Living Out God's Love: Our Christian Witness

1. "The title of our message for this morning is The Bedrock of Love. Probably you might be thinking, why such, you know, a wonderful topic in this month of November? Probably we might tell something about this love during the month of February, according to our world. But remember that Apostle John wrote this and reminded the believers who were scattered abroad to tell something about the very source of love and how to manifest that love in our day-to-day living." [00:00:12] (35 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Because as you try to observe that this is something that, you know, a lot of people people would try to misinterpret, that some people might just simply tell that love is the most misused, overused, and abused word in this life. And that's why it's very important for us to go back into an understanding, thorough understanding of what love is, according to John." [00:00:48] (27 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "You will see that Dr. Warren Wiersbe gave a commentary about this letter of John in a very, you know, intimate manner of understanding this letter. He said that this is the third of the three expressions in John's letter. He said, That will help us understand the very nature and attributes of God. When you try to go back to some of the attributes of God, we have to remember that there is what we call the moral attributes by which we could imitate these moral attributes." [00:02:58] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "And therefore, John would try to recall some of the things that he had mentioned previously from the Gospel, that when he said in John chapter 4, that God is a spirit. And those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth. So that means our worship must be heartfelt. You cannot just simply worship the Lord by just simply standing and, you know, without any emotion at all. Because worship must involve your emotion. You are being moved simply because of these attributes of God that you are recalling during the time of your worship." [00:04:00] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "And that's why John is just simply telling to each of the readers of this letter, to those, you know, believers who were scattered abroad, that probably they had forgotten to love their enemies. Why? Because they were the objects of the persecution. They were scattered abroad, and they were persecuted beyond measure. And John is just simply telling to them, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God." [00:08:17] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "We were loved by God even though we are repulsive, we are odious. There's nothing in us that is worthy to be loved. We offended God for so many times, but still God loved us because that is the very nature of God. You know, some people in our humanistic manner would just simply say, you know, love is God. And even in some communities would just simply tell that, you know, this love that we are experiencing must be coming from God because love is God. No, it's not. God is love." [00:08:55] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "Apostle John introduces to his readers the compelling reason why Christians ought to live a life of love. Not hatred. Not in anger. You know, sometimes we just simply tend to hate those people who are toxic in our lives. Probably your neighbors, your workers, sometimes even your relatives. But John. John mentioned that our very nature being the child of God, being the children of God is love because we share the same nature with our Savior." [00:09:58] (39 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "And that's why since the very essence of God is love. Therefore, we can just simply flaunt that reality that God, the God that we are serving is indeed the God of love. Secondly, love must be our habitual practice. We are not just simply loving people every Sunday. We don't just simply wear a smile every time of worship or every time of Bible studies. That is, love must be our habitual practice and it must be seen in us in our day-to-day living." [00:11:12] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "And that's why love must be the very core of our Christian witness. Nobody in this modern world can attest to that kind of agape love except for the love that we ought to show to the viewing public. The church must be very vibrant because God called us to share that love among so many. The only demonstration of that love, that agape love, in this age, is our church." [00:33:17] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "The very purpose of our existence in this life is not just to survive. We survived the pandemic. The pandemic is already part of history. We might probably lost a loved one during the time of the pandemic, but here we are. We are a group of overcomers because God caused us to overcome, overcome even, you know, the fiercest storm in this life. But the very purpose of our existence is to manifest the love of Christ in this dying world." [00:42:59] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)