I invite you to open the Bible and turn with me to the book of 1 John, chapter 4; verses 13 to 16 will be the text that we are studying this morning. If you don't have a Bible, it is printed on the handout there in your bulletin, so that you could read 1 John 4:13-16 with us at Christmas time. We might be used to the story of the angels and the shepherds and the wise men and the manger, but we want to go behind the scenes of what is seen, and we want to hear why the Father even sent his Son. And the answer is love. And so, we are celebrating the Christmas of love. And when we begin to talk about the love of God at church, a very common reaction is, oh, of course, I already know about the love of God. If you've gone to church, it's not like the fact that God is love will come across as new information. And yet, one of the themes for me in 2025 has been how many people I've talked to who will say, of course, I know God loves me, and then immediately doubt if God really has a good intention for what's going on in their lives. This is a regular thing that I have experienced this year at this church is many people are like they have, of course, I know attitude about love, but do they really continually know the love of God? I want you to really know that he loves you, so that when things seem like they're falling apart in your life, you would still be confident in his steadfast love. So, please pay attention to these verses, because they are about how you and I can come to know and believe that God is love. So again, out of respect for God's Word, I invite everybody to stand up for the public reading of Scripture, 1 John 4:13-16. Please follow along as I read 1 John 4:13-16.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
That's the reading of God's Word. Please go ahead, have your seat. There is that handout there, if you want to take some notes as we go through these verses. And the first word I want to draw to your attention is this Greek word meno, right there at the top of your handout. And it is the word that is translated “abide” in these verses. And so, you can see it right there in verse 13, “By this we know that we abide in him.” So, if you're taking notes, circle, the word “abide,” that's the same as the word meno. It means “to remain,” “to stay.” And this is the issue of the book of 1 John, that everyone who believes in Jesus, John wants you to know that you have eternal life, and eternal life is knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom he sent. So, you can see, that's what he's getting to here in verse 13, “By this we know that we're in him and he's in us,” that we have that relationship with him. Here's how you can know that you are remaining in him, and he's remaining in you. He says it again in verse 15, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God,” so circle “abides” there. Again, that's the main issue. How can you know that you know God, that God knows you? Well, he says, if you confess Jesus is the Son of God, that's how you can know. And then look at verse 16, he says, “We have come to know and believe the love God has for us. God is love. And Whoever abides,” circle it there, whoever remains in love, and then it says it again, “abides in God.” So, circle it there. You see what he's doing? He's equating if you really know love, and you remain in love, well then you know God and you remain in God, because God is love. There is no other love apart from God.
And so, let's get this down with this Greek word meno. Here you want to: “Make it your goal to continually know God's love.” You want to know that you know him, that he's abiding in you, and you're abiding in him. That's the point here of this text, that you would be in a relationship with God, surrounded by his love, and he's with you and you're with him. So, the kind of knowledge we're looking for about the love of God is not an intellectual agreement that God did something loving or that he is love in his character. It's an experiential relationship where you continually know God loves you. And we want this to be a driving motivation in your life. We want you to be sure of this, convinced of this. If there's one thing you can know in your life, it's that you have been loved by God. That's what we want for every single person here. So, let's go through these verses, and let's see how you can have this confidence that you know God, that he knows you, and that you are in his love. So, in verse 13, it mentions here “the spirit,” and what the Spirit does here in verse 13, God gives us his Spirit. And see, John says in verse 14, “we have seen, and we testify the Father sent the Son.” In fact, in verse 15, we have the confession that Jesus is the Son of God.
So, let's get let's make a little chart. There's a Trinitarian passage here. All three persons, one God, three persons, Father, Son and Spirit are all referred to here in these verses. And so, you can see, let's make a chart. We'll put the Father and the Son up there, because that's the premise that we've seen already in 1 John 4, if you were here last week.
Father –> Son
The Father's love is shown in that he sent his one and only Son. But the way we're going to see that the Father sent the Son is by the Spirit. So now we want to add him to our chart.
Father –> Son <– Spirit If you asked one of the kids in the kids’ ministry this morning, what do we celebrate about Christmas? What is Christmas all about? Somebody might say, well, it's Jesus' birthday. It's the day we know Jesus was born. Yes, but see, we're going back before that to the Father sending him. Let's get that down in our chart, the Father sent His Son. Well, how do we come to know that? How do you get to see what the father has done to love you by sending the Son? Well, that's when God gives us of his Spirit, and the Spirit bears witness that the Father sent the Son. Father –> Son <– Spirit Sent Bears Witness The Spirit reveals to you. He makes it known to you what has already happened, what has happened behind the scenes, that the Father in heaven, he has a perfect relationship with his Son, Jesus. Jesus is eternally one with the Father, and then the Father sends him to be our Savior. That's what love is. And the only way you can come to know that, the only way you could come to confess that and believe that yourself, is the spirit has to reveal it to you. Now, if you're in 1 John with me, go back to chapter 3, verse 24, because this is where he introduced this idea that the Spirit is the one who's going to make this known to us in 1 John 3:24, at the very last sentence of 1 John 3, “By this we know that he abides in us.” Here's how you can know that God is remaining in you, that he's staying in you, that he's with you by the Spirit whom he has given us. So, it's saying here that we were given the Spirit so we could really know God and know what God did for us by sending his Son Jesus. Now grab your Bible and go back to John 15:26, because when John wrote the gospel, he already made this clear. Now he's