1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 11) In our final morning in the series 1 John (Love Conquers All), we witness a "drop the mic" moment from John as he encourages us to keep away from idols in his final words of the letter. There are really good things in life that we sometimes elevate into a higher position and it begins to drive our life. If we look to created things to give us hope, love, and happiness, they will eventually break our hearts. (1 John 5:20-21, Rom. 1:21,25, Rev. 2:2-5)
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"God's Will Isn't So Hard" - Tim Mannin
1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 10) Have you ever wondered if you're doing God's will? How do we discern this? We treat God as though he is a traffic cop at the intersections of life, but following His will is more like He is the sculptor shaping us in to who we are called to be. His will is that we would hear and listen to His voice. (1 John 5, Rom. 12:1-2, Matt. 22:35, 1 Thes. 5:16-18)
Read More"Love, Fear, and a Broken Picture Frame" - Tim Mannin
1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 9) Reality, Truth, and Love drive out all fear. Whatever you fear, love will drive it out. In today's culture and world, we must not be too afraid to love. (1 John 4:16-21)
Read More"But God Loved Us" - Kaleb Kinney
1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 8) This is love.. not that you first loved God, but He loved you and sent His son to die for you. God is not concerned with what you bring to the relationship, His love for you is 100% dependent on Him. If we are loved so unconditionally, we must give that same love to everyone we meet. It doesn't matter what any have done, all are deserving of His love. (1 John 4:7-16, Luke 15)
Read More"The Thing Behind The Thing" - Tim Mannin
1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 7) We have been given His Spirit and the ability to know what is of God and what is not. In the difficult situations of life, we must determine the truth and where to insert the things of God, such as; humility, love, patience, and forgiveness. (1 John 4:1-6, 2:26-27)
Read More"Matter Over Mind" - Tim Mannin
1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 6) As John discusses what it means to love, he appeals to our gut-level essence of our being. He implores us to put matter over mind, to not just think about things like forgiveness and loving your neighbor, but actually act on these things. Do we actually forgive, love, and show patience, or do we just agree with the concept? (1 John 3:11-18)
Read More"Where God Is" - Tim Mannin
1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 5) One of the central questions throughout God's story and in our world today is... where is God? The scriptures show us that there has been a progression to the answer of this question. God has been found in certain places and certain types of people, but 1 John reminds us of what we've received and reveals where God is. (1 John 2:26-27, Exodus 25:8, 28:41, 1 Samuel 16:12-13, Luke 4:18, John 14:15-17, 25-16, John 20:22)
Read MoreBetter With Jesus - Kaleb Kinney
1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 4) What does it mean when John implores us to not love the world? Looking at the example of Jesus and the rich young ruler, we see Jesus calling us to leave the little things of the world that we hold on to. The world would say that we are better off holding on to our control, security, comfort, and little pieces of the world, but we are better with Jesus. (1 John 2:15-17, Mark 10:17-27)
Read More"The Truth About You" - Tim Mannin
1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 3) As children we would claim that "sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt us." However, as adults we fully grasp that that the words spoken to us have a tremendous power. John reminds us of the power of our words and what it means to speak truth and life to others. (1 John 2)
Read More"Guard Love" - Tim Mannin
1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 2) John shows us a narrative of love and keeping the commandments of Jesus. We must pay attention to the moments when love is not easy, when it doesn't come naturally. Guarding love is about saying "I'm not going to love when it's just an easy thing, I am going to love in all situations." The gospel is advanced when we chose to love in the difficult situations. Love will conquer all. (1 John 2:1-7, John 13:34-35, 15:12)
Read More"Fiction & Reality" - Tim Mannin
1 John: Love Conquers All (Part 1) The battle between darkness and light (fiction and reality) is about the illusions we come to believe about our self and the world. 1 John begins with this tension and struggle we all face and encourages us to be people who live in reality. (1 John 1:1-10, John 1:4-5)
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