Love & Missions – A Match Made in Heaven

 Love & Missions – A Match Made in Heaven

I John 4:7-12

Advent is a meaningful tradition leading up to Christmas for us to participate together in the both the remembrance and anticipation of Christ’s coming. In doing so the past few weeks, we have seen we have needs that are met in Christ..

First, we needed HOPE and God gave it to us in His promises and provision in the person of Jesus Christ. 

Second, we needed PEACE in our lives the world can’t fulfill (no matter how hard it tries).

In I John 4, we can clearly see:

WHO God is…

WHAT God wants us to know…

WHY it matters to God and OTHERS…

 

In summary, GOD – LOVES – OTHERS should know it!

 

·  God’s NATURE is best seen in His LOVE and is an identifying mark of a CHILD of God.  

 

We see the evidence of God’s love at work in us by two things:

We’ve been BORN of God.

We KNOW God.

 

·  God DEMONSTRATES the greatest expression of His love in GIVING. v.9-10

We see the love of God expressed from His character though His actions that complement His IDENTITY and MISSION.

Because of God’s gift of Jesus, we have the opportunity to live through Him an abundant and purposeful life – EARTHLY and ETERNAL. (John 10:10)

·  God’s love is EXPECTED from and EXPERIENCED through His followers’ actions to love ONE ANOTHER. v.11

According to God’s word to “love one another,” we have NO EXCUSES. If God…we also ought to. (I John 4:11)

·  God’s “love plan” for the world is FULFILLED when believers LIVE it and SHARE it (JESUS) with others. v.12

There is no greater love than to SURRENDER to God’s call and SACRIFICE yourself to “love one another”. 

 

If we say we BELONG to God, born of Him and know Him, then we must love one another. But that love shouldn’t stay here in Parker County, TX. God’s love is bigger than that. It should go with you every day, WHEREVER you go. It’s for the whole world!

 

DID YOU KNOW?

As defined by the IMB, UNREACHED people groups are those among whom Christ is largely unknown and the church is relatively insufficient to make Christ known in its broader population without outside help.

 

There are 7,327 unreached people groups (approximately 4.5 billion people) who do not know the hope we have in God’s gift, Jesus, to save the world from sin. They live among a people, tribe, or language group whose Christian population is 2% or less.

 

Every second out of every day there are 3 people out of the world’s 8 billion population who step into a Christ-less ETERNITY.

 

*Statistics provide by IMB’s annual statistical report