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September 16, 2026 | In this sermon, Ben Taylor teaches middle schoolers about the importance of loving one's neighbor with God's unconditional, self-sacrificing love as revealed in 1 John 4. He explains the meaning of God's love and why love is the defining characteristic of Jesus followers. The message encourages practical love towards both believers and non-believers, rooted in the love God first showed us by sending Jesus.
Bellevue Baptist Church Middle School Ministry
Alright, alright, alright. Let's give it up for Morgan. Morgan does an awesome job of keeping us straight. Thank you, Morgan. Y'all can do a little bit better than that. Y'all love Morgan, don't you? Let her know it. Man, I cannot tell you how excited I am to be here tonight. Sam talked to me a little bit ago and he said that he's going to be on vacation and he asked me if I wouldn't mind just coming and stepping in and I said absolutely because I love middle schoolers because middle schoolers are the best. Now, with that said, we're going to engage and we're going to have fun. Last week we started this whole series called The Good Neighbor and my hope and my prayer is that throughout this entire series, you're going to have this thought in your head. Am I a good neighbor? And as you learn week after week, you're going to be willing to answer this question for yourself. Last week, Sam, he talked about this question, who is my neighbor? And he used the parable of the Good Samaritan and we learned that everyone is our neighbor. We asked ourselves, am I a good neighbor like the Samaritan or am I like the religious man who stayed away from the one who is in need? Now tonight, we're stepping into another question each week. We're going to answer a question and the question for tonight is why should I love my neighbor? Why should I love my neighbor? Now before we dive into this question, I want us to take a deeper look into the word love. Everybody say love. Now say it like you're in love. Love. All right, we're going to do a little activity. Everybody, can you make a heart like a love? Oh, girls are good at this. Yes. All right. Now, I want to show you some pictures and if you love it, I want you to do something like this. I want you to say love. All right, let's practice. Love. All right. When you look at this picture, if you just like it, I want you to just say like. All right, let's practice. We're saying love and like. All right. All right. All right. So I want to just talk about this. Do you love it or do you like it? All right, Gavin, show us this next picture. Oh, that is a cute puppy dog. All right. If you love it, let me hear you say love. If you like it, let me hear you say like. Okay. I don't see that many thumbs, but I heard them for sure. All right. Now this next one is controversial. Put that picture up on there for us. All right. Let me hear it. Hold on. Hold on. If there's people that love it, I want to hear it. If you love Twizzlers, let me hear you say love. All right. We got some of you. If you like it, let me hear you say like. And if you're like me and you hate it, you just want to break that heart wide open. Yes. I love it. Now, all right, this one is, next one is near and dear to my heart. I hope a lot of you are going to love this one because I love it. All right, let's put that next one up there. Do you love it? There we go. All right. How many of you love the Tennessee Volunteers? We got some haters up in this room. All right. If you like it, say like. All right. Thank you. All right. Now, listen. Listen. Shh. Y'all did good. I probably shouldn't have ended on Tennessee, but it happened. All right. Now, y'all just walk through these different things and you're telling me that you loved them or you liked them. And when it came to Tennessee, you hated it. I can't believe that. But here's the reality. Listen. Shh. We say the word love so much. I love that puppy dog, but I also love my mom. I'm a big coffee drinker. I love coffee. And I also love my wife. Should I love my wife more than I love coffee? Should coffee even compare to the love that I have for my wife? No. So many times, listen, many times we use words and we don't really think about what they mean. Or we throw the word around like love, and we don't really necessarily mean it the way that we mean it. Love in English can mean a whole lot of things. But tonight, when we say, why should I love my neighbor? I want us to think about what love that is supposed to be. See, in the Greek language, everybody say Greek. That is the language of the New Testament. In the Greek language uses a whole host of words that mean love. In the New Testament, in the New Testament, shh. There's three primary words that are used in the New Testament that mean love. One of them means romantic love, like you're going out on a date with your love. Another word in the Greek language means family love, like the way you love your brother or sister. Another one means the way that you love your friend, a friend-type love. And then this one that you see on the screen, this is the Greek word for God's love, the way that God loves us. And as followers of Jesus Christ, the way that we are supposed to love others. Many times, these words are used interchangeably, and we use the context that is around that word to help us to discern what type of love that it means. And what I'm hoping is that you tonight will focus in on God's love. Because when we're trying to answer this question of why we should love our neighbor, I don't want it to be any other kind of love than God's love. Because that is the type of love that we are talking about. Now, how do we describe God's love? How do we define God's standard of love? We believe, I believe there's a great book, it's called the Jesus Storybook Bible, and the author of that book describes God's love in this way. She says that God's love is a never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love. That's the type of love that God loves you with. He loves you with a never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always, forever love. In the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 even breaks it down further for us. It says love is patient. Love is kind and is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. It does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own. It is not provoked. It does not take into account a wrong suffered. Does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. So before we can begin to answer this question, why should I love my neighbor? We must first understand that we are to love our neighbor with God's love. That never ending, never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever kind of love. In the story that Sam talked to you last week, he taught you about the Good Samaritan. That Good Samaritan love was this kind of love. To go into a stranger's life, to pick him up out of a ditch, to bind his wounds, to care for him, to pay for his restoration, his bills in order for him to get better.
