{"id":3138,"date":"2025-11-09T10:55:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-09T16:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/?p=3138"},"modified":"2025-11-09T10:58:43","modified_gmt":"2025-11-09T16:58:43","slug":"the-real-thing-real-love-1-john-47-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/?p=3138","title":{"rendered":"The Real Thing: Real Love (1 John 4:7-21)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/11925.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>1 John 4:7-21<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1 John 3:1&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>God loves you. You are loved.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If we know God&#8217;s love we will show God&#8217;s love.&nbsp;<\/strong>(1 John 4:7, 11)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Real Love SURRENDERS&nbsp;<\/strong>(1 John 4:9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Real Love SACRIFICES&nbsp;<\/strong>(1 John 3:16)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Real Love STRETCHES&nbsp;<\/strong>(Matthew 5:43-45)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Real Love SPEAKS.&nbsp;<\/strong>(1 John 4:14)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Real Love SERVES.&nbsp;<\/strong>(1 John 3:17)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Real Love STAYS&nbsp;<\/strong>(1 John 4:13)&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We can live fearlessly in Jesus\u2019 love.&nbsp;<\/strong>(1 John 4:18)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Question: Are there relationships where you&#8217;ve allowed fear to limit your love?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Challenge: What is one step you can take to move beyond fear and show them God\u2019s love?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Going Deeper Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ice Breaker Question:&nbsp;<\/strong>Have you ever been repelling? What do you think is (or would be) the scariest part of the experience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>God loves you. You are loved.<\/strong>  When are the times you are most confident in God\u2019s love for you?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;When do you struggle to really believe it?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If we know God&#8217;s love we will show God&#8217;s love.<\/strong>  1 John 4:11&nbsp;Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following statement sums up some key aspects of real love:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Real Love SURRENDERS to God\u2019s will, SACRIFICES for others\u2019 sake, STRETCHES when things are difficult, SPEAKS the truth in a loving way, SERVES when others are in need, STAYS or remains faithful despite the challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Which aspect is the easiest for to live out? Which one is the hardest?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>We can live fearlessly in Jesus\u2019 love.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are there relationships where you&#8217;ve allowed fear to limit your love<\/strong> Who are they? What happened? What fear is holding you back?&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prayer \u2013 Pray for a heart that fearlessly loves others, and for courage to take the next step in any relationship where fear has limited your love for someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What is one step you can take to move beyond fear and show them God\u2019s love?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-file\"><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-f3c269a1-5266-443e-b186-e32d3c4d510c\" href=\"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/11925.mp3\">The Real Thing: Real Love (1 John 4:7-21)<\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/11925.mp3\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-f3c269a1-5266-443e-b186-e32d3c4d510c\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1 John 4:7-21 1 John 3:1&nbsp; God loves you. You are loved. If we know God&#8217;s love we will show God&#8217;s love.&nbsp;(1 John 4:7, 11) Real Love SURRENDERS&nbsp;(1 John 4:9) Real Love SACRIFICES&nbsp;(1 John 3:16)&nbsp; Real Love STRETCHES&nbsp;(Matthew 5:43-45) Real Love SPEAKS.&nbsp;(1 John 4:14)&nbsp; Real Love SERVES.&nbsp;(1 John 3:17) Real Love STAYS&nbsp;(1 John 4:13)&nbsp; We &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/?p=3138\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Real Thing: Real Love (1 John 4:7-21)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-real-thing","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3138"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3145,"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3138\/revisions\/3145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/media.porticocommunity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}