Love That Gives | Episode 17

Thank you for listening to this week's episode!  Today we explore love as God defines it—self-giving, obedient, and aimed at people—and ask whether our daily lives show that we live loving that way. Johnny calls listeners to receive Christ’s love and then spend themselves on neighbors, marriages, and communities.

• Love as action and sacrifice from John 3:16
• Command to love one another like Jesus loves
• Obedience as evidence of love for God
• Peter’s call to feed Jesus’ sheep
• The greatest commandments applied to daily life
• Who counts as a neighbor and why it matters
• Marriage as a picture of Christ and the church
• Invitation to receive Jesus and return to God
• Prayer for courage and next steps

Check out Christian Grant's new album HERE!

christiangrantmusic.com/music

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Focus On Love

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey, Johnny Underwood here with the Undivided Podcast. Thank you for tuning in today, and I really hope you're blessed by this episode. Well, good afternoon, Undivided Podcast listeners. Johnny Underwood here with my friend and media director Christian Grant on the other side of the camera and microphone here. Super excited to engage you today on the 17th episode of this fun podcast that we have so much fun doing together.

Love Defined Through John 3:16

SPEAKER_00 0:33

And we have a really great topic that we're going to discuss today, and that that topic is love. It is a special topic to me, not just because we just had Valentine's Day and we got to experience the celebrate celebration of romance and relationship and marriage, or maybe you did that with your boyfriend and girlfriend. But today we're going to talk about love as in what is love, who's the author of love. My first verse, we're going to have several verses today, but my first verse that we're going to talk about is out of John 3.16. And it's a worldwide favorite. It is, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting or eternal life. So there's some couple of key things here I want to point out in that verse. And the first one is that in this word love that we see, it's love is an action. It's a we see a God that gives. For God so love, so loved that he gave, that he gives of himself. So to love, what I take from that is to love is to give. It's to sacrifice. He didn't just give like, hey, here's something out of my pocket. He came and he gave of himself, right? The word says, the scriptures say that God came to earth in the form of a man and he gave himself for his creation, to redeem his creation, humanity back into himself. So we what we see there is that love gives, love sacrifices. It it pours oneself out for the betterment or the good of another.

Commanded To Love One Another

SPEAKER_00 2:19

So another scripture that we see is also in the book of John, it's John 13, 34 through 35, and it says, it's Jesus again saying, A new commandment I give you, that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are called to love one another. So again, we're called, we're commanded. He says, This is my command I give to you, right? He didn't say I give it to you to consider, it's a command. Do this if you're going to represent me, if you're going to experience the love that I have for you, on the other side of that experiential love that I've given to you, I command that you give that same love to others. So we're called to give, to sacrifice, to spend ourselves for others.

Love Proven By Obedience

SPEAKER_00 3:06

So a third scripture that we have here is in John 14, 15, and it says, If you love me, keep my commandments. So it's interesting to me there that the thing that just screams off that page to me there in the word is if. Right? I can say with my mouth that I love, that I love God. But he's saying, if you love me, if you do love me, you'll keep my commandments. Right? Wow. Right. The act the thought the idea that there is an action that I'm called to, commanded to, to that proves my love for him. It's the evidence of my affection for my God, is that I will love, I will sacrifice, I will spin myself for what I'll say, for what God loves. Right? God didn't come and redeem the rocks and the trees. All those are going to be set in order one day. All of nature is going to be set in order. But what he came to redeem was humanity. And for me to love God and to prove that love that I have for him is to then love or sacrifice, serve humanity. And what am I going, what am I called to sacrifice and serve them? To serve them Christ, to live among humanity as Jesus did, sacrificially, right?

“Feed My Sheep”: Peter’s Charge

SPEAKER_00 4:23

So there's also another script scripture here, and it's one of my favorite stories of Peter. So, you know, in the in the uh in the book of John, we have in I believe it's chapter 19, but we see this in verse 21, the scripture, where Jesus says, Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep. Right? And Jesus is asking Peter this question, Peter, do you love me? He asked him that actually three times. Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? And the answer to his third time is is Peter, if you love me, feed my sheep. It's spend yourself on them. Make this your priority. It's not go do this, go do that. It's spend yourself feeding my sheep. Who are Jesus' sheep? We are humanity, right? We are, we're he literally calls us sheep. We're his children, right? We're the we're the sheep that he came as the good shepherd came to herd to pursue when we run off or we get lost. He comes after us and brings us back to the herd, right? He carries us back, he disciplines us, but he brings us home and and he tends to us. And he says to Peter, feed my sheep. If you love me, feed my sheep.