bringing this up again in 1 John as a reminder, and he's teaching it again. But John was there on the last night of Jesus’ life, sometimes referred to as the Last Supper. John was there leaning up against Jesus, and Jesus told them that he was going to go back to be with the Father, and that he was going to send the Spirit. And it says some very important things. If you ever really want to know who the Holy Spirit is, you’ve got to read John 14,15, and 16, because that is Jesus introducing the Spirit to the disciples, telling them who the Spirit is and what he's coming to do. And so, in John 15, verse 26, notice what Jesus teaches us here. John 15:26, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” Now he goes on to say, “you also will bear witness” that those disciples will be sent out as apostles. They're going to tell people who Jesus is, but the way people are going to come to know and believe who Jesus is is Jesus is going to send the Spirit. Now we usually call him the Holy Spirit, but notice, Jesus gives two other names here. You may want to write these down as other ways to think about the Holy Spirit. One is the Helper, sometimes translated, the Advocate. The idea is the Encourager, the one who comes alongside and speaks truth to you. That's what he says. The Holy Spirit is the Helper, and then also he is the Spirit of what? Of truth. So, he's the one who's going to teach you the truth. He's the one who's going to reveal to you the spiritual realities that are behind the scenes of what we can see. That's how you're going to come to know things is the Spirit of Truth, he's going to help you. He's going to come along and speak truth into your life, and that truth that he speaks to you will lead you to become holy. So, he's referred to as the Holy Spirit, the Helper and the Spirit of Truth. And the only way that anybody really comes to know Jesus and believe in him is not based on their own personal understanding. It's not based on them being a good person. It's not based on them going to church a lot. It's based on the Holy Spirit. We will never understand spiritual things unless the Holy Spirit bears witness to us. In fact, go over to chapter 16, verse 7, and look what he keeps teaching us about the Holy Spirit. He says, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.” And he says, “I tell you the truth,” because he's going to tell you something that might be hard to believe, but he wants you to know it's true. “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you, but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, the Helper, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Now that's shocking what Jesus says, because these disciples have been following Jesus for three years. They've seen him do miracles. They've been with him nonstop, it seems, for three years, and now he says it's going to be better when I leave. They're not sure about that. They don't want Jesus to leave, Jesus going back to the Father. They're like, I'm not sure about this. He says it's going to be to your advantage. It's going to be better to have the Holy Spirit inside you than me here walking beside you. No, it's going to be good, because the Holy Spirit, when he comes, he's going to convict the whole world, everybody of sin, of righteousness, the fact that they're not right with God, and that judgment is going to come upon them. The Holy Spirit, he's the one who's going to really show people their need. He's going to show everyone our problem that we have fallen short of the glory of God. All of us have missed the mark. All of us have not lived up to God's standard of righteousness. Every one of us has said, thought, and done things that we knew we ought not to do, and yet we did them anyway. And guess what? The Holy Spirit shows us that sin. He convicts us of that. He shows us that Jesus is the savior that God sent, and he convicts us of our sin that we needed Jesus to come down here. We needed Jesus to live the righteous life. We needed Jesus to die in our place. If you know that and you believe that, I'll tell you why God gave you his Spirit, and his Spirit bore witness to Jesus, and his Spirit convicted you of sin. If you're knowing that you're a sinner and you're knowing that Jesus is the savior, then you should thank God for the Holy Spirit here this morning, because that's the only reason you know that we don't know who Jesus is, and what he came to do for us, because we're any better than anybody else. We know it because the Spirit revealed it to us. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? So, this is the Spirit he had. Because of the Spirit, you can see that the Father sent the Son in love for you. That's the only reason you can see it. You can't see it with your eyes, but the Spirit has given you that understanding. Now go back to 1 John 4, because let's just make very clear some things that he has already said in First John four, before we get to our verses, our verses are that you could know you have this relationship with God. One way you can know is the Spirit has helped you see how the Father sent the Son, and you could make the confession that Jesus is the Son of God. Now earlier, it already defined this love for us. If you go back to verse 9, 1 John 4:9, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us” are made known among us “that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. This is love. Here's our definition of love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us. And how did God love us? He sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. So, this is very important. 1 John 4 is connecting the idea that God loves you with the idea that God sent his Son Jesus to save you from your sin. You have to connect those two ideas in your mind. That is how love is defined. In fact, go back to 1 John, chapter 4, verse 1, and look what it says here about the Spirit. It says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” Okay, there's not just the Holy Spirit. There are demonic spirits, there are fallen angels, there are deceivers. So, you’ve got to test it. It says, don't just believe every message you hear. Test it. Look at what it says, “Many false prophets have gone out into the world.” So, this is how you can know the Spirit of God. This is how you can know it's the Holy Spirit. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. So, the Spirit, this is your test. I'm hearing somebody say something. And a lot of people say things about Jesus. There are many people all over Planet Earth that will say, I believe in Jesus. This is what I believe about him. This is what I think about him. Well, here's how you can know it's really from the Spirit and not some false message. If it's from the Spirit, every spirit that confesses, look at verse 2. Underline this. Write this down in your notes. “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.” You see what that's saying? Every spirit that really is about Christmas, are they really teaching Christmas? Are they really teaching the incarnation? Are they really teaching that Jesus is the Son of God? He's one with the Father for all of eternity, and then God became man, the glory of the Father put on flesh. See, Christmas isn't just something we remember. It's not just something we celebrate. Christmas is a doctrine. In fact, it's a very important doctrine that can help you distinguish between those who are false and those who are true in their message or in their faith. If they don't say that Christ came in the flesh, then they're not really from the Holy Spirit. They're from some other spirit. So, let's get this down: “Christmas is a doctrine,” and here's what you need to get specific about “Get more specific about Jesus, Christ came in the flesh.” This is very important. This is important for your sake. This is important as you talk to other people for the sake of their soul. We ask people very general questions, like, do you believe in Jesus? Well, there are many people who would say yes to believing in Jesus. What exactly do they believe about Jesus? Do they believe that he is the Christ who came in the flesh? That's something more specific. How can you determine if they're really believing by the power of the Spirit, or whether they have some false belief? You’ve got to get more specific than just this general way that we talk today in churches in Southern California. Do you believe in Jesus? Yeah, bro, well, right on, man. No, you’ve got to get more specific than that. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God who then became a man that he has eternally been one with the Father? He had a perfect relationship between the Father and the Son, and yet, out of love for us, the Father sent his one and only Son, and the Son humbled himself to be born as a baby. Do you believe that? And you got it. And when somebody says, oh, I believe in Jesus, oh, so then you believe that he is the Christ who came in the flesh, that's how specific it's supposed to get. Let's get that down. Let's go back to our chart, and let's add that as kind of a highlight of our chart, that he came in the flesh. Father –> Son <– Spirit Sent | Bears Witness v Came in Flesh This is the whole thing. This is what the Father sent him to do. This is what the Holy Spirit bears witness to. In fact, this is the test you can use to determine what's really of the Spirit of God and what's really of false spirits is, do they say that Jesus came in the flesh, as we try to celebrate on Christmas, the incarnation. He is the God who became man, the Creator who became one of his creation, the Eternal One who entered time and space. Is that what they're teaching? Because there are many friendly, well intended people who are walking around talking about Jesus, but they don't believe that. Who here has ever had someone come to your house, knocked on your door and tried to talk to you about Jesus? Raise your hand if that's ever happened at your house. Many of us have our hands up. Over the years of my life, I have had many conversations with people about Jesus, and usually I'm ready to initiate these conversations, but sometimes people have even initiated these conversations with me. I remember one time, I was getting some frozen yogurt with my family and these two men wearing matching ties and name tags, just getting off their bikes, came up to me and my family and said, we are the missionaries in this neighborhood. That's not really something you want to say to me, because I didn't agree with that. Now I've talked to so many Mormons. I've talked to so many of them over the years. Many of them have been very friendly people, and we had very good conversations. But I’ve got to be honest, some of these conversations got a little heated over the days because we were talking about who Jesus is. In fact, I've been to the temple in Salt Lake City, and I've talked to many of the people there. And as I was talking to people at the temple, I would begin to ask them questions, questions from the Bible, questions that I was sincerely like, well, how do you think about this verse, or how do you think about this passage? And what I found out when I was at the temple in Salt Lake City is they had these beepers that they would beep and then all of a sudden, people with wires going into their ears would say, hey, they can't talk right now. And they would whisk them away. And I was left talking to no one there at the temple. And because I was asking questions like, how do you know it's true? Where do you get your basis for truth? And they would say, this is the regular answer that I have received from many different Mormons that I've talked to over many years. I know it's true because I prayed and the Holy Spirit showed me it was true. I felt from the Holy Spirit that it's true. The Holy Spirit put it on my heart that it's true. This used to be known as “the burning of the bosom” before bosom became an awkward word to say in polite society. And so, it's like I know the Holy Spirit told me, well, let's just make it very clear you don't know who Jesus is based on a feeling from the Holy Spirit. You know who Jesus is based on a test from the Spirit given to us right here in 1 John 4:2 that if you don't say that Christ came in the flesh, it's not from the Spirit. And the Mormons don't say they'll believe in Jesus. They'll tell you they're a Christian, but they don't believe that Jesus is the eternal Son of the Father who then put on flesh. They actually believe that Jesus was a man who became a god. And so, that's not from the Holy Spirit. Who's ever had someone knock on your door from the Jehovah's Witnesses? Have you ever talked to the Jehovah's Witnesses? They have many tables out in public places. Have you seen them with their brochures? They're at the pier, they're in many public places, and they're really trying to get their message out there all over the world. And they offer you free literature. They'll give away books for free. I've taken many of their resources. I've read through them. I've ended up on their website, jw.org, this massive website with all these different languages for nations all over the world, their whole religion all coming back to this one website where they try to answer all your questions. And if you really pay attention to what they're saying, if you really read their literature or go to their website, you will find out that Jesus is not God, as we would think of him, the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of the Father. They will say that Jesus is a god, and that Jesus was actually the first one created by God. So Jesus was a spiritual being created by God, and then Jesus created everything else. They do not believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who came in the flesh. And so, there are many people promoting a message about Jesus. I remember one time, I was asked to come to Golden West Community College for this religious kind of forum that we were going to have, and I was ready to preach Jesus to