Love Comes From God | Daily Broadcast

Devotional

Day 1: The First "I Love You" That Changes Everything

Love begins with God’s initiative, not our effort. Before we could earn or return affection, God loved us in our rebellion. His love isn’t a reaction to our worthiness but a choice to pursue us. Like a groom declaring love first at a wedding, God spoke love over us while we were still indifferent. This divine priority reshapes how we see relationships: we don’t manufacture love but channel what we’ve received. Every act of patience or kindness reflects His original "I love you" echoing through us. [23:51]

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:7–8, ESV)

Reflection: Where have you struggled to love first, and how might remembering God’s initiating love free you to take that step today?

Day 2: The Cross as Love’s Loudest Declaration

God’s love isn’t abstract; it’s nailed to history. He proved His love by sending His Son as a sacrifice to absorb the judgment we deserved. The cross answers doubts about His care: when life’s chaos makes His love feel distant, look to Jesus’ wounds. Propitiation—a word as heavy as the act—means God’s wrath was satisfied so His embrace could open. This love isn’t discerned in circumstances but in Christ’s finished work. [06:14]

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. 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. (1 John 4:9–10, ESV)

Reflection: When has the cross shifted your perspective from “Does God love me?” to “How will I live because He does?”

Day 3: When God’s Spirit Moves Like Mick Jagger

The Holy Spirit’s presence in believers is as disruptive as Mick Jagger’s spirit in a stiff preacher. God’s love isn’t a theory but a living force rewiring our instincts. Just as Jagger’s essence would alter speech and movement, the Spirit transforms how we engage others—softening tones, bending pride, igniting compassion. Resistance is natural, but over time, His rhythm becomes ours. [10:55]

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (1 John 4:13–14, ESV)

Reflection: What mannerisms or habits might the Spirit be challenging in you to align more with love’s “dance”?

Day 4: At Home in the Heart of God

Abiding isn’t religious duty but relational intimacy. Like resting in a favorite chair, abiding means settling into God’s presence until His thoughts and joys become ours. This isn’t passive; it’s nourishing communion—prayer, Scripture, worship—that fuels love. The more we dwell in His heart, the more His love spills into our conversations, decisions, and conflicts. [17:19]

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. (1 John 4:16, ESV)

Reflection: What practical step could deepen your “at-home-ness” with God this week, making love less effort and more overflow?

Day 5: Love’s Ripple Effect Through Cracked Vessels

God’s love isn’t meant to pool in us but to flow through us. Like water filling a cracked jar, His love seeps into others through our imperfect acts. When we love, we make the invisible God visible—our patience mirrors His, our forgiveness hints at His grace. Every ripple, however small, carries eternal weight. [33:17]

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:12, ESV)

Reflection: Who in your life needs to glimpse God’s love through your actions this week, even in a simple way?

Sermon Summary

John takes up the great question of how love grows, and 1 John 4 answers with one central truth: love does not begin inside the believer. Love comes down. Love is from God, God is love, and the believer loves because God first loved. John opens the door of hope for every person whose experience of human love has been thin, painful, or deeply wounded. The lack of love from others does not mean there is little love to give, because God’s love reaches the believer, fills the believer, and then flows out through the believer.

John pulls together three great things God does. God loves first, before there is any movement toward him. God sends his Son into the world so that sinners might live through him, and Christ becomes the propitiation for sins, removing the judgment and condemnation that sin would otherwise bring. God also abides in the believer by the Holy Spirit, so that the love poured out at the cross is also poured in by the Spirit.

John also shows three things that become possible in response. The believer loves, giving what has first been received. The believer believes, becoming fully persuaded that God loves, that the Son gave himself, and that the Spirit lives within. The believer abides, living at home with God, resting in him, feeding on him, walking with him, and enjoying heart-to-heart communion with him.

John’s thought is like spaghetti on a plate. The strands can be identified, but they are not meant to be served separately. God’s love, the sending of the Son, the indwelling Spirit, loving, believing, and abiding are threads woven into one fabric. Pull one thread out, and the whole thing is damaged.

Love, then, is not something to be “got up.” Love is the result of God entering and possessing the soul. The Spirit of God living in a person changes speech, thought, action, and love. The believer can therefore reflect often on God’s first love, remember that love is God’s command, ask God for growth in love, pursue love intentionally, get in touch with the deepest desire of the regenerate heart, and find joy in the privilege of making the unseen God known. No one has ever seen God, but when his people love one another, his love fulfills its intended purpose and becomes visible in the world.

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Key Takeaways

1. Love comes down before flowing out [02:27] Love is not something the believer has to dredge up from within. John roots love in God himself, not in temperament, background, or emotional supply. That truth gives real hope to wounded people, because the deepest source of love is not human history but God’s own presence. [02:27]
2. God loved first, not second [05:24] God’s love does not wait for interest, improvement, or worthiness. God wins the heart by loving before there is any love returned. When a believer shows patience and kindness before receiving it, that person is reflecting the very pattern of divine love. [05:24]
3. The Spirit makes love possible [12:57] The Holy Spirit does not merely encourage better behavior from the outside. The Spirit brings the life and love of God into the believer, creating real change over time. Love grows because God himself has entered and taken possession of the soul. [12:57]
4. Abiding keeps the soul at home [17:06] To abide is to live with God as home, not as an occasional stop. The soul rests, feeds, rejoices, and becomes most truly itself in communion with him. A thin life with Scripture and prayer should not expect a thriving work of the Spirit in love. [17:06]
5. The regenerate heart wants holiness [30:39] Satan lies by suggesting that the believer’s deepest desire is selfishness. John and the wider New Testament say something better: the heart born of God is set against known sin and wants to please him. Love is not foreign to the new nature; love is the believer fulfilling the deepest God-given desire.

