it could have been more Christ-like, more wholehearted, more devoted.

Okay, let that spur you on to change something, to make some decisions, and to examine your life, to look to Christ, ask Him to reveal Himself more clearly to you, and that the good news about the Christian life is it's not as important how you begin, but how you end, because we all began in a wretched state. And the beautiful thing, when we look at Jesus, who began and ended His life perfectly, He was perfect from beginning to end. If you really look closely at Jesus, you'll find hope, even if you have failed.

And that's something you can't comprehend in an earthly way. If in an earthly thing, let's say in a test at school, your teacher says, okay, you didn't do very well, you failed your test, so I'm going to ask somebody else to help you, who, for him, it seemed to come easy. He got every answer right.

He's always got every answer right. And you may be tempted to think, how can I relate to this person? He's got every answer right. He always got it right.

And if you're tempted to think like that about Jesus, then I would simply say you haven't seen Jesus clearly enough. If you think that Jesus is so perfect that He's far away from you, then it's an earthly Jesus that you know. The eternal Jesus, God in the flesh, is so perfect and yet so sympathizing and relatable.

That's the beauty of what we read in Hebrews chapter 4, that even though He's never made a mess even once, because He was tempted in all points as we are, it is almost as if He had failed. And please understand, I'm not being sacrilegious here. I'm not saying He failed.

He never sinned at all. He had no sin in His flesh. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh.

But Jesus, God has made a perfect high priest. We must remember that. A perfect high priest who in His perfection is still a high priest.

That's why He's always God and always man. Forever He will be the Lamb upon the throne. So He'll always be man.

He'll always have that human aspect that we have so that we have no excuse. And if you are feeling discouraged, if you feel like there's failure in your life, you've messed up, even up to this very morning, look more closely at Jesus. Don't look at somebody else who also has failed and think, well, I can relate to them.

You know, you go to, in the world when people struggle with addictions, they have recovery programs, and I think it's very good for earthly people, that help them, whether it's alcoholism, drug addiction. But it's a community of people built around others who have also failed. None of them would really want to have Jesus come and speak at those addiction recovery meetings, because say, Jesus, you never took drugs.

You were never drunk. So how can you relate to me? And we tend to bring that mindset into the church as well and think, okay, Jesus, you must, you should have lusted with your eyes at least once for you to be able to help me. Or you should have lost your temper at least once so that you can help me.

And that's not true. Don't look for an answer in somebody else who has also fallen into sin in some way and think, I can relate to that person. And why is that important? I say, if you're struggling and you're defeated in some area, look more closely at Jesus.

That's it. Don't turn your eyes away. The devil wants you to do that, to think, Jesus, you're too perfect for me.

That would be true if he was only earthly. But because he's God and man, he's so perfect that he's the only answer for me when I fail. Not somebody else who has also failed.

Jesus is our perfect high priest. And it's true that as we become more Christ-like also, that's important. But as I was saying, I've been meditating on the end of our lives, partly because we're coming to the time where the first generation of the brothers who started CFC is coming to a close.

That's on my mind a lot. And I look at their lives, Hebrews 13 verse 7 says, is obey your leaders and observing the outcome of their life, imitate their faith. And I look at all these dashing young preachers who everybody's following these days.

And I say, I don't know about the outcome of their life. In fact, in some of them, I can see the outcome of their life already. The little things that come up and you discover, man, really? But I've observed, had the opportunity and you all have had as well, those who have walked with God faithfully for over 50 years, they're nearing the end of their life, their lives.

And I observed the outcome of their life and I want to imitate their faith. And I've been thinking that we don't really have much example in the New Testament of how godly men aged. We see it in the Old Testament.

And unfortunately, they're mostly bad examples. Noah, at the end of his life, not very good. Yet he was a man who was so godly in his young years.

Abraham, few things happened here and there at the end of his life. Isaac, spiritually blind and physically blind. David, the last words of his life are sad words.

You think about a godly man. In the New Testament, you don't really read about how godly men aged. Most of them died in their 30s, 40s, 50s.

None of them really lived to about 60, except John the Apostle. He died of old age, even though he suffered in prison in his 90s, from what we know. And so I've been thinking about John, John the Apostle, recently as well.