the college students. In fact, we have students here at our church at Golden West Community College. We have teachers who have people who have taught at the college from our church. And I was like, I'm ready to represent Jesus on this campus. Let's do it. And there was a Muslim imam that was there on the religious panel, and he said, I came here before I was talking, he says, I came here today to tell you how much Muslims love Jesus. I was like, I thought I was the one here to talk about Jesus. And he handed out this brochure that says, Muslims heart. It had a heart on it, Muslims heart Jesus, and he gave it to everybody there in the crowd. And afterwards, I was like, can I see one of those brochures, please? And I read that thing. I studied that thing. They did not say that Jesus is the Son of God in that brochure. In fact, they would be against the idea of God having a son. They did not say that Christ came in the flesh. But yet, here he was, promoting Jesus to the crowd like Jesus is some kind of great prophet, but he's not the Christ who came in the flesh. There are many politicians that I've heard in my life talk about Jesus, and they've talked about the golden rule, and they've talked about we should treat others in the same way that we want to be treated. I've heard so many quotes from Jesus, but is he the God-man? Is he the Son who got sent by the Father? Is he the one who had all the glory and put on flesh? Even many people say, I believe in Jesus. But if you ask them what they actually believe about Jesus, they'll say, I believe in God. I believe in the Bible. They could not tell you, well, I believe he's the anointed one that all the prophecies are about that God would become a man, that the glory would put on flesh. That's how you know it's of the Spirit. And so, you’ve got to make sure that you know this, that this is what you're trusting in. That's why Christmas is such a big deal, not just because of the cultural celebration of the holiday, but no, this was originally meant as a holy day, a day to remember that if the Father doesn't send the Son, if Jesus doesn't put on flesh, we have no hope of salvation. This is critical. This is what we need to believe. And when you're talking to people, if you have a chance to share Jesus with somebody, your family member, your friend, your coworker, your neighbor, this Christmas, don't just say, do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe that he is the Son? Do you believe that he put on flesh? That's what the Spirit allows someone to see. That's what the Spirit gives to us. Bears witness about it. We need to get more specific and clear in our presentation of Jesus. It needs to include what it says here, in 1 John 4:2, “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus is the Christ has come in the flesh, that's the spirit that's from God.” If they're just talking about Jesus in some kind of general sense, be careful. We have to get specific about the glory that put on flesh. You could put down John 1:14 would be a great verse. In fact, we're going to hear more about that verse next weekend if you come back to church, John 1:14 is a great verse that describes the incarnation. How about Matthew 1:21, let's throw that up on the screen. We read it earlier. “You shall call his name Jesus.” This is something I would encourage everybody here to say, make sure you know it, and make sure other people know it. When you talk to him, do you know why his name is Jesus? It's because God sent him to save his people from their what, everybody? Their sins. Do you think that all your family members, or all the people you're going to celebrate Christmas with this year, do you think they all know that's why he got his name? See, we're even are guilty of thinking and talking about Jesus in way too general of a sense. Now, what is the meaning of Jesus? That the Father loved us to send his only Son, and he came to be the Savior of our sins. That's what's really from God. That's what the Spirit reveals. And if we want the Spirit to reveal it to people we love, then we have to say it in a clear way. They have to hear it from us. So, Christmas, let's get very specific about what it is the Son of God put on the flesh of man. That's what the Spirit is revealing. And if we're not saying that, then, how are people going to get saved? In fact, it could be from many false prophets who have gone out talking about Jesus, but not his incarnation. So now, go back with that kind of idea of the Spirit. Now look at verse 15, 1 John 4, because this is what it's now. This is what we can know it's saying here. It's saying in 1 John 4:15 that if you make this confession, “Whoever agrees with God,” whoever says the same thing as God, “that Jesus is the Son of God,” well, then God is in you, and you're in God. See if you can really say confidently, if you've come to know and believe, well, I know who Jesus is. He's the son of God. He's one with the Father, and yet the Father loved us, and he sent his Son, and the son put on flesh, the Son became the Savior of our sins. See, if you can confess that, if you can agree with God about that, if that's really something true, that you know that has saved you, well, then you should thank God for giving you his Spirit, and in that knowledge that the spirit has borne witness to you and convicted you, so you can have confidence that God knows you and you know God. That's what these verses 13,14, and 15 are talking about how the Spirit reveals that the Father sent the Son. And if you know that, praise the Lord, he abides in you, and you abide in him. That's something you should continually know. We should not relegate Christmas to December, we should always be thinking the Father loved me so much he gave his one and only Son, Jesus. Loved me so much he came to save me from my sins. These are the core truths that everything else is based on. This is what the Spirit has taught us. This is how we know that we know God. Now look at verse 16, because this is the main verse we want to look at together here this morning. In verse 16, it says, “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.” And then it says this phrase, perhaps the most used and abused phrase in all of the Bible, “God is love.” Now we saw this phrase last week in 1 John 4, 7 and 8. Look back up to those verses where it says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Right? So, do you see what it's doing? It's equating God and love. If you know God, then you also know love. If you don't know love, then you don't know God. God is the exclusive source of love. Okay? And go back now to verse 16, and look at how it says it here. “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God.” See, if you really know love that's because you really know God. And if you really know God, then you'll really know love. That's what it's saying there. Do you want to have a life where you know love, then that's the same as having a life where you know God. If you abide in love, you abide in