Rev Kev
PS I love you!
1 John 4:7-21
Ladies: How many of you like chick flicks?
Here is a little secret for you... guys like chick flicks too!
We won't always admit it but it's true.
Do you know why we all love chick flicks?
Its love!
Take Braveheart for example... It's about the passionate love for a woman.
What turns any movie into a chick flick is a great love story.
I'm not talking about a slap-stick-no-budget-falling-in-love-Hannah-Montana-movie.
I am talking about the movies that move your soul, that connect with us on deeper levels.
BUT WHAT IS IT ABOUT LOVE THAT IS SO APPEALING TO US?
Psychologists tell us that "Love is a basic human need" - everybody wants to feel loved and accepted.
Therefore, we identify with those feelings.
One of favourite movies is P.S. I love you! Have you seen it?
In the beginning of this movie, we meet a married couple, Jerry and Holly.
They meet in Ireland and fall MADLY in love.
They are crazy about one another.
When you see them together, you are happy and you feel their joy.
It was bliss!
But there is a terrible tragedy in beginning of this movie...
Jerry gets sick and dies, and Holly is left behind shattered.
She feels abandoned and that her life losing all meaning.
Then, Months later, on her birthday, she receives a gift from Jerry.
Before he died, he planned that every once in a while, she receive a letter from him.
These letters would lead her on an adventure to rediscover new life and happiness.
To remind her that, even though she cannot see him, He still loves her very much and is with her.
He ends the letters with PS I Love You- constantly reassuring her.
By him doing this, Holly's life starts falling into place, she finds hope, restoration and purpose for her life, and she feels alive once again.
Love does that in all our lives, but where does it comes from?
Reading: 1 John 4: 7-21
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
• 2 Cor 5:21 God made him (Jesus) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
20 If we say we love God yet hate a brother or sister, we are liars. For if we do not love a fellow believer, whom we have seen, we cannot love God, whom we have not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another.
You might be asking what does this 'PS. I love you' have to do with this passage?
The essence of this passage tells us that God is love and to illustrate that love to us.
The story, 'PS. I love you' is very similar to the story of God.
God's nature is to love. It is God's character. He is Love. He Constantly sends reassurance to us - ps I love you! He did that throughout the Old Testament.
A lot of the Old Testament can be bottom lined as God saying to His people, "PS I LOVE YOU"!
To understand God, we need to understand His character. Love!
Love explains (vs 9, 10):
1) Why God creates – because he loves, he creates people to love;
In the beginning when God created everything, He felt that there was something missing... humankind.
God wanted to end his creating with something so wonderful and special that it would resemble God's image. Male and Female.
This must have been one of God's happiest moments when He created humans.
Can you imagine how God, Adam and Eve would walk around looking at what was created, playing with all the animals, having great conversations and laughing so hard, holding their stomachs, until tears poured down their cheeks.
It was Bliss, until tragedy happened. Adam and Eve turned away from God by sinning.
And because this happened, God has no choice but to separate Himself from them forcing them to leave the garden.
This must've been one of God most heart breaking moments – he was betrayed!
But God still loved them so much that He didn't kill them and start over – he cared for them.
2) Why God cares – because he loves them, he cares for sinful people;
Surely God could've started all over again. After all, Creation was still very young.
God loved them!
And from then on, God's heart was longing to be intimate with His children again.
Have you ever longed to be with someone?
The whole Old Testament is about God making plans to get back into a personal relationship with his children.
God never quit! Time and time again we read how God tried, and how his people turned away from him.
3) Why we are free to choose – God wants a loving response from us;
But God NEVER STOPPED! He kept on pursuing them.
God went as far as giving designs of a tabernacle (Portable church) to the people, because through the use of the tabernacle, his people could be close to him, but there was a problem, curtains and walls separated God from his people.
vs. 10: SIN – SACRIFICE!
OT: The whole time God was saying, "PS. I Love you".
So God was close but this did not satisfy Him.
He wanted to be closer.
All He wanted to do was be with the people he loved.
So you can imagine how this was wrecking God's heart.
Until one day...
4) Why Christ died – His love for us caused Him to seek a solution to the problem of sin;
Vs 10 – "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins."
God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in the heavenly boardroom.
CLOSER THEN:
•Breath
•Shadow
•Heartbeat
And so it happened... Jesus gets tortured...
while GOD painfully watched His Son being nailed to a cross... Every time the nail drove deeper into Jesus' flesh, God was shouting to us, "I LOVE YOU!... I LOVE YOU!"
5) Why we receive eternal life – God's love expresses itself to us forever.
John 3:16, "For God so love the world, He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes is him may not die but have eternal life".
What happened here is called Prevenient Grace.
God loved us first before we were even born,
And died for us before we even committed the first sin.
All because God wants to be close to us.
To have a close intimate relationship with us.
Jesus planned that even though we cannot see Him, he is permanently there sending 'ps I love you' to us. This, to help us on the adventure of life, to restore us, to give us hope and purpose, and to live once again.
Vs 17- "We are like Jesus" – its our privilege to tell others that God loves them. We are God's living "ps I love you" letters to others.
You may have made some bad choices that have walked you down a round where you don't want to be.
I'm here to tell you that it's not too late.
You being here today, is God telling you, "PS. I Love you".
God wants nothing more than to have a closer intimate relationship with you.
CONCLUSION:
God's Love for you explains:
1) Why God created you.
2) Why God cares about you.
3) Why you are free to choose God's love or not.
4) Why Christ died for you.
5) Why you can receive eternal life.
God loves you now matter what you have done, no matter what you will do!
He loves you every day!
Will you accept his love?
It is the best choice you will ever make!
We are like Jesus. We are the PS I love you's to this world!
vs. 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love one another.
Keep the SON in your eyes!
