This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to Daily Drive Time Devotions. I look together through 1
John chapter 4, day 3, verses 11 to 16 today, whether you're listening in your
car or sitting at your computer or office or school or wherever you are. I hope
that what this chapter has to say about love is a personal encouragement to you
like it's a personal encouragement to me.

Yesterday we began to look at this life of love, how we unlock this life of love
in 1 John chapter 4. I unlock it first of all by recognizing that love comes
from God. Secondly, I unlock it by realizing that God showed His love.

And then the third thing that John talks about, the third thing that I do, is I
recognize that I love because He first loved me. He loved and I am responding to
that love. And we began to talk about that yesterday, but here's how John
follows up on that in verses 11 and 12.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one
has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is
made complete in us. Now let's just walk through these phrases.

Since He loved us, we ought to love one another. I begin with God's love for me
and out of God's love for me, I respond in loving other people in my life. So
that tells me anytime I'm having a tough time with loving other people in my
life, which I do and I would suppose that you do also sometimes, what I go back
to is not me.

I don't go back to me and say, "How come I can't love them? What's wrong with
me? " I don't go back to me and say, "I shouldn't love them because there's so
much wrong with them.

" What I go back to is God and I say, "God, you have loved me so deeply. Give me
the strength to love these other people in my life. " Love for others in your
life is a response to God's love for you in your life.

And you never get over that. You never get past that. You never get to a day
where you've got enough of God's love in your life that it'll just last the rest
of your life.

No, you need to remind yourself every day, sometimes many times during the day,
of God's love for you. And then out of that, you respond in loving others. And
so he says here, "Although no one has ever seen God, if we love one another,
God's love lives in us and His love is made complete in us.

" How does that happen? How is His love made complete in us? By Him living in
us.

By God living in our lives. You see, this idea of God loving me, and so because
of that, I love other people, is not just a matter of a teaching that I look
back to. It's not even just a matter of an example that I look back to of God's
love in Jesus Christ.

It's a matter of a living God who wants to be a part of my everyday life and
will be a part of my everyday life through my relationship with Christ. He lives
in us and so obviously His love lives through us. You see, love comes from God,
number one.

God showed His love, number two. We love because He first loved us, number
three. But number four, do not miss this one.

We live in Him, 13 to 16. We know that we live in Him and He is in us because
He's given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has
sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and He in
God. And so we know and rely on the love that God has for us. God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in Him. These are crucial verses for
a life of love. How does this work?

Well, He says, first of all, we know that He lives in us because of His Spirit.
How do I know that God lives in my life? Because He sent His Spirit into my life
to assure me within me that He's living there.

So I say, God, will you personally give me that assurance? The Father sent the
Son to be the Savior of the world. He sent the Son to rescue the world, to
rescue me and to rescue you.

What does it mean for Him to be Savior? Well, it means that you're forgiven of
your sins. It means that you're going to spend eternity with God in heaven, but
it means even more than that.

It means that God is changing your life from the inside out right now. It means
that you're already beginning to live a life of love. When Jesus is my Savior, I
begin to live out the life that He has for me.

And so He says in verse 15 that if I acknowledge Jesus as my Savior, that God
lives in me. Now, the word acknowledge here, it's not just head knowledge. It's
not just information in an encyclopedia.

I read about Jesus once, and I think that that history may be true. This is
personal trust in who Jesus really is. God, my Creator, God, my Father, God in
human flesh, I acknowledge Jesus for who He really is.

And if I do that, one of the promises that God gives me is that God's Spirit
comes to live in me. And when God's Spirit comes to live in me, then I can do
what verse 16 says. I rely on God and the love that God has for us, because God
is love.

Now, God is love, and whoever lives in love lives in God. What does this mean?
Does this mean that everyone who has feelings of love at any time in their life
has God living in them just because they felt this little sentiment?

No, no, no. To live in love is not just to feel love. It's to live a life that's
defined by your actions of love.

And you can't do that. I can't do that apart from God living in you. Me trying
to be unselfish through my selfish efforts, it's never going to work, because to
be unselfish depending on myself, can you see how that's a recipe for disaster?

The only way to be unselfish is to find a power outside of myself. And that
power is found in God. And God is love.

God is love. I am selfish. God is love.

You are selfish. But you put God in you, a God who is love, and you can live a
life of love, because God is love. Now, that's the second time that John has
said this in this short passage.

God is love. He wants us to focus on the power of this simple sentence. It means
that all genuine love comes from God.

But it also means that if I want to love, I need God in my life. Because God is
love. He is the source of love.

And through God's Spirit in my life, I have the power to love. What John is
saying here is this. Don't miss the obvious.

You want to love? You aren't love. God is.

Your friends aren't love. God is. Some book that you're reading about love isn't
love.

Some psychologist who talks about love isn't love. God is love. So to love, you
need God in your life.

And because God is love, if he's in your life, you will love. You will love. If
I'm holding an empty glass, it cannot quench my thirst.

No matter how much I want it to, no matter how much I hope it will, it can't
quench my thirst. But a glass that's full of water does quench my thirst.
Because it has water in it.

If I want to be a person of love, if my life is emptied of God's influence in my
life, I can't love unselfishly. But John says, when God is in your life, you
will love unselfishly. There's two personal points behind this.

Number one, stop trying to love on your own power. It just wears you out. I've
gotten worn out.

You probably have too, trying to love on my own power in my life. You cannot
love on your own power. You need God's power in your life.

The second personal point is stop telling yourself you know God if you have no
love in your life. If there's no love for other people in your life--well,
first, you probably wouldn't even be listening to this if you didn't care about
loving other people. But if you see someone who has no love for other people in
their life and yet says, "I love God," well, John was saying this about the
false teachers they were listening to.

They had a lot of really great words. They said they loved God. They said God
was important in their life.

But their every action was self-centered. They didn't love other people. And
John said, "You can recognize by that that God is not in this person's life.

God is love. " I want to spend a few minutes today talking to this God who is
love and is willing to express and release and empower his love in your life.
Lord, thank you.

Father, thank you that you showed us your love in Jesus Christ. And thank you
that you are love. It is not all you are, but you are love.

And if I'm to love, I need you in my life. To try to love without you who are
love in my life, that would be an empty pursuit. But with you in my life, I can
love because you are love.

With you in my life, there is a new power to love because you are love. So Lord,
I pray that at those points where I'm tired of loving in my life, that you would
come right now into my life through your Spirit and you give me a new strength,
not my own, a new strength that I don't have, to set my selfishness aside, to
pick up your love in my life and to live it out through my life. I need your
strength.

I can't do this on my own. Give me your strength, I pray. I ask for this in
faith.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Join us tomorrow. We're going to continue to talk about
how you unlock this life of love as we look at verses 17 to 18.