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Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[01:40] - How Love Grows
[02:27] - Love Comes Down From God
[05:24] - God Loved First
[05:58] - God Sent His Son
[08:00] - God Abides By His Spirit
[14:03] - The Believer Loves, Believes, Abides
[18:12] - Spaghetti Strands Woven Together
[23:16] - Reflect Often On God’s Love
[25:11] - Love Is God’s Command
[26:44] - Ask God To Grow Love
[28:03] - Be Intentional In Love
[30:11] - Know The Deepest Desire
[32:26] - Joy In Love’s Calling

Bible Study Guide

Bible Reading
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.

Observation Questions

According to 1 John 4:7-12, what three actions does God take to make love possible for believers?
The sermon compares God’s work in love to "spaghetti strands woven together." What does this metaphor suggest about the relationship between God’s love, Christ’s sacrifice, and the Holy Spirit’s role? [18:12]
What does 1 John 4:19 identify as the foundational reason believers are able to love others?
How does the passage describe the outcome of God’s love being "perfected" in believers (v. 12)?

Interpretation Questions

Why is it significant that God loved us first (1 John 4:19) before any response from us? How does this redefine how we approach relationships?
The sermon states, "Abiding keeps the soul at home" with God. What might hinder a believer from experiencing this "abiding" relationship, and how does it impact their ability to love? [17:06]
How does the connection between "believing" and "loving" in 1 John 4:15-16 challenge the idea that faith is purely intellectual?
The sermon mentions Satan’s lie that "the believer’s deepest desire is selfishness." How does 1 John 4:17-18 refute this lie? [30:39]

Application Questions

Reflect on a time when you struggled to show love to someone. How might focusing on God’s first love for you (rather than your own effort) change your approach in similar situations?
The sermon encourages believers to "ask God for growth in love." What specific person or relationship feels challenging to love right now? How could you pray about this daily? [26:44]
"Abiding" involves resting, feeding, and walking with God. What practical step could you take this week to deepen your abiding (e.g., Scripture, prayer, worship)? [17:39]
The sermon says, "Love is not foreign to the new nature." What habit or attitude might you need to surrender to the Holy Spirit to better reflect this God-given desire for holiness? [30:39]
How could intentionally loving someone this week (e.g., through an act of kindness, patience, or forgiveness) make God’s invisible love "visible" in your community? [32:44]

Sermon Clips

God loved you before you ever loved him. God loved you when you had no interest in him, when you ignored him, when you resisted him. You did not win the heart of God by loving him. No, God has won your heart by loving you. He first loved us. [00:05:38]

Love is not something you have to dredge up from within yourself. It is the effect of God himself, who is love, entering and taking possession of your own soul. The spirit of God living in you. [00:10:16]

John is telling us that's how we love. Understand then that love is not something that we have to sort of dredge up from within ourselves. No, love in its very nature comes down. He tells us verse 7, "Love is from God." He tells us verse 8 that God is love. And he says it again in verse 16. He explains in these verses that God's love comes to us in Jesus Christ and lives in us by the Holy Spirit. We love because he first loved us. [00:02:20]

The purpose of God is that his love should flow into you in order that it should flow out from you into the lives of others. And God's love fulfills its ultimate purpose that it is perfected when we give what we have received in loving one another. [00:15:16]

But the good news is that these verses are telling us that you can love. And the reason that you can love is that you are loved far more than you think. Far more than you know. And as God's love flows into you, so God's love will make it possible for love to flow out from you as well. We love because he first loved us. [00:03:58]

You see the point? If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if the Holy Spirit lives in you, if you are walking with him and abiding in him, loving is something you can do. So, go out this week and do it. Stop repeating Satan's lies when he tells you that you can't love. God tells you that you can. And by his grace, you will. [00:28:57]

Not only are you loved by God, but God's love has come to you. It It reaches you. It is actually in you by the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. The spirit of God abides in you, and if the spirit of God abides in you, then by definition the love of God abides in you. [00:09:38]

In other words, the love of God has been poured out and it is poured in. It was poured out on the cross where Jesus died for our sins and it is poured in by the Holy Spirit who John says abides in us. The Holy Spirit brings the presence of God and since God is love, he thereby brings the love of God into the life of every believer. [00:08:27]

God calls us to actively love one another in the way that he has loved us. That is, we are to give what we have first received. And John says here very beautifully that God's love is perfected in us. And what that means very simply is it's made complete. It fulfills its own ultimate purpose. In other words, God did not intend that his love should end with you. [00:14:46]

As you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the spirit of God comes to live in you and abide in you. Over time, the presence of the spirit of God, who is love, will change you. It will change the way you speak. It will change the way you think. It will change the way you act. And it will change the way that you love. [00:12:48]

Love, as we saw, is not something that we have to work up from within. Love is from God and the reason that you can love is that God himself has entered into and taken possession of your soul. Whoever loves has been born of God. That's the connection. [00:20:01]

So, to believe is to be fully persuaded that God loves you, that God's son gave himself for you, and that God's spirit lives within you. And believing these truths, we do actually have to believe them, believing these truths of the gospel will enable you to love. And the more deeply you believe these life-changing truths, the more deeply you are going to be able to love. [00:15:53]

And this is why Jesus came. This is why he suffered and died on the cross to be, John says, the propitiation for our sins, which simply means that the sacrifice of his life would remove the judgment and condemnation that otherwise sin would bring to all of us. [00:07:32]

And John says we abide in God. That means that we rest in God. We find joy in God. We're at home with God. We walk with God. We nourish ourselves on God. We have a living heart-to-heart communion with God. [00:17:26]

How do we know that God loves us? And he's telling us, don't try and discern the love of God from the state of the world or from your own experience in life. [00:06:47]

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