And even as I read the Gospels of John, but especially the letters of John, 1st John, 2nd John, 3rd John, I see that as John got older, as he got into his 70s, 80s, and 90s, the thing that he seemed to be captivated by was devotion to God and devotion to the disciples of Christ, Jesus' brothers and sisters, the brothers and sisters in the church. Devotion to God and devotion to brothers and sisters in the church. I don't see him writing a lot about reaching the lost, evangelism, and all that.

That was all part of it. But over and over again, you read 1st John, devotion to God. Beloved, flee from idolatry.

Don't let anything come between you and God. Devotion to God and let us love one another. Don't let anything come between you and devotion to your brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is what a man who made it to his 80s and 90s, walking with Christ on this earth, had to say as the most important thing. They say that John, when he was in Ephesus, as he got older, he was so old that he couldn't even walk, stand up to preach. And so they used to carry him in a chair to the meeting and he would sit there and he couldn't even speak a full message.

He would sit there in the back and at the end, they'd say, Brother John, you're here. We'd like to hear at least a few words from you. And they'd carry him up in front and he would say, little children, let us love one another.

That's all he had to say. Little children, let us love one another. I think about as we walk more closely with God, as we walk more closely with Jesus and really see the true Jesus, you know that you're becoming more like Christ if this becomes your emphasis as well.

So rather than say my own words, I thought I would do something a little different. And that is to read from 1st John chapter 1. You can follow in your Bible. I'm not going to read the whole book because that might take more than the time I plan to share.

I picked out a few verses and I'm going to read it from the Living Bible. So follow along. Children, you also please listen carefully.

If you have a Bible with you, you can turn to it. In your Bible, it's going to be a little bit different, but I'll tell you the verse so that you can see it in your own Bible. I'm going to read it in the Living Bible.

This is just from 1st John. So 1st John chapter 1 verse 1, Christ was alive when the world began, yet I myself have seen him with my own eyes and listened to him speak. Verse 2, this one who is life from God has been shown to us and we guarantee that we have seen him.

See John is writing to people who had never seen Jesus, yet he had. He touched him, spoke to him, heard him speak, saw him with his own eyes. I am speaking of Christ who is eternal life.

He was with the Father and then was shown to us. Again, I say we are telling you about what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may share the fellowship and the joys we have with the Father and with Jesus Christ his Son. And if you do as I say in this letter, then you too will be full of joy and so will we.

Verse 5, this is the message God has given us to pass on to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. So if we say we are his friends but go on living in spiritual darkness and sin, we are lying. But if we are living in the light of God's presence just as Christ himself does, then we have wonderful fellowship and joy with each other and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from every sin.

Verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he can be dependent on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins.

You like what he says there? It is proper. God has to cleanse us from all sin because Christ died it. That was fresh for me again when I read it this morning.

God has to. It's right for him. It's the just thing for him to do to cleanse you from sin because Christ died to cleanse you from sin.

Chapter 2, verse 1, my little children. I like how he says that. You know, you think he's actually writing to little children? Yes, partly.

But he's writing to the whole church and he's saying, my little children. And that was somebody who had walked with God for 60, 70 years and he says, listen, I'm just a little child. I want to encourage you to be a little child.

Be a little child. Be one of those that John can say, my little children. Adults, children alike, young people, be a little child.

My little children, I'm telling you this so that you will stay away from sin. I'm going to speak about God's love so that you will stay away from sin. But if you sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father.

His name is Jesus Christ, the one who is all that is good and who pleases God completely. Verse 2, he is the one who took God's wrath against our sins upon himself and brought us into fellowship with God. And he is the forgiveness for our sins and not only ours but all the world's.

Verse 4, someone may say, I'm a Christian. I'm on my way to heaven. I belong to Christ.

But if he doesn't do what Christ tells him to, he is a liar. But those who do what Christ tells them to will learn to love God more and more. That is the way to know whether or not you are a Christian.

Anyone who says he is a Christian, this is verse 6, should live as Christ did. First John 2, 6. Now verse 7, dear little children, I'm not writing out a new rule for you to obey. For it is an old one you have always had right from the start.