That Samaritan had this kind of love. Students, do you love people that way? See, God's love is unconditional. That means that you don't get anything out, that God doesn't get anything out of you loving him. But many times, we have what is known as conditional love. I'm going to love you if. I'm gonna love you if you treat me nice. I'm gonna love you if you buy me what I want. I'm gonna love you if. See, that's conditional love. God's love says I'm gonna love you no matter what. So, now with this understanding of love, we're gonna answer this question, why should I love my neighbor? Go ahead and hold up your Bibles for me. Let's get excited about getting into God's Word. All right, that's what I'm talking about. All right, we're diving in. All right, now I need you to find the book named 1 John. All right, 1 John, if you're not familiar with the Bible, go to Revelation, the last book in the Bible, and then turn a few pages to the left, to the right, and you'll find 1 John. It goes Revelation is the last book, and the next one is Jude, then 3 John, 2 John, and 1 John. We're looking at 1 John chapter four. 1 John chapter four. Now, when you get there, say, got it. Got it. All right, now, let's talk about this letter. This is a letter. The fancy word is called an epistle, but this is a letter, okay? So John is writing to his friends, and he's trying to teach them something. Now, who is John? John is one of the original disciples. He's one of Jesus' OGs. He was there at the beginning. When Jesus called the disciples, he was one of the 12. In fact, he was not only one of the 12, but he was in Jesus' inner circle of three. Does anybody know who the inner circle of Jesus' three were? Yes, sir. James, Peter, and John. Let's give him a hand. He got it right. That's the inner circle. So this is that same John. Now, by this time, listen, listen to this. By the time that he wrote this letter, he was somewhere close to 90 years old. All of the other disciples had been killed for their faith, and he was the only one that was left. This is the same John that wrote the Gospel of John. He wrote 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, and also Revelation. He had a lot to say, and in this book, what he is writing against is false teachers, people that were coming into the church and trying to lead people astray. And how were they trying to do that? They were trying to lead them astray by telling them that Jesus was not who Jesus says he was. Jesus said he was all God. Say all God. All God. But not only was he all God, he was all man. He was the unique God-man. 100% God, 100% man, all in flesh. And these false teachers were coming in and said, he was God, but he was not completely humanity. He was not human. So this was the false teaching. And so what John was doing is he was fighting against this false teaching throughout the book of 1st John, and he wants people to know who the Son of God is. Because in the Son of God is eternal life. And he tells us why he wrote 1st John. It's in 1st John 5.13. It says, these things, and I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. I have written these things to you who believe that you may know that you have eternal life. And in John chapter four, 1st John chapter four, John establishes that love is the defining, one of the defining characteristics of a Jesus follower. So students, if you're here today, and you would say, I follow Jesus, but you don't love, John says, you don't follow Jesus. And we're gonna see that in a little bit. Think about that. And we're talking about God's love, that never ending, never stopping, always forever kind of love. So we see that love is the defining characteristic of those who have eternal life. And if you love with God's kind of love, you belong to God. Look at 1st John four, starting in verse seven. It says this, beloved, let us love one another for love is from God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God for God is love. We are here to love, but why? Why should you love your neighbor? Why should you love the person that's sitting next to you? Why should you love the person that has hurt you the most in your life? John gives us the answer just a few verses later in 1st John four, verse 19. Look with me there. We love because he first loved us. We love because he first loved us. So students, why should we love our neighbors? Because he first loved us. That's the answer to the question. See, when we are thinking about love, we're thinking about God's love. See, when we are thinking about loving our neighbor, we have to have God's love in our hearts and in our minds in order for us to love because we love because he first loved us. Now, how does God show us his love? He shows us his love in tremendous ways. John 3, 16 says this, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but will have eternal life. For God so loved the world, what did he do? He gave. He gave. God gave his only son. Romans five, verse eight says, but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. First John four, nine and 10 says, this