Love First
Sermon Recording
Sermon Outline
Speaker: Rev. Scott Strickman
Sermon Series: Faith, Hope & Love
1 John 4:7-21 (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. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Sermon Outline
We grow in God’s love as we love one another with his love (vv7, 13, 21, 12)
1. First Love
v19 “We love because he first loved us.”
v10 “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.”
v18 “perfect love casts out fear”
2. Love First
v16 “So we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us.”
v11 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
Prayer of Confession
God of love and mercy, you sent Jesus into this world because of your love for us. We did not love you first, but we rejected, blamed, accused, and vented our own hostilities on your righteous Son. You loved us first. You extended grace when we didn’t ask for it, though we deserve to have all of our wrongs returned to us. You have not repaid the wrongs we have done, but you have satisfied them in Christ, who gave himself for us. Now we know love, for now we know you as you have always been, even as we are still so slow to recognize you as you really are. We receive your gift of forgiveness by faith, and ask that you fill us with life so that we would have the courage, endurance, wisdom and grace to love others with the love with which you have loved us. Amen.
Questions for Reflection
In what ways are you the initiator in relationships? What kinds of things do you do first?
How can acting in love towards someone feel risky? What can go wrong?
What fears do you experience in relationships? How are your actions and decisions in relationships affected by your fears?
What kinds of things can we believe about God given that He loved us when we did not love Him? What does the death of Jesus (our rejection of him as a means of God’s acceptance of us) tell us about God and ourselves?
What about the message of God’s love doesn’t connect with you? What do you still have trouble believing?
Why is it hard to love others in the same way God loved us? What are next steps to growing in this love?
How can God’s love for you give you what you need to love others? What do you need?
Is there anyone you need to reach out to? What will you do to get things started?