Have you ever had an experience that shaped the way you viewed the world?  I met Eric at a coffee shop recently.  Eric told me about his recent service in Iraq and how it changed his life.  Before Iraq, Eric was a workaholic and did not make time for relationships.  But a near-death experience changed him forever.  He views life differently now, seeing it as a time to enjoy God’s creation, relationships, and work in a career-field helping people.

Experiences such as Eric’s are helpful to give us a proper perspective on life, but they always need to be guided by God and His Word.  The Bible is our only sure guide to truth.  By itself, experience is not a trustworthy guide.  When we trust experience over God’s Word we end up making decisions based off of a limited perspective and are bound to end up making foolish decisions.

I know another man who had an abusive father.  His dad constantly berated him and disciplined him severely.  His experience has shaped him.  He believes that if God existed, He would not let this kind of abuse happen.  So he has rejected God and now lives as an atheist.  Instead of letting God’s Word show the evil of the abuse he experienced, he has let experience dictate his life.  Instead of having the peace that comes from knowing Christ, he lets those experiences control him.  He is suspicious and has difficulty with authority.

Life changing experiences don’t always happen through tragic events.  We often make decisions based on the ordinary experiences of life.  Many people choose their church only on the basis of how they feel in the service.  If there is great excitement (maybe even some miraculous signs), if the music fits their style, or if they really like the preacher, then they will go to that church.  Good doctrine and faithfulness to the Bible is not an important consideration.

Not only individuals, but also Churches sometimes rely on experience instead of biblical principle.  In structuring their ministry, experience-focused churches may focus on what works instead of what is true.  Doctrine and the Bible are downplayed with the belief that they do not draw in crowds.  Pastors substitute them for moralistic messages and empty promises. 

Other churches may downplay doctrine on the basis that “modern people don’t believe this anymore”.  One thing the church in America will have to deal with in the coming years is the accommodation of relativistic thinking.  Classical liberalism did this early in the 20^th century and “emergent churches” are following their footsteps in the 21^st century.

In all this, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that experience is insignificant.  You may have had a difficulty that changed your life.  Experience is important to us as a church.  We want to speak to the experiences and beliefs of our culture.  But the Bible shows us that experience cannot stand on its own.  We need solid doctrine to explain our experiences.

On the other hand, as much as an error it is to ignore doctrine, it is also an error is to totally disregard experience. 

When we disregard experience, what matters most is whether you have your doctrine right.  It matters if you obey all the commands of God or do the right rituals.  But something is lacking in this view.  There is no experience of a relationship with God.  He seems distant to this person.

But doctrine must affect our daily lives.  God explains who He is and what He has done in order to warm our hearts to godliness.  True doctrine changes the way that we respond and interpret our experiences. 

So, the gospel affirms both experience and doctrine.  First, we must have an experience in order to even enter the Christian life.  We must know God personally.  We must enter into a relationship with Him.  The Holy Spirit must come into our lives.  The Holy Spirit must be present, awakening us to the absolute guilt of us sin and showing us who Jesus Christ is.  This is an experience!

As we read the Bible we will find that our experiences are going to affect we understand and apply it to our lives.  If a loved one or a child dies, if we are abused, if we observe a violent crime, or if we have a relatively pain-free life – these are all opportunities to apply God’s Word to our own exact situation.  We need to become the experts on our own difficulties.  We need to understand what the Bible says about them.

Recently I read Psalm 88 (go ahead, read it) and I thought how my own experiences affected the way I understood the Psalm.  Sure, I know suffering and difficulty.  But the Psalmist talks about being near the point of death and sending out an urgent SOS to God.  I have never had my life threatened as this man did, so I missed some aspects of the passage when I first read it.  Some nuances of the passage were pointed out to me in my Sunday School class, by members who are more acquainted with suffering than I am.

No two people have the same difficulties so we each have the opportunity to develop a unique view of God and His work in our lives.  This is exactly what the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:3-7.  He knew that his imprisonment, torture, and poverty was given him so he could help others who were also suffering.

We must allow biblical doctrine to explain our experiences.  We must bring our experiences and opinions and prejudices to the cross and ask God to help us understand them.  When the events of life threaten to overcome us, we should read His Word prayerfully – “God, use your word to help me understand my experience.  Help me past my prejudices that I might understand Your will more clearly.”  And then when we misunderstand our experiences, we must change our understanding to conform it to scripture.

"In the 'seeker' view, evangelism and outreach are spiritual technologies that must be made more efficient," Horton said. "Having a survey tell you that you need to add 'discipleship' to the list of technologies that we're trying to make more efficient doesn't solve the fundamental problem."

Is the use of surveys as a replacement for true spiritual discernment among evangelical church leaders at the core of the problem facing the modern church? Horton criticizes the idea of church, worship, or the gospel as "product," and lost sinners as "consumers." People, he said, "are not consumers who need to be satisfied. They're sinners who need to be justified. Preaching is not a technology. It is a means of grace." - Quote from World Magazine

Title:  Love by Love
Text:  1 John 4:7-12

The love of God has no earthly comparison.  In God, we see the standard of love, a standard different than the one given to us by the world.  In fact, without God, love is impossible.  Love is inspired by knowing who God is and what God has done.  Like John’s disciples, we need to know the Source of love if we ever will be truly able to love one another.

Since God has commanded us to love, we must live in His love.

1.     We grow in love by walking with a loving God

2.     We grow in love by receiving God’s loving gift.

In love, God made the highest sacrifice (v. 9)
In love, God sought our greatest good (v. 9)
God loved His enemies (v. 10)
God initiated

3.     We grow in love by responding to God’s love.

Love always requires sacrifice
Love always seeks another person’s eternal good
We must love those who hurt us most
Love initiates