is how God showed his love to us. He sent his only son into the world to give us life through him. True love is God's love for us, not our love for God. He sent his son as the way to take away our sins. This is God's love. Students, God sent his son so that you could have a relationship with him because every single one of us has a problem. And that problem is sin. And that problem separates you from God. And it is only through the love of God that sent his son and it is the love of God that put, that allowed Christ to go to the cross and to die and to live and to be buried and then to rise again. When he died, he was taking your punishment for your sin. That's the love of God. And so we have got to begin to understand that if we are going to love, we have to love with God's kind of love and we have to experience God's love. So why should I love my neighbor? I love my neighbor because he first loved us. The verses that we just read, they show us that God's love is a self-sacrificing love. God's son faithfully fulfilled the will of the father by going to the cross to pay the price for our sins. So.
Who is it that we are supposed to love with this kind of love? Our what? Our neighbors. Now, last week, Sam taught us who our neighbors are. Our neighbors are everybody. He made that abundantly clear last week. So, when we look at who we are supposed to love, how we are supposed to love our neighbors with what kind of love? That self-sacrificing love. What does it mean to sacrifice for somebody? It means to give of yourself so that somebody else will be blessed. Think about something that you love that you would not want to let go of. Give me an example of something that you love that you would not want to let go of. Yes, ma'am? Her puppy dog. She would not want to give away her puppy dog. But what if a friend of hers lost her puppy dog and the only way that that friend would be satisfied would be to have her puppy dog? Would Ruby be ready to sacrifice and give that puppy dog away? Yes, ma'am? What is it? What is something, oh, your friend. That's tough, isn't it? How can you sacrifice something that you love for your friend? That means that you're gonna say no to something you want so that she can say yes to something that you want. She wanted a gift. And you only had enough money to buy that gift. And you wouldn't be able to get what you wanted in order to buy your friend that gift. That kind of love would be you saying, I'm gonna give this money to buy this gift because I love my friend. That's a sacrificing kind of love. Yes, sir? Your family. You love your family with a sacrificing kind of love. How do you give yourself up for your family? Let me tell you. You take out the trash when your mom tells you to. Or even better, you take out the trash even before your mom asks you to. And you're gonna say, Mom, I'm gonna put down my games, I'm gonna put down whatever I'm doing that I love doing, and I'm gonna do what you want me to do. That's the sacrificing kind of love. One from over here, yes, ma'am? My Netflix account. Woo, her Netflix account. Would you be willing? All right, this is good. All right, we're getting down to what we really care about. Now, listen, think about this. A Netflix account, let's say it costs $15 a month to have a Netflix account. It's 50. 50? 50. That's a lot of money. We're gonna say 15. Would you be willing to give up that $15 a month, give up Netflix in order to meet the need of somebody else? Probably not. See, thank you for being honest. All right, I gotta come back. I gotta come back. Hey, these are great ideas. Y'all are getting it. Sacrificial love means it's gonna cost you something. And if you love your neighbor with God's kind of love, it's gonna cost you something. Maybe it's money, maybe it's time. Maybe it's gonna cost you hurt. But I'm telling you, it's gonna cost you something. We love with this kind of love because God has commanded us. So who do we love with this type of love? We first must love God because as we love God and he loves us, we can then love him. In Mark chapter 12, Jesus says this. Somebody says, what is the greatest commandment? And Jesus answered, the foremost is this, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. With that, that's the beginning. If you wanna love your neighbor with the love of God, students, you must first love God. Because if you don't have the love of God in your hearts, you can't love with the love of God. So we're to love God with the love that he has shown us. But it also says that we are supposed to love our neighbors. He goes on in verse 31, he says, the second greatest commandment is this, that you love your neighbor as what? Yourself. And there is no other commandment greater than these. Now we know who our neighbor is. Sam answered that last week. But I wanna dive down a little bit deeper. I believe our neighbors can be categorized in two different categories. The first category is this, other believers. We love other believers because God first loved us. That means individuals that are in this room that believe in