The Greatest Commandments Explained

SPEAKER_00 5:42

So, and then we also have in Matthew 22, verses 37 through 39. And this is a wonderful command. It says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul, and your mind. And he says, This is the greatest commandment. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. So to love, to love God, to love the Lord your God, is to do that with all your heart, your mind, and your soul. So all aspects of me, right? My heart, what's in my heart? Do I have a heart for the Lord? Do I have a heart to love what he loves? Then I spend that on him. I gotta, I can't say I'm keeping my heart for something else, but I'll give you my mind or my soul. No, he wants all of me. He wants my affections, my actions, and my mind. He wants what I'm at to be what I meditate on. He doesn't want me to have affections or intentions for any other false God, but only him, the one true God. He says that if you love me, you're gonna do that. And the second command, because that was a command, not a request, it was a command. The second command is like it love your neighbor as you love yourself. And this one oftentimes has hit me differently because I think, wow, how do I love myself? That's a great question that I've had to set with. How do I love me? Will I feed me? Uh I clothe me, I make sure that I have clothes. I'm very intentional about what my needs are, right? I I get rest, uh, I work to to uh to be able to to meet my needs, right? To to care for myself. Uh to I'm just mindful of me, right? In the sense of what are what are the daily things that I need to have? A normal, healthy uh life. And he says, if I'm to love him the way that he's called me to love him, I will do that. I will be mindful of love others as I love myself, right? I don't harm me, I care for me. I'm attuned to me, and I reasonably speaking, give to myself what it is that I need. Right? Sometimes that is attunement. I give myself attunement back to God. I give myself devotion in times of in the word with him. I give my give to myself to worship him, right? To sing songs of adoration and praise and gratitude to him. But those are things that I need, they're good for me, right? They minister to me, and I spend myself on that. So if I'm gonna do that, I also need to be willing to do that to

Who Is My Neighbor?

SPEAKER_00 8:21

my neighbor. Love your neighbor as yourself, right? And then the question comes up, and I've had this question, you know, several times in my life or been in environments where the question is to ask, who is my neighbor? Is it just the guy in the house next door to me or on the property down the street from me? No, it's everyone. My neighbor's the cashier at Walmart, if they still have cashiers in your Walmart, right? It's the person at the gas station, it's the brother and sister uh in Christ there in my church or somewhere else in my community, it's the person at the donut store, it's this person serving me at the restaurant, it's everywhere I find humanity. Can I love them? Can I be kind to them? Can I exemplify in word and deed the love of God? Right? And for that to happen, again, I've got to come back and say, is do I have that love in me? And the only way I can have that love in me is to embrace Jesus as the Christ, my Redeemer, right?

Marriage As A Picture Of Christ’s Love

SPEAKER_00 9:18

That because He's loved me, He has loved me, we see that in John 3.16, I have in me then the ability and the resource to love others. So that's what we're called to. That's what I'm invited to. And I want to, I've got one more scripture. It's Ephesians 5, 25 and 26. And as a husband, this is one of my favorite scriptures. It says, Husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Again, we see this picture of love giving, love sacrificing. And to think, you know, that this picture that we have in marriage of a husband and wife, Jesus is also this picture, Jesus said, Paul says, is this picture of Christ and his church. So an onlooking world gets to look at my marriage and sees how does Jesus love his bride, how does Jesus love the church? They're able or should be able to look into my marriage, look at the way that I'm serving my wife, sacrificing for my wife, sacrificing here, spending me for what's best for her, right? That they look at that and go, wow, that's beautiful, that's incredible, that's holy. Many times they'll say that's unusual because that's not the natural man doesn't do that. The natural man says, I quote, air quotes, love me and I sacrifice you for the betterment or the pleasure of me. Right? Really, it's I lust me and I sacrifice you for the pleasure of me, where God love says, I love you, I sacrifice me for you. So godly marriages should be exemplifying this. Godly men should be exemplifying this. And again, it all comes from this outpouring of God's love for us. That we get to do this, right? He who finds a wife has found a good thing and has found favor with God, right? I have found someone that God has invited me and then commanded me to spin myself on to love. Wow, that's holy, man. That's wonderful. That's incredible. And in that, we get a wonderful, godly woman who God has called to be a helpmate, that I get to do life right with. I get to build a family with, I get to spend, you know, the rest of my life with under the sun. And the joy of that is getting to adventure with her as we adventure together with God in this growth of our family, to spend ourselves together in uh sacrifice to grow our family and then to exemplify this love in community so that an onlooking world gets to see it and goes, Well, I want to know God based on what I've seen in your marriage, based on what I've seen in your living this out in community, the way that you're loving your neighbors, the way that you are engaging your God.

