Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: How to Live, How to Love

Sermon Title: Approaching God With Assurance

Passage: 1 John 3:19-24

Preacher: Ashley Herr

Sermon Notes

Sermon Title: Jesus Prays for the Church

Passage: John 17:20-26

Preacher: Robin Philip

Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: How to Live, How to Love

Sermon Title: Love Like Jesus

Passage: 1 John 3:11-19a

Preacher: Ashley Herr

A Reminder to Love (v11)

Why all these reminders to love?

1. Loving others is hard sometimes, really hard

2. We’re quick to forget

3. The words and way of Jesus is counter to our culture

An Example of What Love is Not (v12-15)

Love is NOT:

1. Murder (v12)

2. Hate (v15)

3. Greed (v17)

4. Apathy (v17)

An Example of What Love Is (v16-19a)

Reflection

• Reflect on how you have failed to love like Jesus, who you have failed to love, and why

• Repent of your failure to love

• Receive God’s love

• Respond to God’s love

Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: How to Live, How to Love

Sermon Title: A Family Resemblance

Passage: 1 John 2:28-3:10

Preacher: Ashley Herr

Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: How to Live, How to Love

Sermon Title: The Danger of Deception

Passage: 1 John 2:18-27

Preacher: Ashley Herr

Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: How to Live, How to Love

Sermon Title: Living in a World That Opposes God

Passage: 1 John 2:15-17

Preacher: Ashley Herr

The What: The Command to not love the world (v15a)

What we know that is far more clear and far less confusing about how God views the world:

1. God created the world (Genesis 1:1-10)

2. God created the things in the world (Genesis 1:11-25)

3. God created all the people of the world (Genesis 1:26-31)

4. God called us to care for the world (Genesis 1:28-30)

5. God dis not turn His back on the world (Genesis 3:14-15)

6. God has not disowned the world (Psalm 24:1-2)

7. God did not leave the world (Exodus 3:7-8, 13:21-22; 1 Kings 8:10-11; John 1:1-18; Matthew 1:23, 28:20: Acts 1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 3:16)

8. God still very much loves the world (John 3:16)

9. God sent His Son to save the world (John 3:17)

10. God is redeeming the world (2 Corinthians 5:19, Hebrews 1:2-4)

11. God will restore the world (Rev 21:1-5)

What we know that is far more clear and far less confusing about how we are to view the world:

1. We are to live in the world (Isaiah 49:6; Matthew 5:14-16)

2. We are to love all the people living in the world (John 13:34; Matt 22:39, 5:44)

We are not to love those things that fail to love what God loves

The Why: The reason why we are not to love the world (v15b-16)

• The object of our love, where it is directed (v15b)

• The source of our love, where it originates (v16)

The Why: The result of loving the world (v17)

Reflection

As you read this passage, ask yourself: What do I love that opposes God by failing to love what God loves, by failing to care for what God has created?

Do not love the world or the things in the world that oppose God by failing to love what God loves. If anyone loves the world - supporting and lifting up that which opposes God - standing behind and giving your allegiance to that which fails to love what God loves - then the love of the Father is not in them. For all that is in the world that opposes God - the desires of the flesh - the desires of the eyes - the pride in one’s possessions - none of that originates from the Father, but is from the world, the source of this mis-guided love. And all that opposes God in the world is passing away, along with its desires for things that go against God’s desires - but whoever does the will of God - desiring what He desires, loving what He loves - will abide in His presence forever.

Sermon Footnotes

• “God does not make junk, and he does not junk what he has made.” - Al Wolters (Creation Regained, p49)

• “The experience of twentieth-century dictatorships has shown that it is possible for some Christians to live and work in a shockingly unjust society, closing their eyes to all kinds of evil and indeed perhaps participating in that evil at least by default, concerned only with their own compartmentalized life of piety, closed off from everything else on the face of the earth. Clearly, such a poor excuse for religion actually contributes to blindness and moral insensitivity” - Thomas Merton (Life and Holiness, p20)

Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: How to Live, How to Love

Sermon Title: A Note of Encouragement

Passage: 1 John 2:12-14

Preacher: Ashley Herr

To the Church (v12,13c)

• You are born of God

• You belong to God

• You are loved by God

To the Seasoned Veterans (v13a,14a)

• My encouragement for you: THANK YOU!

• My prayer for you: continue pursuing Jesus and finish well

To the Newcomers (v13b,14b)

• You feel victorious - because you’ve overcome the evil one

• You feel strong - because the word of God abides in you

  • We are people of the Word, formed by Scripture

  • We are people of prayer, led by the Spirit

Sermon Footnotes

• “All Christians, mature and immature, have come to know (egnōkate) God. But their knowledge of him ripens with the years.” - John Stott (The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary, p101)

• “I am sometimes asked…whether at my age I have any ambitions left. I always reply: “Yes, my overriding ambition is (and, I trust, will be until I die) that I may become a little bit more like Christ.” - John Stott (The Contemporary Christian, p146 - quote taken from A Fellowship of Differents, p204 by Scot McKnight)

Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: How to Live, How to Love

Sermon Title: Evaluating the Evidence

Passage: 1 John 2:3-11

Preacher: Ashley Herr

3 steps to help us evaluate the evidence:

1. WHAT we do: Those who know him obey the words of Jesus (v3-5a)

2. HOW we do what we do: Those who abide in him walk in the way of Jesus (v5b-6)

3. WHY we do what we do: Those who live in his light love like Jesus (v7-11)

The command to love is new in that

• It has been expanded in terms of who we are commanded to love

• It has been extended in terms of how far we are commanded to love

Reflection

1. What in my life am I not trusting Jesus with - failing to obey what he says or where he leads? As you read 1 John 2:3-5a, repent of your sin and disobedience.

