God does not want humility to be a reservoir to receive His blessing, but an aqueduct to also convey it. Dr. Tony Evans says loving God and loving others are completely connected concepts. They are hinged together like two hinges on a door.
This door won't swing right unless both hinges are in sync. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Do you love God as much as you say you do or even think you do? In this classic sermon on Christian love, Dr. Evans talks about a surefire way to tell.
Let's listen in as he begins with the help of this example. We all have birthmarks. Some are obvious, some are not as obvious. It's a mark that identifies you. God has a birthmark that testifies that you're part of His family, and that birthmark is love. By this shall all men know you're my disciples, that you love one another.
It would be God's definition of love that would mark us out as unique and distinct. Like has to do with some emotional attachment. You're comfortable with this person. You enjoy this person, something about who they are and how they are and what they do.
You connect with them. So to speak of liking speaks of a connectedness you have with another person. But love, defined by the Bible, is the decision to compassionately and righteously seek the well-being of another whether or not you like them. In other words, biblical love does not require an emotional attachment. It's good if you like the person you love, but Jesus has even told us to love our enemies. And of course, if somebody is your enemy, you don't typically have an emotional-like connection to them, and yet there is a command to love, because biblical love is predicated on a decision, not necessarily on an emotion. And that is the command, first of all, to love God with all of our heart, mind, might, strength, and soul, to love God first. God wants to be in the front of the line of your life.
He does not want to be an afterthought when you've tried everything else. First, love the Lord your God. But then he says, second, love your neighbor as yourself. In 1 John chapter 3, that's the love letter. 1 John is the love letter in the New Testament.
It's full of this love thing. He says, beginning in verse 13, Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Galatians 6 10 puts it this way, As you have opportunity, do good to all men, but especially those who are of the household of faith. In other words, while God wants us to show love as broadly as we can, we are obligated, first and foremost, to express love within the family of God. What would you think about a father who fed all the neighborhood kids while his kids starved?
Not much. You would say he's shirking his responsibility to his own home. So when God saved you and me, he said, I want you to become part of a spiritual family, the church, and as part of the spiritual family where God's the Father, we're the children, and you've got brothers and sisters who make up the family, I want you to have a family to practice love in. Let me put it another way. One of the reasons God wants every child of his to be part of a spiritual family is to attack our natural bent toward selfishness. We are naturally bent toward selfishness. In fact, most of us came here today wanting God to do something for us, and most who came here today wanting God to do something for them, in most cases—I'm sure there are exceptions—probably didn't ask, and God, while you're doing this for me, here's what I want you to do for somebody else. God does not want you merely to be a reservoir to receive his blessing, but an aqueduct to also convey it. He wants you to be a tool of dispensing, not merely a container of receiving. When the man asked, what's the greatest commandment, Jesus said, well, the first is that you love God, and then Jesus said, but the second is like it.
The man never asked about a second. He only asked about a first, but the way Jesus answered is, we haven't completed it with just answering the first unless I continue with the second, because the second is like the first. They are hinged together like two hinges on a door.
This door won't swing right unless both hinges are in sync. Why is this important? This is what I'm going to say now.
It's critical. Don't miss this. Please notice what he says in verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
What I'm going to say here is deep. John is not writing to non-Christians. He's writing to Christians. That's why he talks about your little children, he says, your brother, okay, big family of God, your father. He's writing to Christians all the way through the book. It's clear he's writing to Christians, but he says to Christians, those of my children who do not operate on this principle of love are abiding in death. But he's talking to Christians. And they do not have eternal life abiding in them.
What does he mean? If I'm saved, don't I have eternal life? Well, let's make a few distinctions. He's not discussing everlasting life, how long you're going to live forever in the presence of God. He's discussing eternal life. Eternal life is not merely a length of time. Eternal life is a quality of existence. Jesus says in John 17, this is eternal life that they will know me and you whom you have sent. So let me define eternal life.
What you have now, you have everlasting life, but eternal life is your experience of God. You see, many of God's children don't experience the God that they have. God is a distant stranger to them, even though they're in the family.
And he says, why? He says, because if you do not learn and operate on this principle of love, he says, you are abiding in darkness, okay? In 1 John chapter 1, he says, God is light and in him is no darkness at all. So God does not exist in darkness. In fact, the only definition that the Bible gives of God is light unapproachable, okay?
So if you think of the sun and what the sun means to the earth, then that's what God is to his creation. He is light. He dwells in unapproachable light. There is nothing about God that is dark, but the one who does not love, he says, lives in darkness. But since God is light and in him is no darkness at all, the Christian who does not learn the love principle and operate on it is operating in a location where God is not.
