GOD, DO I REFLECT YOUR CHARACTER?

PASTOR CHARLIE ARELLANO

• Last week’s challenge –  Really look within at how we love. Love, not like the unbelieving world demonstrates love but instead looking at God’s perfect and unselfish of love.
• We serve a loving, patient and forbearing God who tells us that it is never too late in this life to come to Him earnestly and realize that we may have been playing the part but not living out the true nature of God.
• Our Mission Statement: “Inviting the lost and broken into our Christ-centered journey from empty religion to generational life change.”
• It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, or how far gone you feel your life might be. We are all an unfinished work on this side of eternity (Philippians 1:6).

ABIDING IN CHRIST

• “Abiding in Christ” is a biblical phrase that means to live in or remain in a relationship with Christ. Abiding in Christ is:

– A position of all true believers
– A picture of an intimate relationship
– A connection to God
– A resting and remaining in Christ
– A belonging to God

• 1 John 4:13-21 13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So, we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their fellow believers.

• 1 John 4:13–16 lists three tangible proofs that a person has truly come to faith in Christ. In each case, there is a reference to the believers abiding in God and God abiding in the believer.
• “Christ love” refers to the , unconditional love exemplified by Jesus Christ, often seen as a selfless act of giving oneself for the benefit of others, while “philanthropist love” describes a broader love for humanity, expressed through charitable acts and actively working to improve the lives of others, which can be motivated by compassion or a desire to make a positive impact, but not necessarily driven by a faith-based belief in divine sacrifice like Christ’s love.
• This “Abiding in God” and “Perfected Love” only comes when we surrender our ways and take on His ways. It is called conversion into His likeness (2 Corinthians 5:17).
• In our scripture for today we are exposed to three Evidences of Conversion. The old has left us and the new has invaded our lives.

1. Having Received the Spirit (1 John 4:13)
2. Confessing that Jesus Is the Son of God (1 John 4:14–15)
3. Abiding in Love (1 John 4:16)

• 1 John 3:24 Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit, he gave us lives in us.

• We will only come to know and realize this full expression of love when we surrender to Jesus Christ and then take on His and attributes.
• 1 John 4:17 – When we surrender to the Master, then we can live out this verse.

“Joy is love exalted; peace is love in repose; long-suffering is love enduring; gentleness is love in society; goodness is love in action; faith is love on the battlefield; meekness is love in school; and temperance is love in training.” D.L. Moody

• 1 John 4:18-19 These verses are often confusing to some because they address both love and fear (For example: Deuteronomy 6:1–5).
• God’s complete love provides us a beautiful assurance that we face no condemnation and should have no fear of our future. We are His, and He is ours!
• There is an assurance that regardless of the shortcomings, our love is not based on performance but instead on true, unmitigated love because of how Christ loves us. NO FEAR! “Love begins with God, not with us.
• 1 John 4:20-21 This love for God must result in love for other believers. To claim to love God while refusing to love his people makes one a “liar.”
• Romans 12:9-10 9 Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. 10 Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.

God is love. That’s His nature. That’s the essence of His person. That’s one of His attributes, His characteristics. When you are in God and God is in you, then the same life in God pours out through you. You’re like a string on His instrument, a sound from His trumpet, a photograph from His camera. His love flows out through you and that love of God is revealed.

—Charles R. Swindoll

• Get in the habit of asking ourselves daily:
  – God, Do I Reflect Your Character?
  – Where are we in the real expression of God’s love in our lives?
• Have you been harboring unforgiveness towards someone in your life? Is it time to put all the ill feelings and vengeance down and instead time to pick up the phone or pay a visit to someone you have been withholding your love from? Don’t put it off any longer and fool yourself into saying I will do it tomorrow, for tomorrow might never come! Reference: Romans 5:8
• Church family, I would say that it is time.
  • Time to Love the way Christ designed us to love.
  • Time to Put away past Hurt and Our pride, move forward!
  • Time to Look Like Christ.
• The world is Looking at Us! The world is Looking to Us!
• As the church- God’s people – “Our problem is not that we are being ignored, it is that we are being observed!”
• God, Do I Reflect Your Character to a watching and waiting world?

“God, I know that I am a sinner. I know that I deserve the consequences of my sin. However, I am trusting in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that His death and resurrection provided for my forgiveness. I trust in Jesus and Jesus alone as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord, for saving me and forgiving me! Amen!”

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