Invitation To Know Jesus

SPEAKER_00 12:15

So, and one, just to acknowledge that that's that's not natural to us in we don't have that love in and of ourselves. We have lust, we have covetedness, we have a lot of other things that are just carnal, but this love that we're talking about here is this love that is a byproduct of doing relationship with God, God's way, which is through Jesus Christ. So my invitation to you today is is that love in you? Can you sit in that space and do some reflective work and say, Is that love there? Do have I received the love of God? Have I received it the way He commands me to receive it? And that is through Jesus Christ. There's only one way to God, and that is through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, There is no other way to the Father except through me. So that we are we loving, are we engaging God from that place? Do I love him? And if I love him, I'm going to live differently. I'm going to, it's going to come out of me differently, right? It's going to, it's going to appear different. And then, too, if you don't have that love, if you don't know that love, I just want to invite you to engage the living God through Jesus Christ that does love you. He wants a personal relationship with you. He wants to set with you. Christ came to redeem you back into the Father. He wants to fellowship with you. He wants to hear your confession of sins. He wants to the blood that's already been spent for you to be spent on you and for you to receive it. He wants to do that with you. He wants to have that relationship with you. God came to earth and spent himself for you. And he wants to do that relationship with you. And so I just invite you today, if that is you, that again, you can visit our website, undivided.org, and just put fill out a little form there and just say, hey, this is who I am. I would love for someone to reach out to me today. Uh, put your phone number in there, somebody will call you, pray with you. Uh, we will help you find a local church to engage there in your community, wherever you're listening to this. And if you go, hey, I have had that before, but I'm I've been, I've run off. I'm like a prodigal child. I have run off from God. And I would just offer that again, you can go to our website and fill out that same form, and we will we will pray with you about that. Our aim is to bring the father and his children together and say, Dad, I want to come home. I want to do life with you. I want to do life with you again. And then we will help you find a local church that will walk with you as you are being discipled and desire to be discipled into maturing, uh, ever-maturing fellowship with God. So again, I would I want to say beg, but I ask that you would do that, right? We are eternity is for real. There's a real death, there's a real heaven and a real hell, and we're all going to spend that somewhere. And my invitation to you today is that you would embrace this God who loves you so much, who has spent himself for you, that you would come to know him today. And again, there's a way to do that, and that is to reach out. It's to find a local church and say, I need Jesus. I need this Jesus that I've heard about on this podcast. Can you help me? Can you receive my confession of repentance? Can I embrace the cross? Can I embrace the Christ that spent himself on the cross for me? Would you help me do that? And we here at the Undivided, we will absolutely help you do that. So, with that, I want to pray. I'm going to finish this out here, and then I want to uh give y'all some good news about some uh a new uh CD

Closing Prayer And Worship Album News

SPEAKER_00 16:17

that's out. But we'll cover that in a minute. Let's go ahead and pray. Well, Heavenly Father, we just come before you, Father Christian and I do here in this room. And we just say, Father, would you, as the listeners are listening to this podcast, Father, that you would you would stir in their hearts to call out to you, God. That Father, that they would take this moment, Father, while you're knocking on the door of their heart in this moment, that they would reach out. They would reach out on our website, they would reach out to a local church, they would reach out to a friend, a family member that's maybe been praying for them, and just say, I don't know what's going on, except that there's a stirring in my heart. There's a stirring in my spirit, I need Jesus, or I need to reconnect with Jesus. So God asked that you would move by your spirit upon the spirit of each man or woman that is within listening ear, uh listening here today to call out to you, to reach out, to take that next step and say, Hey, you're speaking to me. I need Jesus. So Lord, I thank you for doing that, and I thank you for giving them the courage to reach out, to speak out, to call a friend, call a brother or sister, call a family member, reach out to a pastor or a local church or our website and say, Hey, you were talking to me today. So Lord, I thank you for doing that, Father. We just we trust you with your people, Father, with this message here on this podcast today that Father, that your love would permeate these airwaves and these screens wherever people are dialing into this, and that they would experience you today, Father. We just pray all this in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. All right, to this other really great news that we have. So my friend Christian Grant has got a new CD out. We mentioned this several weeks back that it was coming out, and it is here. The name of the CD is The Lamp to My Feet, and you can you can get your hands on it, you can you can get it in your ears on uh on Spotify, on uh Apple Music, or you can go to Christian Grantmusic.com and you can purchase that that CD right there, that his soundtrack there. I'm telling you, if you'll dial into it, it will bless you. He is a a man of God with a heart of worship. You will be able to take part in this, listen to it, and I promise you, if you will listen to it, it will move your heart into worship and into the presence of God. And his heart, our heart is is that you will connect with a God who loves you. And that is the heart of this worship CD. I believe you'll dial into it, get a hold of it. It's going to bless you. So God bless you. Thank you for dialing into the 17th episode of the Undivided Podcast, and we'll see you next week.