You're operating in a place where he does not operate. So if you're praying, but you're praying in darkness, you're praying to somebody who's not there, experientially there. If you are crying out, but you're crying out lovelessly, you're crying out in a dark room where God is not operating, because God is light and in him is no darkness at all. So one of the reasons so many of God's children are not experiencing the reality of the Father is they are operating in a realm where he won't even visit. For God is light and in him is no darkness at all, but if you do not love, you're operating in darkness, but since he is not darkness, he won't go to darkness, you're operating in a realm he won't show up in.
And he says, not only are you operating, he says, you're abiding there. So many Christians are living in darkness and wonder why they're not hearing from the light, because in him there is no darkness at all. And he says the distinction between light and darkness is a distinction of love, its presence or its absence. This principle is so deep it affects whether you are in or out of fellowship with God.
So the reality is many Christians are living out of fellowship with God and don't even know it. You know why? Because you can be in the dark so long you think dark is normal. You can be so used to the dark. You've seen people like this. They're hateful all the time, miserable all the time, mean all the time, unforgiving all the time, they're all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time, and the best they can come up with is, you know, I'm being me. That's because that is the realm they're living in and they're so used to it they're comfortable there.
They don't even feel convicted about it. Why? Because God said there's nothing happening inside. There's nothing, there's no life of God operating.
And when you in dark, it's a bad place to be to be in the night and think it's the day. We'll hear more from Dr. Evans as he takes a deeper look at what love really looks like in just a moment. First though, today's lesson is part of a timely yet timeless message compilation called Returning to God in Unity, and it's dedicated to creating in you and me the kind of believer God wants us to be. In this nine-part series, Dr. Evans explores the many different ways we can bring ourselves back into a closer connection with God and others, increasing our effectiveness as believers who have a vital role to play in God's kingdom. And right now we've created a special resource package for our listeners that includes not only the full-length audio messages in this collection, but also two terrific books from Dr. Evans. His popular devotional book, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart, as well as an exciting new release called Kingdom Kindness, a movement to bring calm to the culture.
In a time when many are feeling anxious and uncertain about the future, the stress of unsettling societal issues are taking a toll on our well-being. Now more than ever, it's imperative that we allow God's love to flow through us as we extend kindness to one another. These resources will help you discover how to do that, and we'd like to send them to you as our gift. And thanks for your support of our work here through the Alternative Broadcast Ministry. To find out how you can take advantage of this special offer, just visit TonyEvans.org, where you'll find all the details right on the home page. That's TonyEvans.org. Or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222, where one of our friendly team members will be happy to help with your request.
Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that information for you after part two of today's lesson, and this. In a world shrouded by fear, prophecy seeks to make sense of it all. Dr. Tony Evans' latest book, Thy Kingdom Come, reveals the secrets to deliver us through dark times. Now is the time to gain clarity in the midst of confusion. Be prepared for what's to come by picking up your copy of Thy Kingdom Come at TonyEvans.org. It comes with a bonus sermon series, Staying Right with God.
Arm yourself against the impending storm. Well, let's get back to more of today's message on practicing Christian love. Dr. Evans is in 1 John chapter 3, verse 16, We know love by this. So love is knowable. Love is not abstract.
It's not up in the pie in the sky. You know, he says, This is how we know love. This is how we know love. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. He says, You know love by the laying down of the life. Watch this.
He's going to explain. Jesus laid down His life for us, not on the cross, demonstrating His love. So we know love by its demonstration, not merely its articulation.
Okay? We know love by demonstration, and it involves the laying down of the life. But wait a minute, then how can I love a whole bunch of people at a whole bunch of different times if I got to die? No, he explains what he means. He says, But whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? You remember the Good Samaritan? Three things. He saw a need, he felt the need, and he addressed the need to the extent that he was able. He saw it, he felt it, and he addressed it.
That is the action of love. Jesus saw a need. We were sinners. He felt the need. God so loved the world, and so he addressed the need by dying on the cross.
He uses the three things, same three things in verse 17. You see your brother in need, okay, and you have this world's goods. You have a substance or some level of ability to address the need, and then he says, But you close your heart. Okay, that's feeling the need. That's the compassion. So here are the three things.
You see it, you feel it, and you have some capacity to address it. That's how he defined neighbor in Luke 10 last week, and that's how he finds meeting the need of your brother here this week. So what he is saying today is that love is an issue of action, not merely an issue of words. Love has to be demonstrated in order to be declared real, and if it is not demonstrated, it's not what God calls love. It's some other word.
It's like on steroids. If you want to know real love, God wants to define it, because God is love. Chapter 4 verse 8 says, So this is the definition you ought to use of love, and what does it do? Love addresses the need of another. The zinger is how he closes out in verses 19 to 24.