You have heard it all before. Yet it is always new and works for you just as it did for Christ. And as we obey this commandment, which is what? To love one another, the darkness in our lives disappears and the new light of life in Christ shines in.

As we obey this commandment to love one another, the darkness in our lives disappears. Have you wondered why there might be still darkness in your life? It's because there's somebody God wants you to love. Start with your wife, husband.

Start with your husband, wife. Start in the home. Start with the local brothers and sisters, the brothers and sisters in this local church, denying yourself to love them and you'll find the darkness start to go away.

Verse 9, First John 2, 9. Anyone who says he's walking in the light of Christ but does not love his brother or sister is still in darkness. But whoever loves his brother or sister is walking in the light and can see his way without stumbling around in darkness and sin. You see how he ties love for others, brothers and sisters in the church, beginning in your own home as well, with freedom from sin? Verse 11, For he who does not love his brother or sister is wandering in spiritual darkness and doesn't know where he is going for the darkness has made him blind so that he cannot see the way.

So if God sees that you're not willing to love the brother or sister he's placed right in front of you, he's going to put a scale over your eye and you're just going to walk around in darkness. I want to pause there for a moment. The reason I wanted to read this is because have you wondered why we do this once a year? We take time out, we take time to just spend the weekend with each other and set aside all the other things we could have done on a Friday evening or a Saturday or a Sunday morning and just spend some time with each other.

I really believe brothers and sisters that it's how we love each other that will determine how much darkness there is in our heart. If you don't believe me just meditate on First John and ask God to shine his light on you. Maybe you've been so focused on walking with Christ, walking with Christ, walking with Christ and he says the way I want you to walk is to love the brother or sister that's in front of you and set aside your own wants and desires and what will feel good for you and hang-ups and love the brother or sister right in front of you and you'll find those scales peeling away.

That's the message from First John and that's why we set aside this time to really take the time to learn how to love each other throughout the year. Not just love each other for two days but how this is a time where we're kind of stuck together so that we learn how to love each other for the rest of our lives on this earth. Verse 20, First John 2 verse 20.

But you are not like that. You're not like the ones stumbling around in darkness he says. For the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you know the truth.

So I am not writing to you as to those who need to know the truth but I warn you as those who can discern the difference between true and false. Chapter 3 verse 9. The person who has been born into God's family does not make a practice of sinning because now God's life is in him. So he can't keep on sinning for this new life has been born into him and controls him.

He has been born again. Verse 10. So now we can tell who is a child of God and who belongs to Satan.

Whoever is living a life of sin and doesn't love his brother or sister shows that he is not in God's family. Please write that verse down. First John 3 verse 10.

Living Bible paraphrases it this way. Whoever is living a life of sin and does not love his brother or sister shows that he is not in God's family. For the message to us from the beginning has been that we should love one another.

Verse 12. We are not to be like Cain who belonged to Satan and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing wrong and he knew very well that his brother's life was better than his.

So don't be surprised dear friends if the world hates you. Verse 14. If we love our brothers and sisters it proves that we have been delivered from hell and given eternal life.

But a person who doesn't have love for others is headed for eternal death. Verse 15. Anyone who hates his brother or sister is really a murderer at heart and you know that no one wanting to murder has eternal life with him.

We know what real love is from Christ's example in dying for us and so we also ought to lay down our lives for our Christian brothers. And again he's not talking about okay the police come in here and say okay we're going to kill five people because you're Christian. I say okay I'll take the hit.

That's not likely to happen. It's in the day-to-day circumstances in our life where we have to deny ourselves. Nobody else is going to put you to death.

You have to take put yourself on the cross. Take up your cross in relationship with others. And so this is true love.

We also ought to lay down our lives or I would say lay down our preferences. Lay down our wants. Die to ourselves for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Verse 18. Little children let's stop just saying we love people. Let us really love them and show it by our actions.

I've had people in my life who says I love you brother and then I found out later on what they were saying about me or doing behind my back. Now it's not about them. I judge myself and say now when you say love you brother.

Good to see you. Call myself a part of RLCF. I love you.

Listen to this little children. Let's stop just saying we love people. Let's really love them.

Let's just stop saying honey I love you at home. Really love them. Lay down your life.

