Increasing Your Capacity to Give God's Love

Gary DeLashmutt

1 John 4:7-21

In order to grow in our love for others, we need to be trained by God. God develops our love for others through His Word. God can teach us to love others through spiritual promptings by His Spirit, through godly role models, and by placing people that are hard to love in our lives. As God grows our ability to give love to others, long-lasting sources of joy are produced as we see God use us.

Increasing Your Capacity to Receive God's Love

Gary DeLashmutt

1 John 4:7-21

God's will for our lives is to grow in our ability to give out sacrificial love. As our capacity of receiving God's love increases, we are able to increase our ability to give His love out to others. This process begins with understanding the lengths of God's love for us, drawing continuously from His love, and learning how to reflect and meditate on how to move towards others in love. Living out of God's love is a key feature of growing Christians.

The Life of a Spiritual Ambassador

Dennis McCallum

2 Corinthians 5:14

Paul explained that as Christians we are ambassadors of Christ, we can either be a stumbling block to the watching world or we can reflect God's love to them. Being an ambassador for God is difficult, but is also deeply satisfying, because it is rich with meaning. God will empower us to do His work, the question is whether we are willing to do it?

Living in Light of Jesus' Return

Gary DeLashmutt

1 John 2:28-3:3

Before Jesus returns, we can rest assured of God's great love for us. Not only that, God has promised that we will be like him when he comes back. In light of this promise, we should prioritize spiritual progress towards righteousness. As this occurs, our confidence in God can grow and we can be sure of living our lives purposefully.

Joy and the Attitude of Christ

Jim Leffel

Philippians 2:4-11

Christ's example of humility and sacrificial love is the ultimate motivator for us to love others. Christ emptied himself and died an entirely sacrificial death motivated by love. There is only one reality moving forward in this life. It's that Christ is the Lord and that future is in His loving charge.

Walking in Love

Gary DeLashmutt

1 John 2:3-11

Walking in a lifestyle of sacrificial love is a priority within the Christian life. Loving others deepens our intimacy with God as He guides us, assures us, gives us peace, and develops a more confident prayer life for others. Love is the culmination of God's commandments, and God provided the resources to love radically through giving His Holy Spirit which enables us to love all types of people the way Jesus did.

Helping People with Problems

Dennis McCallum

2 Corinthians 2:2-11

Paul called the Corinthian church to practice loving discipline with one of the members of their church who had committed a serious sin. Biblical discipline is something the church does for the spiritual well-being of the person being disciplined, and not something done in judgement of that person. When the man who was disciplined had repented of his sin Paul called the church to invite him back and to comfort him.

Affliction and Comfort

Dennis McCallum

1 Corinthians 15:32

Paul explained that suffering is the occasion for faith and growth. God is with us in our suffering and He can use it for good. God chooses to comfort us in our suffering when we choose to endure it for His sake. When we view suffering in the bigger picture of eternity we are able to put it in a proper perspective and see the overwhelming victory that we have in the Lord.

Give us a king

Dennis McCallum

Matthew 20:25-28

Because Samuel was aging and his sons were not genuinely pursuing God, the Israelites demanded a king be appointed to govern and judge them just as the nations around them had. God had predicted this many years before, and Samuel warned the Israelites of the negative ways a king would treat them. They persisted in their demand, ignoring his warnings, so God chose Saul to be king over them.