Good

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” (C.S. Lewis)

1 John 4:7-21, International Children’s Bible

⁷ Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. The person who loves has become God’s child and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him. ¹⁰ True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. God sent his Son to die in our place to take away our sins.

¹¹ That is how much God loved us, dear friends! So we also must love each other. ¹² No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us. If we love each other, God’s love has reached its goal. It is made perfect in us. ¹³ We know that we live in God and God lives in us. We know this because God gave us his Spirit. ¹⁴ We have seen that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. That is what we teach. ¹⁵ If someone says, “I believe that Jesus is the Son of God,” then God lives in him. And he lives in God. ¹⁶ And so we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God lives in him. ¹⁷ If God’s love is made perfect in us, then we can be without fear on the day God judges us. We will be without fear, because in this world we are like him. ¹⁸ Where God’s love is, there is no fear, because God’s perfect love takes away fear. It is punishment that makes a person fear so love is not made perfect in the person who has fear. ¹⁹ We love because God first loved us. ²⁰ If someone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar. He can see his brother, but he hates him. So he cannot love God, whom he has never seen. ²¹ And God gave us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

A true Christian is revealed by…

·        God being their source of love (See 1 John 4:7-9 above)

When life keeps you busy, the people you love the most get neglected most often.

·        Hoping in Jesus (See 1 John 4:10-12 above)

If you give your compassion to someone without the action of your help, it results in guilt from them.

·        Yielding to the direction of the Holy Spirit (See 1 John 4:13-16 above)

Fear berates you for what you aren’t while love accepts as you are.

·        Stepping out in faith (See 1 John 4:17-18 above)

The world needs you to take your church love out into your community.

·        Acting out of love (See 1 John 4:19-21 above)

¹⁴ Your lives light up the world. For how can you hide a city that stands on a hilltop? ¹⁵ And who would light a lamp and then hide it in an obscure place? Instead, it’s placed where everyone in the house can benefit from its light. ¹⁶ So don’t hide your light. Let it shine brightly before others, so that your commendable works will shine as light upon them, and then they will give their praise to your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16, the Passion Translation) 

“A Christian is a mind through which Christ thinks; a heart through which Christ loves; a voice through which Christ speaks; and a hand through which Christ helps.” (Saint Augustine)

Christians need to listen to God’s request of them and obey (no matter how outlandish it may seem at the time).  Never doubt His wisdom because He always knows best.

Just as the hero, Superman, became an icon of hope and justice to the world, who absorbed his energy from the sun; so Christians are a heroic symbol of hope and justice, who get their life power from the Son (of God, Jesus).

Quotes from the wisdom of Superman:

·        “Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up, and transform us.”

·        “How others see you is not important. How you see yourself means everything.”

·        “There is a superhero in all of us. We just need the courage to put on the cape.”

·        “You will be different. Sometimes you’ll feel like an outcast, but you’ll never be alone.”[i]

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[i] Inspired by the sermon “Christians Revealed: Revealed” (installment eight) Sunday August 8, 2021, Pastor Josh Boyer (CPLC) at CPG.  In-person services are available at all four U.S. CenterPoint campuses. CenterPoint also has an online Sunday morning service (10am) that can be viewed at centerpointchurches.online.church or centerpointchurches.com/live.

  

Henry Cavill as Superman