Let me read it to you. We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our hearts before Him. In whatever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. This is the commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in Him, we know by this that He abides in us by the Spirit which He has given us.
Okay, so we got the Father, we have the Son, and now we've been introduced to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit operates in the realm of the heart. He operates in the realm of the heart.
So all through verses 19 to 24, you keep reading the word heart, heart, heart, heart, heart. He operates in the realm of the heart, that centerpiece of the soul, that place where you feel things and experience things most deeply, and that feeds the rest of you. It's in the heart. It is in the heart He breeds confidence. It is in the heart He demonstrates His reality.
So here's the deal. Here's what He's saying. When you love God first— we've already established that—and second, love others, needs you see, needs God, opens up your heart to, by His Spirit, and needs that you have the capacity to address, so you're responding to God, He says, now God will abide with you. And when God abides with you, in other words, you are sensing and experiencing a new level of His presence and operation in your life. And when He, watch this, abides with you, because you are operating the way He is prescribed, loving Him and then loving others based on that criteria, when you do that, He says, whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandment, which is believe on Jesus and love others.
Oh, do you hear what He just said? Now you'll begin to see your prayers answered. Ooh, you mean to tell me my prayers may not be answered because I'm a loveless Christian.
I'm asking my father to do something for me, but my father can't ask me to do something for somebody else, but I'm upset with my father because he hasn't done it for me yet. In other words, not loving blocks answered prayer. It shuts the Spirit down in your heart. It shuts Him down. The Spirit has to back off, because He's operating in a dark world in there.
He's not comfortable in there, but He says His Spirit is working in the heart, ready to do His thing, ready to work in the heart to do His thing. You know, when a woman, she goes to the drugstore, she buys a pregnancy kit. She buys a pregnancy kit, she reads the instructions, she takes the test, the right color comes on, and it is clear she's pregnant.
The doctor puts on a sonogram. The sonogram lets her see what was written. What was written gave the information, but now she sees it for herself.
It's become alive now to her because she's seeing it. So what was revelation, I'm pregnant, has now become illumination. I see that I'm pregnant.
Then the doctor or the nurse begins to describe it and give it a little detail. That's the head, that's the leg, depending on how long the baby is, and so we started with revelation. We went to illumination, and now we got somebody giving confirmation. So when we move from revelation to illumination, and now we're getting confirmation. Many of the girls who visit our pregnancy center or other pregnancy centers change their mind about abortion because when they get revelation and illumination, and that leads to confirmation, it turns into compassion. Now they're not as easily ready to kill a life because they've seen it, which is why abortionists don't want the women having to see sonograms, because once they see life, it's hard to let it go. Dr. Evans had a final thought about why people who have really seen the light will only want to move forward, never back, and we'll hear that in just a moment.
Don't go away. How do you share the gospel with confidence? What's God's plan for our communities?
Why does the Old Testament matter to your faith today? Those are just a few of the questions you'll get answered when you enroll in the Tony Evans Training Center, an interactive online study experience with Dr. Tony Evans, where you can grow in your knowledge of God's Word and learn to advance His kingdom agenda in your life. Visit TonyEvansTraining.org to get started today. That's TonyEvansTraining.org. Before we get back to Dr. Evans, I wanted to encourage you to take advantage of that special offer I mentioned earlier. In thanks for your donation to the Alternative Broadcast Ministry, we'd like to send you two exceptional books from Tony, his popular devotional book, Stronger Together, Weaker Apart, and his newest release, Kingdom Kindness, and that's in addition to all nine full-length audio messages from our current featured series called Returning to God in Unity. If you contact us before time runs out, we'll send all these to you as our gift and appreciation for your contribution. Get the details on this exclusive bundle by calling our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222.
That's 1-800-800-3222. Or make the arrangements online at TonyEvans.org. And when you do, take a moment to click on the simple text link that says Jesus at the top of the homepage. There you'll get a generous dose of that illumination you heard Tony talking about today and discover how the light of God's love can drive all the darkness out of your life. The Lord's death on the cross makes it possible for us to have a real personal relationship with God, starting now and continuing through eternity. The Bible says there's no other way to make this happen, so visit TonyEvans.org today to find out more. Again, that's TonyEvans.org.
When a team works as a team, they're stronger and more effective than any of the individual players. Tomorrow, we'll discover why that's even more true within the church. Right now, though, let's listen to these closing words from Dr. Evans. I'm telling you now, with the sermon you heard today, that's revelation, okay? That's revelation. You start practicing this, it's gonna become illumination. And when the Spirit starts moving, He's gonna give you confirmation, and He's gonna give you confirmation about the compassion that He's been working in your heart. My challenge to you today is to not be satisfied with eating a sermon, but experience God by living a sermon, and you live it by love. you