Lay down your own wants. Stop telling your children you love them when it's all about you and your comfort. Lay down your life brother.

Lay down your life sister. Then you really are loving them. Verse 19.

Then we will know for sure by our actions that we are on God's side and our consciences will be clear even when we stand before the Lord. Because God didn't just that's what he says here. God didn't just say I love you.

He sent Christ who laid down his life and actually died and now we know this love. And so he says if let's just stop saying we love each other. Let's start loving.

Verse 23. This is what God says we must do. Believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love one another.

Verse 24. Those who do what God says they are living with God and he with them. We know this is true because the Holy Spirit he has given us tells us so.

Chapter 4 verse 7. Dear friends let us practice loving each other. For love comes from God and those who are loving and kind show that they are children of God and that they are getting to know him better. But if a person isn't loving and kind it shows that he doesn't know God.

For God is love. Verse 9. God showed how much he loved us by sending his only son into this wicked world to bring to us eternal life through his death. In this act we see what real love is.

It is not our love for our God but his love for us when he sent his son to satisfy God's anger against our sins. Verse 11. Dear friends since God loved us as much as that we surely ought to love each other too.

For though we have never yet seen God when we love each other God lives in us and his love within us grows ever stronger. And he has put his own Holy Spirit into our hearts as a proof to us that we are living with him and he with us. Verse 16.

This is 1 John 3 16. We know how much 4 16 sorry 1 John 4 16. We know how much God loves us because we have felt his love and because we believe him when he tells us that he loves us dearly.

God is love and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living with him. Anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living with him. And as we live with Christ our love grows more perfect and complete.

So we will not be ashamed and embarrassed at the day of judgment but can face him with confidence and joy because he loves us and we love him too. And we've been living in that life of love. Verse 18.

We need have no fear of someone who loves us perfectly. His perfect love for us eliminates all dread of what he might do to us. If we are afraid it is for fear of what he might do to us and shows that we are not fully convinced that he really loves us.

If there's even a little bit of fear in your life, fear of the future, fear of this, fear of that, it means you haven't known God's love. 1 John 4 18. Verse 19.

So you see our love for for him comes as a result of his loving us first. Verse 20. If anyone says I love God but keeps on hating his brother or sister he is a liar.

For if he doesn't love his brother or sister who is right there in front of him how can he love God whom he has never seen. Verse 21. And God himself has said that one must love not only God but his brother and sister too.

Chapter 5 verse 1. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ that he is God's son and your savior then you are a child of God. And all who love the father love his children too. So you can find out how much you love God's children your brothers and sisters in the Lord by how much you love and obey God.

Verse 3. Loving God means doing what he tells us to do. And really that isn't hard at all. For every child of God can obey him defeating sin and evil pleasure by trusting Christ to help him.

Let me say that verses 3 and 4. 1 John 5 3 and 4. Loving God means doing everything that he tells us to do. And really that isn't hard at all because every child of God can obey him defeating sin and evil pleasure by trusting Christ to help him. Trust Christ to help you.

It is possible. It is and it's not a hard life if you're trusting Christ. It is if you're not.

Verse 18. 1 John 5 verse 18. No one who has become part of God's family makes a practice of sinning.

For Christ God's son holds him securely and the devil cannot get his hands on him. Verse 19. We know that we are children of God and that all the rest of the world around us is under Satan's power and control.

Verse 20. And we know that Christ God's son has come to help us understand and find the true God. And now we are in God because we are in Jesus Christ his son who is the only true God and he is eternal life.

Verse 21. Dear little children keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts. Dear little children keep away from anything that might take God's place in your heart.

The devil's trying hard. He's trying to get something in there to take God's place in your heart. No I know you'll still come to RLCF.

You'll still be there every Sunday. You'll come to the Bible studies and the prayer meetings and all that. But in your heart where nobody can see.

Dear little children keep away from anything that might take God's place in your heart. Amen. With love John.

These aren't my words. I like that the living Bible writes it as a letter. Take that to heart.

Now maybe you missed it. I had to read it quickly but go back and meditate on 1st John. That letter is a wonderful letter to read often and think about it in the context of how you can love your husband or wife at home, your children, your brothers and sisters in the church, my dear brothers and sisters.

