Click here for the sermon discussion questions or see them listed below. We highly encourage you to listen, think, and talk about the sermon. These are questions you can reflect on by yourself, with your family, or with your small group. 

Livestream services will continue to be available on every Saturday night at 6:00 pm. On the 2nd Sunday of every month, livestream services will also be available at 8:45 am and 10:30 am. 

Discussion Questions

1. God is not only a God of love, nor is He a God who simply does loving things.  Rather God is love (1 Jn 4:16). One could say that true love is defined by and through everything that God is.  Why is it so important for people to understand that true love is defined by the eternal qualities and essence of God, rather than by our own definition?  How does it comfort you to know that EVERYTHING God does is initiated, impelled and influenced by love?
   
   
2. To abide means to stay, remain, or to live, so, to abide in Christ is to live in Him or remain in Him.  In John 15:10 Jesus teaches “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.” How would you answer a person who falsely claims that Jesus loves you only if you obey Him?  Do you ever believe this?  That God only loves you when you are doing well, and that His anger burns against you when you mess up and sin?  How does the Gospel dispel these false notions?  Why do you obey God?  How does obedience and love go hand in hand?  
   
   [John 15:9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.]
   
   
3. 1 John 4:17-18 speaks of a “love perfected with us”, a “perfect love”, and us being “perfected in love”.  How does a proper understanding of God’s love: 1) give us confidence in the day of judgment, and 2) cast out all fear?  
   
   How is love perfected with us? (see 1 John 4:16 & 17) How does obedience to Christ lead to love being perfected in us? (see John 15:10 and from our sermon we learned that obedience to the Lord is how we experience relationship with God.)
4. In 1 John 4:19 it says, “We love because he first loved us.”  How have you found this to be true in your life? 
   
   
5. From 1 John 4:16b-21 and from everything we learned in this week’s sermon, why is it impossible for someone to say they love God, but hate his brother?  Have you ever “hated” a brother or sister in Christ? (Note: hatred is synonymous with resentment, hostility, ill will, dislike, and animosity) If so, what does this say about your love for God?  How does a proper view of God’s love help the Christian overcome their “hatred”?