2. How have I laid down my cross, rather than my life - choosing the easy path over the way of Jesus? As you read 1 John 2:5b-6, return to Jesus as you hear the voice of the Good Shepherd calling out to you

3. How have I limited who I am called to love and the extent to which I am called to love in order to love like Jesus? As you read 1 John 7-11, receive the love of Jesus, feeling his presence.

Sermon Footnotes

• “Every summons of Christ leads to death.” - translation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s line provided by Scot McKnight (A Fellowship of Differents, p201)

• “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (The Cost of Discipleship, p89)

• “We have defined the ‘one another’ so tightly that it means only ‘love the people who reinforce your own sense of who you are'.” - N.T. Wright (John from the NT Wright for Everyone Bible Study Guide, p95-96)

Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: How to Live, How to Love

Sermon Title: Barriers to Intimacy

Passage: 1 John 1:5-2:2

Preacher: Ashley Herr

Who God Is (1:5)

• God as light is good (Genesis 1), safe (Psalm 27), present (Exodus 3, 13), and holy (Psalm 104)

Responding to Who God Is (1:6-2:2)

1st Claim (1:6-7)

• Living in the darkness involves: embracing sin and hiding sin

Dangers of the Darkness

1. Sin separates you from God and others

2. Sin leads you out of the light and into the darkness

3. Shame keeps you hiding sin in the darkness

We hide, terrified of the vulnerability that the intimacy we desire requires

• We hide what we’ve done

• We hide what’s been done to us

• We hide our suffering

• We hide our thoughts and desires

• We hide who we are

2nd Claim (1:8-9)

We deceive ourselves by

• Hiding our sin

• Ignoring our sin

• Excusing our sin

• Justifying our sin

• Redefining our sin

• Tolerating our sin

• Embracing our sin

3rd Claim (1:10-2:2)

Reflection

• Father, help us to see the ways we’ve hidden our sin from you

• Father, help us to bring our sin out of the darkness and into the light

• Father, help us create a culture of vulnerability where others feel safe stepping out of the darkness

• Father, help us take a step of courage this week in sharing with someone else

Sermon Footnotes

• “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Together, p112)

• “We recognize early and often that shame tends to be self-reinforcing. When we experience shame, we tend to turn away from others because the prospect of being seen or known by another carries the anticipation of shame being intensified or reactivated. However, the very act of turning away, while temporarily protecting and relieving us from our feeling (and the gaze of the "other"), ironically simultaneously reinforces the very shame we are attempting to avoid. Notably, we do not necessarily realize this to be happening - we’re just trying to survive the moment. But indeed this dance between hiding and feeling shame itself becomes a tightening of the noose. We feel shame, and then feel shame for feeling shame. It begets itself.” - Curt Thompson (The Soul of Shame: Retelling the Stories We Believe About Ourselves, p31)

Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: How to Live, How to Love

Sermon Title: What Unites Us

Passage: 1 John 1:1-4

Preacher: Ashley Herr

We are united in our shared belief in who Jesus is (v1-2)

We are united in our shared participation in what Jesus provides (v3-4)

Reflection

• Reflect on our shared belief in who Jesus is, why he came, and what he accomplished (v1-2)

• Reflect on our shared participation in the fellowship Jesus provides (v3) by asking: What step is the Spirit leading me to take in following Jesus together with others?

• Reflect on our shared participation in the joy Jesus provides (v4) by asking: Who is the Spirit leading me to reach out to and invite into this fellowship?

Sermon Footnotes

• “Only in Jesus Christ are we one, only through him are we bound together…Our community with one another consists solely in what Christ has done to both of us…The more genuine and the deeper our community becomes, the more will everything else between us recede, the more clearly and purely will Jesus Christ and his work become the one and only thing that is vital between us.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Together, p24,25,26)

• “Today: feast of St. Thomas the Apostle. During a dialogue homily, two of the monks remarked in different ways that although Thomas did not believe in the resurrection of the Lord, he kept faithful to the community of the apostles. In that community the Lord appeared to him and strengthened his faith. I find this a very profound and consoling thought. In times of doubt or unbelief, the community can "carry you along," so to speak; it can even offer on your behalf what you yourself overlook, and can be the context in which you may recognize the Lord again.” - Henri Nouwen (The Genes Diary: Report from A Trappist Monastery, p56)

• “Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Together, p30)

Recommended Reading

• A Fellowship of Differents by Scot McKnight

• The Church of Us vs. Them: Freedom from a Faith That Feeds on Making Enemies by David Fitch

• Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf

• The Genes Diary: Report from A Trappist Monastery by Henri Nouwen

• Jesus and the Powers by NT Wright and Michael Bird

• Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Sermon Notes

Sermon Series: The Kingdom Has Come (Matthew 11-13)

Sermon Title: A Prophet Without Honor - Seeing Jesus Truly

Passage: Matthew 13:53-58

Preacher: Robin Philip