God. It's equating God and love. Now we hear that God is love. And so, here's what people are doing with this, and it's happening on a massive level. In fact, you probably hear more of this than you do really. What 1 John 4 is trying to say, what you hear is people have a definition of love, and they have this definition based on their own experiences in life, based on their own thoughts, maybe based on things that have happened to them. And so, then they take their definition of what they think love is. If you ask most people, what is love, they would not say, well, the Father sent his one and only Son for my sin, that's the definition of love we've been given. Most people wouldn't refer to that. Most people would say, well, love is and then who knows where they would go from there? But then, when they read, God is love, they use their definition to define love. And what that does is it brings God down to whatever they think. This is what's happened on a massive level, God is love. Well, I think love is this. Therefore, God is what I think love is. And so instead of love being this idea that elevates us into really knowing God, love has actually become this idea that lowers God to something that makes sense to us. The love that God has is unknowable. It's beyond comprehension the love that God has. A million years from now, in heaven, we will still be having our minds blown by how much God loves us. But see somebody today thinks I know what love is, and that must be then what God is, and they just reduce God down to our level. Let's get this down for a daily mindset that we need to have. “Christmas is a daily mindset: Stop comparing God to lesser things.” Stop comparing God to lesser things. Don't write your own definition of love and bring God down to that. Make sure that you're thinking what love is as defined by God. Love is found in the character and actions of God, not anywhere else. Let me show you how this works out here at our church. I don't even know how many conversations I've had with people where someone will say to me something along the lines of, well, my dad didn't really love me, or maybe they'll refer to their parents, or maybe they'll refer to their mom, but the idea is that my parents didn't really love me. Implication is, I don't really know what love is. And sometimes people, when they know me, they'll kind of even say, well, my dad didn't really love me, implying because maybe they've met my dad Bruce Blakey, who was a pastor here for a while, and then he helped plant a church in Long Beach where he's a pastor there, he's going to retire at the end of the year. We're going to celebrate that next weekend here at the church, especially on Saturday night, but some people here at the church, they know who my dad is, and they'll act like, well, maybe that works for you, because maybe your dad was like this, and the implication of all these thoughts is the way we learn what love is is based on our parents or based on how other people have treated us. Let me just try to make this as clear as I can here today, you will never learn what love is from any other person. Other people do not have the definition of love. They are not love in and of itself. There is only one who is love. There is only one father who can teach any of us what love really is, and it is our Father in heaven. We are not supposed to if you have people who love you in your life, praise God for them. What a blessing they are, but they are not supposed to be your definition of love, no if they actually really do truly love you. Most parents do love their kids in kind of a natural way. Some parents might love their kids in a godly way, and if they do love you in a godly way, it did not come from them. They actually got that from God, and then they're passing it on to you. So, one of the ways that people are always comparing God's love is through their relationships. Let's get that down for our first dash. Through their “Relationships.” Many people are comparing, well, I think God's like this, and it's based on their own personal experiences in relationships with other people. So, dads might be the most commonly used relationship. And people think it's supposed to work like this, like I learn how God loves, whether my dad loves me or not. Actually, the way it's supposed to work is dads are supposed to learn how to love based on how God loves. But we think about it a little bit backwards, and so you start to think, well, this is how I got loved, or I don't really know love, because I didn't really get loved. Love is revealed by the Spirit through the story of Christmas that the Father loved you so much he sent his one and only Son, and then we’ve got to just highlight that this is not our natural love, where we love our sons and our daughters. This is how the Father loved his Son, and yet he was willing to send him, send him to be born as one of the creation. Send him to die in our place. Send him to be raised again so that we could have a new life. God was willing. He had a perfect relationship with his son, and he sent his Son to save your soul. That's what love is. Love is not just the feeling that we have at the holidays, where I love my family and I want to be with them. No, Christmas is actually much different than that, where the Father, he had his Son that he loved and he sent him down here for you. That's what love is. That's our definition. So, if you're looking to find love in your spouse, if you're looking to find love in your kids. If you want human relationships, someone you want to date, someone you want to get to know, if you think I'm going to find love with this other person, you're setting yourself up with a wrong expectation. God is love, and if you want to remain in love, you remain in God. That's what 1 John 4:16 is saying. He is the exclusive source of love. Now I want to take you to some of the Psalms that talk about God's love. Let's go to Psalm 31. The steadfast love of God. Hesed is the Hebrew word for it here in the Psalms, this has been an overwhelming theme for those of us who have been on the mission to read the Psalms and to know God. This year together as a church, we have read 87 Psalms. Who's been reading the Psalms with us this year here at Compass HB? And if you haven't been reading, we would love to have you join us. We're reading a couple of Psalms this week as we finish Book Three of the Psalms. You can just jump in and read any Psalm, right? You don't have to read all the Psalms before it to get into it. It can help to read them all in order. But we would love for everybody to jump in with us. And one of the major themes that keeps coming up in Psalm after Psalm is the love of God. Go to Psalm 31 this psalm of David. And in this Psalm, David is crying out to God. He's saying in verse 5 of Psalm 31, “Into your hand I commit my spirit; you have redeemed me.” Yahweh, faithful God. So, he's thinking, God's going to be faithful to me. I can trust you. I can give my soul up to you. But then he's not