LOVE DEPOSITED IN OUR HEARTS

i John 3 (Read)

Bestowed depicts God depositing His Love within us.

• Ro. 5:5 - …the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

• Ro. 5:8 – God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us – v. 10 so we could be reconciled to God though the death of His Son,…so we are then saved by His life.

This Deposit of Love brings us into:

1. Sonship – v. 1-3

• Progressively matured by demonstration of how we live – we become more like Jesus.

• Separates us from the world system by having different internal motivations for living.

• Places a HOPE in our hearts that Jesus will be revealed in us, through us, and we will come to know Him and who He has created us to be.

• Purification process begins with our submission and desire to be like Him.

o Make us morally clean just as Jesus is/was/continues to be.

o He will never lead you to violate the laws of His Father, our Father God.

o He has cleansed us, removing our sins/guilt, therefore we desire to maintain His work of righteousness within us through doing what pleases and honors Him.

2. Character of God: Righteous – v. 4-9

• Righteousness destroys the works of unrighteousness (i.e., the works of the devil)

• Just as there is no sin in our Heavenly Father, His Son, Jesus has removed sin from our lives.

o Ro. 5:1 -2– Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have access into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the Glory of God.

o We step into peace with God, full access to Him and His grace, and joyful hearts.

• Abiding in Christ, in Father God, does not sin!

o This means we lose our propensity to willingly violate God’s laws.

o We find ourselves imitating Jesus through:

• Practicing Righteousness just as Jesus did.

o Let no one deceive you, He who practices righteousness IS Righteous! – v. 7

o God’s seed (i.e., in today’s vocabulary: His DNA) is in you!

o Since God is love, loving us even when we were far away from Him, and He has deposited His love inside of us, then we are changed from the inside out.

o Righteousness can only be done in love.

o Love destroys the works of the devil!

3. Righteousness vs Unrighteousness – v. 10-15

• Contrast of Household of God and of the Devil

o God’s Children do not sin Devil’s Children willfully sin.

o Practices righteousness Practice unrighteousness

o (Righteousness is the character of equity or fairness in all matters of life and relationships)

o Loves others Loves with partiality/ also hates

o Desires that others thrive Selfish in motivation

o Promotes life Promotes death (murderer) – of character or Worse

4. Love manifested through our practice of Righteousness – v. 16- 23

• We grow in His love deposited in as we come to know Him more:

o He laid down His life for us; so we are willing to lay down our lives for others.

• Moved by compassion to:

o Meet the needs of others with our material resources.

o Mt. 25:1-11 – woman with alabaster box poured out on Jesus; disciples were indignant and said, “To what purpose is this waste? This ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor….Jesus’ response: the poor you will always have with you but Me you have not always. She poured this ointment on my body for my burial.” – v. 8-9, 11

o Our perspective changes – we know when to give and why; and when not to give.

• Un condemned hearts – v. 19-21

o We are of the truth!

o We are assured – convinced, persuaded, confident – by His truth towards Him and before Him.

o We know that God is greater than our hearts – greater in Truth; greater in knowledge; greater in all ways!

• We receive from Him whatever we ask because we keep His commandments – v. 22

o His command: that we should believe on the name of Jesus.

o His command: that we should love one another as He has loved us!

• We live in His love

o We show our love to God by obeying His commandments.

o This may take overcoming our natural dispositions to show love to others and to choose to do what is right before Him.

o We are confident that God lives within us because He has deposited His love in our hearts by His Spirit (as it states in Romans 5.)

o We know His Spirit is with us, every day.

 We do not grieve the HS who seals us unto the day of redemption, by speaking words that are corrupt, but words that edify and build others up by ministering grace to them (Eph. 4:29-30)

Find someone today that you can encourage as a son or daughter of our Father God, by practicing righteousness and showing His love to them.