May 7, 2006am     The Other John 3:16    I John 3:16-24

By Ronald E. George Jr. at the Fayetteville Baptist Church

(Communion Sunday)  This is how we know what love is.  Love is actions and truth.  Take pity on those in need.  Set our hearts at in his presence. Have confidence before God who knows everything.  Receive from him whatever we ask because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. This is his command to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ and to love one another.  We live in him and he in us.  We obey his commands.  We take his communion.  We know that he lives in us by the Spirit that he gave us.  Have you taken him?  Then have you followed Him. 

1Joh 3:16 (NIV) This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

This is his Action to us.  Jesus laid down His life for us.   For God so loved the world that Jesus gave his life for us. 

This is our response to Him.

We are called on to lay down our lives to him by giving ourselves to others.

We are called on to obey his commands.  Some are easier than others. 

We are called on to have confidence before God by living the truth.  The truth will set you free.  Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life. 

We are called to live in him and he in us by the Spirit, which he gives. 

What is our response to Him? 

Will we take his communion, fellowship, love, commands, and his Spirit?

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

How is your heart?  Is there any thoughts there anything that says to you need to change?  You need to repent?   Repent and confess your sin to him today.  Take his communion in response to his love for you.   Give yourself to others in response to His love for you.