Audacious Love (Audio)

Audacious Love (1 John 4:7-12; Genesis 28:10-17) Yearly Theme:  “Love Does…” Series Title:  Love Does October 13th, 2019     Something to think about:   God’s love is audacious!  But, what does that really mean?   Well, the word audacious is defined as…   Audacious [ aw-dey-shuhs ] adjective extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless: an audacious explorer.[1]   So, to say that God’s love is audacious is to say that God’s love is extremely bold or daring; recklessly brave; fearless!   The Apostle John (one of Jesus’ 12 disciples) talks about God’s love in one of his letters to the church in the New Testament.  John describes this love of God that is bold, daring, recklessly brave, and fearless.  Let’s take a look…   Turn in your Bibles to:  1 John 4:7-12 (NLT)   Now, there’s another thing about God’s love and God’s presence that must be understood:  If we’re not careful, we can miss it!   How is it possible to miss God’s presence and God’s love?  A good example of this is found in the first book of the Bible, known as Genesis.  We come upon the scene of a man by the name of Jacob (Abraham’s grandson).  While traveling to Haran, Jacob stops for the night and sets up camp.  Listen to what happens next…   Turn in your Bibles to:  Genesis 28:10-17   Since God’s love is audacious, our love for Him and others must be audacious as well, but this can only happen when we are willing to receive God’s audacious love.  And, we can’t receive God’s audacious love if we’re not aware of it.   So, the key point today is this…   Key Point:  “God’s love for us is audacious, and so must ours be.”   So how does all this work out?    God show’s His audacious love for us through His Son.   1 John 4:9-10 (NLT), 9  God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10  This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.   Since God showed us His love for us through His Son, we also ought to love each other.   1 John 4:11-12 (NLT), 11  Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12  No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.   Not only should we be aware of God’s love around us, we should be aware of opportunities to love Him and others everyday.   Genesis 28:16 (NLT), Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!”   Something to take home:   Jesus love for God and others was so audacious that he communicated love to lepers through touch; He communicated love to the blind through touch; He communicated love to the deaf by touch.  The pattern of Jesus’ love was active and engaging.  It broke social and religious protocols.  Jesus’ was aware of the needs around Him each and everyday because He was aware of the Father’s love wherever He was.  Unlike Jacob, Jesus was completely aware of the LORD’s presence each and every place He went, and He availed Himself to those opportunities by showing love in those places and to the people He encountered there.   And, so, for your homework assignment this week:  Take some time out this week to be an observer.  Go to the mall, to the park, or somewhere public and watch/observe what’s going on around you.  Look for evidence of God in these places.  Where to you see evidence of the hand of God and His love?  For example:  Maybe you’ll witness someone opening/holding a door for someone else; or, maybe you see someone helping carry something for someone else, or helping them walk to their car.  Whatever the case, take note and thank God for His willingness to be active in and around us each and every day.  Now, once you’ve observed, take action.  Step into the arena of God’s loving-kindness by actively sharing that in a practical way with someone else.  Allow the evidence of God’s love to flow through you by helping another person around you. [1] Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on The Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019