How we love each other is the test of whether we really love God. Don't fool yourself. Don't say well they're a little bit different from me or I don't really have to be that close or whatever.

And don't be hung up by how the bad examples of Christendom. I hear about church splits and divisions all the time even recently. But I'll tell you this don't don't look at the bad examples.

Take God's word seriously. It's exactly what he said. And I'm thankful.

I'm thankful that God placed me in this body. I tell you not a day goes by that I'm not deeply thankful that God allowed me just to be a member. I would be content as an elder.

Yes that's a ministry, a responsibility I have. I have to take it seriously. But just to be in this family, to be with you all and to learn how to love you all better and to love God through loving you is a great one of the greatest joys of my life.

I thank you each dear brothers and sisters and children for the joy you bring to my heart in this. Let's continue on this way. Years ago, six years ago, God gave us a prophetic word.

The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former. I still remember Olu saying that reading that verse in August 2000. It's almost six years ago exactly.

And he's fulfilled it and he's going to do even greater things to come. Let's pray. Dear Father, I thank you for your love.

Thank you for allowing us to be here. Lord Jesus, who are we that you would take one from a city, two from a family and make a home for the lonely. What did we do to deserve it? Nothing at all.

We were sinners. We were wretched. We were your enemies.

Now we're sitting at your table. Thank you. Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Lord, for your love. And I pray, Lord, that just saying thank you and drops of grief that we shed, drops of tears of gratitude, that I can never repay the debt of love I owe. Here, Lord, I give my life away.

It is all that I can do. Were the whole realm of nature mine, that would not be enough. If I had everything in the world, that would be so small compared to your gift.

And so, Lord, the one thing you have asked of me is my life. I give it to you. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my love, my all.

So, Lord Jesus, I give you afresh today my life, my love, my all. And I pray, Lord, that as I do that, as every single brother and sister sitting in this room, those listening to this do, we will know love, we'll know your love, and we'll experience love for others as you want us to experience. Change our marriages, Lord.

Change our home lives, Lord. Change our church life here at RLCF. We want something greater, Lord.

We don't want to settle for what it's been like, even how good it's been, Lord. We want to just pat ourselves on the back. We want the love of God in our hearts.

We're so far from that. Oh, Lord, will you pour out your Holy Spirit through whom the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. We want an overflowing, abundant love for each other, Lord.

That sisters with sisters will have deep love. Brothers with brothers will have deep love. Husbands and wives will have deep love.

Father, parents, and children will have deep love. Lord, the love of God, your divine love poured out in our hearts. Oh, Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit, I pray.

I open my heart afresh wide to you that you will fill my heart and fill each one of our hearts, Lord, with your Holy Spirit. We want that love, Lord Jesus, and we're never going to be satisfied until that love from heaven has been poured out into our hearts. And it's changing our everyday lives.

It's changing the way we love each other in this church. It's changing how we stop thinking of ourselves and our own preferences, Lord, and our old hang-ups. We want to be done with that, Lord.

Break the chains that have held any of us, held us back from experiencing true fellowship in this church. Lord, do that, I pray. Thank you for this opportunity we've had this weekend to be reminded afresh of your love in our midst.

Thank you for the children and the work you're doing, Lord, and I pray that they will grow up to be your disciples, who will love you with all of their heart, Lord Jesus, who give up their lives and give up their will, Lord, who say, dear Lord, it's my life, my love, my all. Let them also do that, Lord, even as they face temptations about all the things that are ahead of them, successes that they may want, or being a part of this, or being a part of that, wanting to be on the team, or wanting to do well in life, or wanting to have this, that, or this or that, looking at others that might have more than they. Oh, Lord Jesus, will you captivate the heart of our children to love you, to see you as the most beautiful and the most amazing of all, that when we have Jesus, we have everything.

Oh, will you do that? We can't do that, Lord, even as parents, but will you shine your heart, your light into their hearts and captivate them, Lord, with who you are, that they will be taken up with you, Lord Jesus, and you'll raise up another generation of men and women who know you, who fear you, who love you, and whose only ambition is to be pleasing to you. Thank you, Lord. That's our prayer, very simply for them and for us all.

Thank you. We bless you in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen.