This is the talk that I gave at our last main meeting on summer project in Va Beach. It pretty much sums up what I have been learning about love...
***********************************************************************
God loves us. God loves you, me, everyone past, present and
future. God loves every human being to
ever to walk the earth. God loves us. God loves us so much that He decided to do
the most incredible miracle in history.
He came down as Jesus Christ and died for our sins so that we could have
relationship with Him. Allow me to
explain. In the beginning of time,
before sin entered the world Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden of
Eden. But after sin entered the world
through Adam and Eve’s rebellion it caused man’s relationship with God to be
severed. From this story we can know
that the things that we do wrong, in other words sin, separate us from
God. It speaks in Romans 3:23 that “…all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” no one is prefect. And in Romans 6:23
that “…the wages [or payment] of sin is death.” and the death that is spoken
about is a spiritual death, hell. But
God humbled himself and came down to earth as a man, Jesus Christ, lived a
perfect life and died for every person’s sins at the cross Calvary. Jesus’ sacrifice stands alone as the only
thing that is able to forgive us of our sins and restore right relationship
with God. Jesus says in John 14:6 “I am
the way and the truth and the life. No
one comes to the father except through me.”
Nothing can make us right before God, but the blood of Jesus
Christ. No amount of charity, kindness
or good deeds will get us into heaven.
Knowing that God has died for us and has set before us the free gift of
salvation and relationship illustrates His love for us. Romans 5:8 sums this idea very well. “…God demonstrates His own love for us, in
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” . It
isn’t enough for us for us to simply know these facts. We must individually accept this gift and
open it for ourselves.
Christians all to often lose sight
of the sacrifice of Jesus and the severity of our sin. Those of us who believe, do we realize that
every single sin that we have committed and will commit was paid for at Calvary
with the sweet blood of Jesus? Do we
know the fullness of Christ’s sacrifice?
Do we understand that we have nailed Jesus to the cross with every white
lie, evil thought and deed? I would say
that we have an idea, but we can’t really know.
But when I sit back and take in the amount that God as done for me, my
hearts cry is to love Him back. I know
that I no longer want to sin. However
something I have been struggling with over the last year is how do I love
God? Tonight we are going to unpack this
idea by looking at some passages from the Gospels.
- What
does Jesus say about this…
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
–John 14:15
- We
keep his commandments John 14:15, John 5:3 Luke 6:46, John 15:10
I think that these passages clearly
show that to love Jesus we must adhere to Jesus’ teachings and commandments if
we are to love Him. This makes
sense. For example, let’s say that you are
dating someone, or even married to them.
Let’s say that you do some that really annoys them. A good instance of this could be using a
silly private nickname you have between the two of you out in public.
I want you guys to tell the person
to your left and right an embarrassing nickname someone has called you? Ask a few people.
If you are like me, then you would not use it most of the time, accept
to occasionally get them riled up or to get a reaction. But, for the sake of example assume that
using that nickname in public hurts the relationship that you have with your
significant other. Would you still use
their pet name in public? I don’t
believe you would if we really cared about them. Why would we risk hurting our relationship
with them if we really cared about them?
This same example can be used when looking at our relationship with
God. If we really love God we will do
what makes Him happy, and we will avoid what makes him upset. We will do anything we can to not damage our
relationship with Him. If we love God we
will do what He commands, but what does He command?
- What
are these commandments? Matthew 22:34-40
“ 34But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus
had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. 35One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, 36"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the
Law?" 37And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL
LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH
ALL YOUR MIND.' 38"This is the great and foremost
commandment. 39"The second is like it, YOU
SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' 40"On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the
Prophets." “ –Matthew 22:34-40
Let’s set some context for what we
just read. It is important to realize
that he Pharisees and Sadducees were trying to trap Jesus with this
question. A common debate of the time
among the teachers of the law was which of the over 600 laws in the Old
Testament were the most important.
“The design was to try him, or
tempt him; to try, not so much his knowledge as his judgment. It was a question
disputed among the critics in the law. Some would have the law of circumcision
to be the great commandment, others the law of the sabbath, others the law of
sacrifices… …now they would try what Christ said to this question, hoping to
incense the people against him…” Matthew
Henry
Jesus responds by summing up the
entirety of the law with two commandments.
This point can be easily seen by looking at the Ten Commandments. The first four commandments of the Ten
Commandments can be summarized by loving God with all your heart mind and
soul. If we love God with all that we
have we will have no other gods before him, make idols for ourselves, take His
name in vain or forget the Sabbath.
- Love
God with everything. (v37-38)
Another way this passage could be
read is love the Lord with all your affections, all your desires and all your
understanding.
- Heart
– We can love God by loving the things that God loves: people, Himself
and His Word. How can we love God
if we do not love people, or Him, or His Word? To truly love God we must love the
things that He loves
- Soul
– When I think of the soul I believe that it reflects my desires. On my own these desires are corrupt
and evil. But by the Grace of God
he can and has given me His desires and I can and have begun to want and
thirst for the things that He himself thirsts for. It is only natural
for us to desire the same things that those we love desire.
- Mind
– We must use all of our understanding to love God. Since God is the bigger than anything
that can be imagined we must devote our entire mind to Him if we are
going to truly understand Him and his teachings. Transforming our mind to look like
that of Christ. Bending our will
so that we think of the things He thinks of and not the evil
desires.
Have you ever been around someone
that is incredibly passionate about something?
Raise your
hand if you know somebody like this?
What was their passion? I have this really good buddy from
high school named Dave. Now Dave loves
Duke Basketball. I mean he did whatever
is necessary to see every game. I
remember one time we drove to four or five sports bars to watch them play Richmond
on TV. I mean it didn’t mean anything,
it was the beginning of the year, and Richmond
was terrible, but the only thing Dave could think of at the time was being able
to watch the game. Now everyone that
knows me knows that I love the Buckeyes.
And to be honest I don’t really like many other college teams besides
them. But as I spent more time with Dave
and as my brotherly love for him grew, I began to like the Duke
Basketball. It was no longer just Dave
yelling at the TV when there was a poor call against Duke; it was both of us
screaming our heads off.
I think this happens with God
to. The more we are around Him and spend
time with Him, the more we start to love Him, the more the our hearts, souls
and minds come in line with His. Maybe
we start to develop a heart to go overseas when the original desire of our
heart was to live in your hometown the rest of your life. Or you now have this intense desire to read
God’s Word when you hate to read. Or
maybe you want to talk to everyone you know about God and before you could
barely start a conversation with a friend because you are so shy. I believe that as we align our hearts with
God and love Him more our affections, desire and understanding will be like
His. If we truly love God it will not
simply be with actions and words, but it will be deep set in our hearts to do
His will.
- Love
your neighbor as yourself (v39)
We can also love God by loving
people. The last six commandments of the
Ten Commandments deal with our relationships with people. If we really love people and God we will
honor our mother and father, we shall not murder, commit adultery, steal, bear
false witness, or covet what our neighbor has.
I love looking at the early
church. The way they cared for people is
amazing.
“It was through such countless everyday acts of
compassion, concern, and love for the neighbors that the Gospel spread. It was
a grassroots people movement that found its opportunities in serving human
needs, caring for the unlovely, even rescuing and taking in children who had
been abandoned on the garbage dumps. In Rome,
by the year 250, in what was perhaps the first “meals on wheels” program, the
church was providing for more than 1500 widows. But there was also the element
of the miraculous in reports of early Christian life. Christians became known
as those who would care for the sick and had healing powers and also powers to
drive out demons.” From the TV program
he SPREAD of the FAITH
I believe that the early Church
fully understood what John was talking about in 1 John 3:17. “But
whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his
heart against him, how does
the love of God abide in him?”
The love of God was clearly abiding in them.
This is something that I constantly
find myself failing at. I cannot tell
you how many times it seems like I have seen my brother in need and I have
closed my heart against them. Is this
something that we are willing to understand as the church today and take action
on? Are we willing to truly love people
by taking care of their needs? Is this
something that you will take action on?
Many of us
will be going back to school next year and we will have an opportunity to serve
the Lord on our campus. Something that I
want you all to think about for next year is how can I love God with my
ministry back on campus knowing now how I should love people? How can I best serve the Lord? How can I love God and love God through
loving people? In what ways can I meet
people’s needs on campus? I believe
these are the things that we must be thinking about if we are going to have a
body of believers on campus that truly reflects Jesus.
- If
love is not genuine then it doesn’t really mean anything
The thing that should be of the
utmost importance in considering all of this is whether we are loving genuinely
or not. Paul states in Romans 12:9-10
“Don't just pretend that you
love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of the
good. Love each other with genuine
affection, and take delight in honoring each other.” (New Living Translation)
One of the greatest mistakes we can do in thinking about
love is that it is purely actions.
We must willingly love others or it means nothing. That is why Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians
9:7.
“Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart,
not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
The inverse of this verse is that God does not like it when
people do not give cheerfully. If we do
not willingly and joyfully give and follow God it means nothing. A great picture of this is if your parents
ask you to help one of your siblings clean their room. It is in the Ten Commandments to honor your
mother and father so you do it but begrudgingly. But is there love in the act if you pout the
entire time and have a somber face? You
have the outward actions of love, however attitude shows obligation, not love
and causes your sibling to feel unloved and your parents to feel
disrespected. But if you help your
brother with a joyful and willing attitude your brother and parents will feel
loved because your action was with sincerity.
I like what
John Piper has to say about love and feelings
“The very definition of love in
1 Corinthians refutes this narrow conception of love. [That it is only actions] For example, Paul says love is not jealous
and not easily provokd and that it rejoice in the truth and hopes all things (13:4-7). All these are feelings! If you feel things like unholy jealousy and
irritation, you are not loving. And if
you do not feel things like joy in the truth
and hope, you are not loving. In
other words, yes, love is more than feelings, but no, love is not less than
feelings.” John Piper Desring God pg 117.
But since
our hearts outside of God are corrupt we must allow God to love through
us. We know that God loves through us
because of 1 John 4:7
“Beloved let us love.
Because love comes from God, and those that love are born of God and
know God.”
We cannot love ourselves, but only God through us. We must be seeking God and asking Him to love
through us. This is the only way that we
can really love people and God like we should.
If we are
allowing God to love through us then it will be natural for us to do what He
commands. Later in 1 John 5:3 it states
“For this is the love of God, that we keep His
commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” -1 John 5:3
God loves
us and our natural response should be to love Him back. I want you to ask yourselves, “Am I loving
God?”
Something I
pray for is that as a Christian community we would be bold enough to love God
and love God by loving people. My hope
is that we would make that a lifestyle, like the early church did that would
cause the Gospel to spread. That we
would allow Jesus to love radically through us any way He chooses. Will you be like Dave with Duke basketball
and love God so much that it takes your entire heart soul and mind. So my challenge to you is to do that next
year at campus and not only then but for the rest of your lives that you would
love God boldy.
Lord Jesus
thank you so much for Your Word and the way it penetrates our hearts. Father God love through us so we can love You
and other people. Give us Your heart,
mind and soul so your commands will not be burdensome to us. Allow us father to love with not just words
and actions but deep sincere feelings.
Thank You for loving us first father.
Amen.
| 
