1 John 4:7 – 12 Love is the highest Degree of Oneness with God

Union Gospel

7/27/2024

1 John 4:7 – 12

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we 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 seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been 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

Text: 1 John 4:10 ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  (His Son as an atoning sacrifice for the satisfaction, reconciliation, or exemplifying of human oneness with God)

Topic: Love is the highest Degree of Oneness with God

What have been some of the happiest moments in your life? Think and meditate on it

-         Maybe someone whispered kind words

-         Maybe someone gave you a gift?  

-         Perhaps it is something from your childhood?

-         Did you feel loved?

-         Did you feel valued?

-         Did you feel like life is worth living?

-         Did feel belong?

The fact is that we all grew up under some conditions to earn love: What was required of us in order to receive affection and Love?

Were we required to succeed in order to be loved?

Were we required to fail in order to be loved?

Were we required to eat junk food in order to be loved?

Were we required to get angry and throw tantrums in order to be loved?

Whatever existed during our childhood, that was our emotional training!

This is how our emotional characteristics are developed and some of us never develop into emotional adulthood.

So, whatever condition in which we were brought up under, the good news is, we can all experience the Love of God under ZERO Conditional, God’s love is unconditional. This is the exemplification of the human oneness with God, God placed the condition on Himself. In order for this relationship to work, He has to remove all condition—that was the condition that he put on Himself.

1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we (human) loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 

Love is the highest degree of oneness with God

When in Life have you felt most lonely?  

-         Not belong

-         Longing for something that never happen

-         Perhaps it is a variety of feelings that we can’t explain

o   Cannot go to sleep because we don’t know what tomorrow going to bring

o   Feeling of being un-loved

o   Beating the pavement looking for a job days and night but nothing is found

o   Celebrating a victory and later we fell into the same trap.

o   Rejected by everyone, even those that we thought that love us

o   Feeling like that God does not love us!

Often time when we think about our relationship with God, we think that our top priority is to Love God, our text is telling us today “not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for the satisfaction of our punishment for our sins, reconciliation, or exemplifying of human oneness with God)

We think that our duty, our obligation is to Love God!

Our number one priority is to know and acknowledge that God Love us. Look at Ephesians 1:4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love”

God wants us to move to the highest degree of ONENESS with Him, to the throne of his Love and there we delight on being one with God.   

Once we recognized and acknowledged His love for us, our loving God is automatic. Now, hear me, we no longer love Him as an obligation, no longer a duty, but we love Him as a result of his Love for us. It is just the way of how we live out our lives. That is a life of someone that it is IN CHRIST, that is a life of someone who has atoned and is oneness with God.

Yes, most happiest times in our Lives are because we became one with whatever it was that made us happy. But our Text today reminded the everlasting joy can only be found in the Oneness with God.   

Our Loneliness is driven by not having many things in life

-         There is social & physical loneliness

o   Our social connection is NOT where it should be

o   Rejected & hated by others or family

o   Psychological challenges

o   Struggles in life can cause isolation

o   Because of my emotional codependency, I can easily drop into a deep dark place of loneliness

§  We often seek Drugs & alcohol as quick solution

§  We seek destructive & unhealthy relationships

§  We substitute other things that look like love

§  Because we can’t exactly define Loneliness we seek solution in all the wrong places  

o   But here is the thing: Loneliness drives us to seek God’s ways

§  The irony is that this all consuming sense of loneliness is actually the very thing that awakens us to seek God

§  Unless we are reconciled, unless we accept the atoning sacrifice, unless we acknowledge and accept God’s Love, our spiritual Loneliness are substitute by temporary solutions that cannot fill our hearts and only serve destruction  

 

Story of the Kid and his dad fishing  

Dad took his son fishing off the dock at the harbor

Son asked: “Dad, how big is God?”

Dad answered: “Son, see that ship yonder by the sunrise?” Son: “yes”

Dad: “see how small it is?” Son: “yes, it is tiny”

Once the ship got closer to the harbor, it got bigger and once it docked, the son said, “that is a huge ship, dad!”

Dad: “son, that is how we see God, God is small when we pushed Him far far away from us but if we let him get close to us, we can’t even fathom his greatness, see God’s love is infinite and unconditional, our human mind cannot comprehend or measure His Love.”

If you don’t feel God is in your life, maybe because you kept him in a distance

Have we kept Him at distance?

The size your God dictated the size of your blessing

Maybe you think that God cannot handle your problems, God is bigger than your problems.

I challenge you today to bring God closer to you, lets move into the highest degree of Oneness with God—Love.  

 

 

1.     Heavenly Father, we praise you as we bow our heads and lift-up our hearts in gratefulness.

2.     God, we thank you for the Gift of another day to experience your Love.

3.     We thank you for all the eternal Blessing in our lives.

4.     We stand together with Luke 18:38 today

a.     “Jesus Son of David, have mercy on us”

5.     We praise you for your unconditional Love toward us.

6.     As Whatever paths we have taken in life, you still seek after us.

7.    Whatever decisions we have made in life, you still long after us.

8.     Lord helps us to live our lives with a heart of gratitude.

9.     Our lives have been interrupted by many distractions of these world

a.     But 1 Kings 19:12 reminds us that we can find you God in “A sound of sheer silence”

10.                        Let our words and our actions shine as your love shine on us.

11.                        Let our discernments guide by your eternal wisdom

12.                        Guide us to live life according to your will and not our own understanding

13.                       Lord thank you for your endurance Love

a.    John 14:23 tells us that “If we love you, we will keep your words: and your Father will love us, and will be in our presence.”

14.                        Please show us the Godly path to eternal life.

a.     You have enlighten us with understanding in Matthew 6:33 “seek first the Kingdon of God and Your righteousness and these things will be added to us.”  

15.                        Although we always strive to do the things of Godliness, we often failed and go our own ways.

16.                        Give us the understanding to make Godly choices.

a.     Psalm 73:25 teaches us “Whom have I in heaven but God? And there is NONE upon the earth that I desire beside You God.”

17.                        You are the lamp that guide our steps

18.                        So that we may walk in accordance with Your purpose for our lives

19.                       We lift up all of our prayer requests

20.                        Whatever the needs weather it is health, knowledge, mental, or spiritual, God you are our maker

21.                        You are the God of all knowing

22.                        The inerrancy of Your scripture and the sufficiency of Your words is all we need

23.                        You are the Great Healer

24.                        Lord you are the source of all goodness and mercy.

25.                        We pray in Your Holy name