Jesus, you're supposed to love them. In fact, whether you wanna admit it or not, these individuals in this room are your brothers and sisters in Christ. And Jesus clearly commands that we are to love one another that are in the family of God. Look at John chapter 13, verse 34 and following. It says, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. Jesus here is talking to his disciples and he's telling his disciples, you gotta love one another. And he says, if we love one another right, then other people will know that we belong to Jesus. Students, one of the biggest testimonies that you can show people that are not believers is the way that you love one another that are in this room. And that's a big deal. Because especially as you're walking through middle school, lines are being drawn. Lines are being drawn. You're cool or you're not cool. You're athletic or you're not athletic. If you're like me, I was a nerd. I know it's hard to believe, I look so cool right now. I was one of the nerds, I was not one of the cool guys. But these lines are being drawn and if you're not careful, you allow those lines to define who you talk to and who you don't talk to. You allow those lines to define who you make fun of and who you don't make fun of. But I'm telling you those, in the family of God, those lines do not exist because God commands us to love one another. Do you love everybody that's in this room? You say yes, but I'm asking you, have you ever talked bad about somebody that's in this room? These are more rhetorical questions that you just think about, but I appreciate you answering. Think about it, guys. Listen, shh. Have you ever treated somebody in this room poorly? Students, listen to what 1 John 4.20 says. It says, if we love God, but hate any of our brothers or sisters in his family, we are liars. If we don't love someone we have seen, how can we love God? We have never seen him. Think about that. If we say that we love God, but hate our brothers or sisters in his family, we are liars. If we don't love someone we have seen, how can we love God? If you say you love God, but you don't love the people in this room, how is that possible? You can't even love somebody that you're in the same room with, how can you love somebody that you can't even see? See, students, we think that it's easier to love God because of who he is, but God is telling us through John that if you don't love one another, it's probably doubtful that you can truly love God. So when we are loving our neighbors with God's love, that self-sacrificing love, we have to be willing to love other believers. So we love other believers. How do we do that? We talk to people. We include people. We welcome people in. We do not allow the lines that we create to keep us from showing God's love to others. We love unbelievers.
We love other believers because God first loved us and we also love unbelievers because God first loved us. God tells us in Matthew chapter 5, 43 and following that we are to love our enemies. He says, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but if I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. So we are to love people with this self-sacrificing love. We are to love believers and non-believers with the same kind of love. And students, what I wanna do tonight is I wanna end tonight with two questions. And I'm gonna ask the praise band to come on up and we're gonna close. Here's the question. Have you experienced the love of God? Listen, shh, have you experienced the love of God? Because if you had never experienced the love of God through salvation, you can't love your neighbor with God's kind of love. So students, you may be in here tonight and you would say, Ben, I have never experienced God's love. I've never asked him to forgive me of my sins. I've never asked him to come into my life and to save me, but I want to do that tonight so I can experience God's love. The second question I wanna leave you with is this. Do you love others with the love of God? That self-sacrificing love of God. Do me a favor and close your eyes, bow your head, and just think about these two questions. Have you experienced the love of God? Do you love others with the love of God? We're about to sing an end tonight, and my prayer is that you understand why you should love your neighbor. We love our neighbor because he first loved us. Are you loving your neighbor with the love of God? Are you loving your neighbor with God's kind of love? Maybe tonight there's somebody in this room that you know that you have not treated the way that God would want you to treat them. Feel free to get up and go talk to that person and let them know that you're sorry. We're gonna have leaders in the back of the room. If you want to experience God's love for the first time tonight in a real way, come back and talk to us. We wanna help you. If you want somebody just to pray for you so that you can start to show God's love to others, you're not alone. We wanna help you. Let's all stand and let's sing this song and respond to what God's word has told us. Amen.