feeling that way about other people. Look at what he says in verse 11. He says, “Because of all my adversaries, I have become a reproach, especially to my neighbors. I'm an object of dread to my acquaintances. Those who see me in the street flee from me. I have been forgotten like one who is dead. I have become like a broken vessel, for I hear the whispering of many terror on every side as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.” See, David, he had a lot of complicated relationships with other people. I mean, King Saul. Remember how David came and he killed the giant Goliath? King Saul should have been fighting the giant as the leader of God's people, but David did it. Well, King Saul ends up wanting to kill David. What a terrible situation that was, and how complicated that was, so many people turning against him, so many people wanting to stab him in the back, even his own wife leaving him. And then, if you know the story, later on, David's son tries to usurp him when he's king. So, David, he knew all about people talking behind your back. He knew all about people trying to take your place. He had so many failed relationships, and even though he's describing that, look what he says in verse 14, “But I trust in you, O Yahweh, I say you are my God. My times are in your hand.” You can rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors. See, notice what David does. This is so important. David doesn't compare God to his other relationships. David actually sees God as the contrast to his other relationships. God is the one that he can count on, the one who will be faithful no matter what other people do. In fact, look at what he says in verse 16, “Make your face shine on your servant. Save me in your steadfast love. O Lord, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you.” Like God, do you see me? God? Do you know me? Is your face shining on me? Are you looking down upon me with your countenance looking at me with the smile on your face, because if you can see me, God save me with your love. See David, when everybody else is letting him down, David is trusting in God's love as the constant, as the source, as the one thing he can know. When he can't know anybody else's loyalty, he can know God's love. How did we get to this place where people are comparing God to broken relationships? So many people are broken because of their relationships. So many people have been hurt. So many people are trying to recover from sins that have been done against them by their own families. The hurt runs very deep, and if you're going to see God through the lens of your broken heart and your crushed spirit, then you're not going to be able to see the love of God. But the truth is that God is near to those who are broken hearted, and he saves those who are crushed in spirit, because God's not like anybody else we know. He'll never leave us, He'll never forsake us, he'll never disappoint us. There's no time where God won't be there for you. There's no time where you are actually alone and God's not with you. You've never known anyone like God. That's the idea. I got to know him as apart from every other relationship. That's what David expresses here. In fact, he goes on to say, look at these things. He says in verse 19, “O, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you in the sight of the children of mankind.” Oh, you are so great at being good to me. That's what he's saying. In fact, look at verse 21, he wants to say, “Blessed be Yahweh. Let's all praise the name of the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city, when I was surrounded by enemies, I had said in my alarm, I am cut off from your sight, but you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.” See, do you see what David just said there? It's really profound. When I was surrounded, I thought, oh, no, God doesn't care. And then I cried out to him, and I was reminded, no, that's not how God works. I don't know God's love based on what I can see in my current relationships. I know God's love because of Christmas that the Father sent the Son to save a sinner like me. Can I get an amen from anybody on this? This is so pervasive that people think the way they're going to experience love is through other people, and the way we're going to come to know love is through God sending Jesus to be our Savior. That's where we're going to find love. If you feel separated from the love of God, it's because you've separated the love of God from Jesus, your love, your definition of God's love has now changed into something else. You're expecting that if God really loves you, he'll fix all your human relationships. No, no, no. God loves you by sending his Son Jesus to be your Savior from your sin. That's the definition of love. Don't redefine it with your own relationships. If you feel far away from the love of God, it's probably because you've separated that the fact that God loves us is in Jesus coming in the flesh. That's where you're always going to find love. That's what David is doing. He's saying, no, your steadfast love is wondrous. I can't even know how awesome it was that you would send your Son. We have the full gospel, but David, he's confident that God loves him. We need to have that same confidence. Go over to Psalm 42, let's talk about the second way that I see people regularly redefining love, and it's based on their feelings. Let's get that down for our second dash, “Feelings”. Many people are defining God's love by whether they feel God's love or not. Do I wake up today feeling loved? And if I don't feel it, then it's like God is distant, and maybe God doesn't really care, because I can't feel that God is here with me. I can't feel God's care for me. So then maybe it's not real. A lot of people are living based on how they feel, not based on the truth given to them by the Spirit. No, they're living based on feelings rather than faith. This is an epidemic among us here in America, and it has highly affected many people in the church, where, because I don't feel a certain way, I don't think about my life based on what is true, and then let that truth trump my feelings. No, oftentimes our feelings feel more real to us than the truth. And so, we start feeling sad, we start feeling down, we start feeling depressed, and then we come to conclusions that because I feel this way, God must not really love me. Well, look what it says here in Psalm 42 from the Sons of Korah, as we began Book Two of the Psalms, they talked about someone who's longing for God, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” So, this person really wants God, but they're not finding it. “My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, where is your God?” So, they're feeling far. They wish God was there with them, but that's not how they feel. Sometimes we refer to this as spiritual depression here in Psalm 42 and Psalm 43 and so what the psalmist does here is they remember. Well, I remember as I pour out my soul, as I'm praying to God, I