Releasing God’s Love

“Once you are filled with God’s love, that love is meant to flow out of you.” – Pastor Billy Johnson

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THREE THINGS WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT LOVE.

GOD IS THE SOURCE OF LOVE

1 John 4:7–8 (ESV)

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 

⁸Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 

• God is the point of origin

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JESUS WAS SENT AS THE SYMBOL OF GOD’S LOVE

1 John 4:9-10 (ESV)

⁹In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 

¹⁰In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

“Jesus was sent as God’s love manifested.” – Pastor Billy Johnson

Before Jesus was sent, we were all dead people.

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WE ARE THE SUPPLIERS OF GOD’S LOVE

1 John 4:11–12 (ESV)

¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

“How many people are…trying to find the supply house for God’s love?” – Pastor Billy Johnson

The supply house is YOU!

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WHEN WE LOVE:

We demonstrate that God ABIDES IN US – v. 12

¹²No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

We demonstrate that we KNOW and BELIEVE THE LOVE God has for us – v. 16

¹⁶So 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. 

The combination of KNOWING and BELIEVING God loves us brings us to PERFECTED LOVE – v. 17

“Have you gotten to a place where you know and believe God’s love?” – Pastor Billy Johnson

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PERFECTED LOVE IS A FEARLESS LOVE – v. 18 

1 John 4:18–21 (ESV)

¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 

¹⁹We love because he first loved us. 

²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 

²¹And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

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HOW TO RELEASE LOVE?

 

UNCONDITIONALLY

Luke 6:35 (ESV)

³⁵But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Love someone when it’s not deserved.

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INTENTIONALLY

Galatians 6:10 (ESV)

¹⁰So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Look for a way to show love when a situation presents itself.

 

 APPROPRIATELY

Illustration – Gary Chapman’s, Five Love Languages

GIFTS. TIME. WORDS OF AFFIRMATION.  SERVICE.  PHYSICAL TOUCH.

2 Timothy 1:16–18 (ESV)

¹⁶May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, 

¹⁷but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— 

¹⁸may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.

Some people may receive love different from how you receive love.

“If the only way you give love is the way you receive it, you may miss the recipient’s needs.” – Pastor Billy Johnson

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CONCLUSION

God never designed his love to stop with us. He designed it to flow through us.

When our EYES are open, we RECOGNIZE IT.

When our HEARTS are open, we RECEIVE IT.

When our HANDS are open, we RELEASE IT.

AND WHEN LOVE FLOWS FREELY… THE WORLD SEES JESUS IN US.”