remember times of worship in the past. I used to go with a whole multitude of people. I remember that feast we had where we were all going in singing songs, and we were all worshiping God. I remember times in the past where God felt close and I was praising him. But right now, I'm not feeling it. And so then look at what the psalmist does by speaking to himself, he says, “Why are you cast down on my soul? Why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him my salvation and my God.” See, directing the way your soul feels towards God, that's what we see here in this psalm. If you feel low, if you feel bad, okay, now address that and bring yourself to God. But a lot of people are staying in the reality of their feelings and then bringing God down to their level where God must not really care, because I don't feel like he does. Look at what it says in verse 8, even though his soul is cast down, and he feels like he's just being hit by one wave after another wave. He says, “By day, Yahweh commands his steadfast love, and at night, his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” Do you see what he has to bring to mind? No, I know what God's love is. God has commanded his love. I still believe in Christmas. I believe the Father sent his one and only Son. I believe Jesus came in the flesh to save me from my sins. That's what I have to remember, even when I feel down. Let's get real. Did you in 2025, as we review this last year, did you let your feelings set the tone, or did you let the fact that God loves you and he sent his Son Jesus for you to determine how you're going to feel? See, please remain in God's love. Don't remain in the way that you feel. Address yourself, bring yourself to God. Be reminded of his steadfast love. But I want to talk about a third way, and this may be the most common way that I see people determine if God loves them or not, and it's their circumstances. If we could get that down for our third dash: “Circumstances”. How did 2025 go for you? Because the truth is, for some people, 2025 has been a very difficult year, and there have been some real challenging things that have taken place. In fact, they're not very happy at the holidays. So, one thing I have observed as being a pastor now for years here in Huntington Beach is that if people are having a hard time, the Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's kind of break time that we have at the end of the year. If you've had a hard year, you will feel that even more acutely during the holidays, because we have this idea that somebody somewhere is having this perfect, ideal family gathering on Christmas. And I don't know how many ideal family gatherings really exist on planet Earth, but we kind of think that other people are just super happy at this time of year with their family, and then I'm over here, and I'm hurting. And so, there's this thought that I'm missing out, or just this thought of deep grief, and the holidays bring that out. And so, the holidays, if you've had a hard time, if your circumstances have been through trials and tribulations, the holidays can be a time of acute pain, where you're very aware of your challenges. And so, a lot of people then don't feel like at the time that we're remembering that God loved us by sending his one and only Son. Many people feel separated from the love because they're basing God's love on how their year has gone or how their circumstances are. Go over with me to Psalm 77. You cannot base God's love for you on how your life is going. We have been promised in this world, we will have what everybody? Tribulation. If you desire to live godly, you will be what, everybody? Persecuted. Are we all going to encounter trials of various kinds? What is the answer to that? Yes. So, if, when I see the inevitable challenges of living in a fallen world, I question God's love, then we will all be questioning God's love sooner or later. Do you believe what I find very common? In fact, I talked to multiple people about it last night after the sermon, because most people that I encounter think God loves me if my life is going well, that's what they think, which the Bible does not say anywhere. In fact, the Bible says God will love you, especially when your life is not going well, and your life will not go well. Your life for every one of us, if Jesus doesn't come back, all of us will die. That's not good. That will not go well for us. We will know other people who will die. We will have many physical problems before we die. We will have jobs that will cause us a lot of trouble. We will have people we love, they will have a lot of trouble. No, there's going to be days of trouble. All of us will have years filled with trouble in our lives. And here in Psalm 77 Asaph, look at what he says in verse 2. He says, “In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord.” See, in the day of my trouble, I have to remind myself about God and who he is and what he's done. And Asaph here is having a hard time, just as I know some of our brothers and sisters are having a hard time at the end of 2025. Look at how Asaph describes it here, “In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord, in the night, my hand is stretched out without wearying, my soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan; when I meditate, my spirit faints.” See, he's trying to find God. He's trying to seek God, but he's not having a satisfying result. In fact, look at verse 4. He pauses that after verse three with Selah. But then look at verse 4, when he gets back to it, “You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled. I cannot speak.” Do you realize how many people I've had say to me in 2025 I can't sleep. How many people have said I'm just so troubled, I can't stop thinking this way. I can't stop feeling this way. There are many people who feel like that, and they feel like how Asaph is describing himself here in Psalm 77, and I want everybody here to hear these questions that Asaph asks as he's trying to get his mind back to the Lord, as he's trying to get his heart to turn to the Lord, and he's having very clearly, a super hard time doing it. Look at what he says. Then here in verse five, he says, “I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, let me remember my song in the night. Let me meditate in my heart then my spirit made a diligent search. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious, has he in anger, shut up his compassion?” Let me ask you all that question. Has God's steadfast love forever ceased? What is the answer to that question? Is his faithfulness, is his mercy new every morning? See, sometimes, your circumstances might make you think that God is not loving you, and you need to ask the right questions. Is God going to stop being loving? See this is what I'm saying is the reason you feel separated from the love of God is, you separate the love of God from Jesus Christ. God has loved you in Jesus for all of eternity. In fact, in the riches of glory, we will still be figuring out the immeasurable kindness that the Father has given us in his Son, Jesus. No, God loves you beyond any circumstance, he sent his Son to be the savior of your sins. And so, I love that question, has the steadfast love of the Lord ceased? The answer to that is, no. Is God going to stop keeping his promises? The answer to that is, no. Has God stopped being gracious? The answer to that is, no. In fact, you should write down Romans, chapter 8, verse 32 where it says that if the father is willing to give his Son, what more could he give? If the Father loves us so much, he would give his one and only Son, how will he not also graciously give us all the other things? See, Jesus is the down payment on God's love, and if God, the Father, is willing to send his one and only Son, whom he loved and had a perfect relationship with, but he sent him to save you, then surely, he's going to help you with everything else. Surely, he's going to provide and protect and meet needs and help you experience victory through your trials and tribulations and persecutions, if he's willing to give his Son. Oh, see, that's the proof you're looking for. That's the evidence you need to know that God loves you. You will find his love in his Son, but you will not find love if you're looking for it in other relationships, if you're looking for it in your own feelings, and if you're expecting your circumstances to always go well, then you will not find the love of God in those things, but you will find God's love in Christmas and the fact that he took the initiative to love you when you were a sinner by sending his precious Son, and his Son shed his perfect blood to pay for all of your sins. That's love. And we've been reading through these psalms. And you know what's happened this year at our church? People have lost their loved ones. People have been diagnosed with cancer. People have experienced the kind of trials that they could say 2025 is a bad year. In fact, they've experienced the kinds of things where you could say that's what defines my year. That's the thing that happened this year, this tragedy that happened to my loved one, or this diagnosis that I received about my body, that's kind of changed everything for me. And you know what I've seen some of the people here at our church do this year is they didn't let losing a loved one be the definition of their year. They didn't let getting cancer be the definition of their year. They let the steadfast love of God be the definition of their year. You don't have to let other people define your life. You don't have to let the way you feel define your life, and you don't have to let what happens to you define your life. You can let the love of God in Jesus Christ define your life. Can I get an amen from anybody on that? There are people in this room right now who could tell you that 2025 has been a good year, even though terrible things happen to them because they know God loves them in Jesus. See, the love of God can change your perspective about everything, if you really remain in love and remain in God. And so, I want to encourage you, do you continuously know God loves you, or do you let other things toss you around into doubt and confusion? See, I remember very clearly, one Christmas, I was talking to a man. It was when we were still in the old auditorium. We were out under the overhang long after the service, and I was talking to a man who had had something terrible happen that year in his life. He and his wife were expecting a baby, their first-born son to be born, and their son had tragically died in a miscarriage. And the man was very upset, very frustrated about it, and I was trying to comfort him. I was trying to care for him. I was trying to say all the things that I could say to show him genuine care from the Lord. But our conversation was not going well. As I continued to talk, it's like he became more belligerent. It's like he became more frustrated. It's like he wanted to say, if God really loved me, why would he let this happen to my son? And so, it became antagonistic. The man was upset. He was angry at me for even trying to talk to him and trying to say that God did love him, because he wasn't feeling God's love based on what had happened. And so, I only just had to say to the man very clearly, hey, you are trying to say God doesn't love you because of what happened with your son, but God has already proven he loves you because of what happened with his Son. And I tried to just grab the man's attention. You're thinking about life wrong. God sent his Son to die for you. That's how God loves you. And unfortunately, no matter how hard I pleaded, no matter how many times I followed up to meet with him, no matter how many times I entreated him, and I tried to tell him, no, no, no, no, no, God loves you. He's proven it. He sent his Son for you. His Son died in your place. You're saying. You know how hard it is to lose your son? That's what he did for you. And I begged this man to believe. I begged him to see the love of God, but he would not. Nothing I said could change his mind. And I watched what took place in his life over the years to follow, and to this day, I feel a deep sadness, if he could only know the love of God, it could change everything for him. It could be the game changer in his life. He's not even with his wife anymore. I don't know if he's going to church where he lives now, and I just want to plead with you. I just want to talk to you. God loves you. God sent his Son Jesus. Don't base your view on God on other things. Let the spirit convince you this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and he sent his one and only Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That's what love is, and you have been loved by God, you could not be more loved by God, and you can know that God loves you all of the time, no matter how you feel. God loves you no matter what other people are doing to you. God loves you. Has something bad happened in your life that has nothing to do with the truth that God loves you because he sent Jesus. So let me pray for you right now. Father in heaven, please, by your Spirit, let us come to know and believe the love you have for us by sending your Son Jesus to be the Savior of the world. Father, I pray that no one here today will walk away angry about that relationship, that circumstance. I pray that we will know you through your love of Jesus. Father, oh, how you've loved us, every single one of us, that you gave your one and only Son. What more could you give than sending Jesus for us on Christmas. Let your love be what is steadfast in all of our lives. Let your love be our constant as we go through good times and bad times, as we love people, and then we lose them as we live, and then as we see death come. No matter what is happening, let your love be what we know as the sure compass for our soul. Oh, how you've loved us, Father, we worship you now for loving us in Jesus, and we pray this in his name. Amen.