Sermon for Sunday February 10th, 2008

LOVE by Bruce Ball

John 3:16-3:16


As humans, our emotions can vary widely throughout a whole range of subjects. Valentines day is this coming Thursday, so today I want to focus in on love. We are capable of feelings several types of love, and each type has its own focus and intensity.

There is an old saying concerning love. “If you love, let it go. If it never returns, it was never yours anyway. If it does return, it will be yours forever. If it returns and eats everything in sight and leaves a mess, you are either married or are a parent.”

Let’s talk about different types of love from both a worldly and Godly perspective.

We have …


1. THE LOVE BETWEEN A PARENT AND CHILD

There is the love between a parent and a child. One young boy said love was when his daddy read him a bedtime story. He went on to say that true love was when his daddy didn’t skip any pages.

I remember when my son Shawn was in high school. Several times he parked his truck in the middle of the driveway. That got my dander up because I could not get either car out of the garage.

One time I happened to come out of the door just as he had parked there and was climbing out of his truck. I gave him what for. Then I ordered him to move his truck out on the street.

I was fuming, and as I turned to walk into the house, he followed me instead of moving his truck. I turned to continue my tirade, but he quickly asked me where the end of the lecture went.

I asked him what he was talking about, and he reminded me that the end of the lecture was when I said, “I love you, Son, so let’s try to correct this, okay?”

That was the end of my anger, and the end of his blocking the driveway. This was also a sign of the love shared between a father and a son.

In the world, a parent loves their children and a child loves his or her parent. But, as those of you know who has raised children, there are times when it is very sweet, and then times between the ages of 12 and 21 that are very difficult.

As parents, we strive to take care of our children and give them everything they need, don’t we? And as children, since we aren’t mature enough to always know what we need, we depend fully on our parents to give us what we want.

If we are to model our lives after Jesus, should we not also model our relationship with our children after His relationships with children?

There is a Bible passage that begins with Jesus talking to His disciples. They had come to Him and asked who the greatest was in the kingdom of Heaven. Here is what Jesus told them in …

MATTHEW 18:2,

‘He called a little child and had him stand among them. And He said, “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child I the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.’

Jesus was saying that a child’s heart is absolutely pure. It has no unloving feelings towards anyone and has no ungodly characteristics. It is the essence of God to put it mildly.

And notice that Jesus didn’t say we needed to be like them. He said we needed to change to be like them. That denotes the purity of a child, and the sinfulness of an adult.

There is another passage that talks about how Jesus dealt with children.

MATTHEW 19:13-15,

‘The little children were brought to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these.”

I am sure the disciples had Jesus’ best interest at heart. I believe they were trying to protect Him from the public, much like we see the Secret Service doing for the presidential candidates on TV today.

But Jesus gave them a rebuke. And in so doing, He again elevated the purity of children to a Heavenly level.

Now, if Jesus placed so much love on children, should we not do the same? Jesus handled children with love, not harshness. But how many times have we treated our children like I treated my son the day he blocked the driveway?

Another type of love is …


2. THE LOVE OF SELF

We always seem to be the centers of our own attentions, don’t we? If you doubt that, look at your instinct of survival. We have all read about or seen instances when people are said to have “scurried” to safety. I will say this: There is no way a person can stop to help anyone else while they are scurrying.

In the attack on the Twin Towers, we see many examples of this. There were dozens of people who jumped to their death rather than die by being burned. There were many who pushed past others without caring if they hurt anyone, just so they could hurry down the staircases.

There were not many, but there were some reports of people who stayed behind to minister to, or help others who could not make it out, or people who ran back in once they got out, just to die trying to save somebody else. So we see that the survival instinct is ever-present in all of us, but in some, it is all-important.

What does the Bible say about this kind of love? The Bible depicts love as something that is higher than anything else. It depicts love as a sacrifice; something given away for free; something bestowed upon another.

In JOHN 13, Jesus showed His love for the disciples by washing their feet. Some people do not see the significance of this. Jesus was the Creator of this universe; He was God incarnate, yet He took upon Himself the lowly job of a servant to wash the dirt off their feet. He love them enough to do that so he could use that as an example of how they should also love others.

What else does God’s word have to say about self-love versus love for others?

In 1 JOHN 3:18, it tells us that actions speak louder than words.

‘Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.’

HEBREWS 13:1 commands us,

‘Keep on loving each other as brothers.’

Love is simply doing something, or feeling something for another person for no other reason than your wanting the very best for them, and not because you want something back from them.

Too many times, we are more concerned with what we get out of something than what we give into it.

A father was sitting in his chair one night reading the paper. All of a sudden, he realized it was his young daughter’s birthday and he had forgotten to get her a gift. So he rushes down to the local department store where he sees some Barbie dolls in the window.

He asks the clerk how much a Barbie doll is. The clerk tells him that they range in price. The beauty queen Barbie is $30.00. The nurse Barbie is $20.00. And the divorced Barbie is $265.00.

The man asked why it was so much more, and the clerk said it was the only one that came with Ken’s car, house, and boat.

Now, if you happen to be a Barbie fan, know that I am not saying she married Ken for the money, it’s just that she did end up taking from him because she was only focused on herself.

You say that in a divorce, it is okay. I say it is not okay anytime. Jesus gave us a new command. Love our enemies. And that includes ex spouses.

Getting back on a serious note, we can use that illustration to see how we tend to throw love by the wayside when there is something else in it for us. That is not what God wants us to feel. He wants us to be willing to make sacrifices for someone else’s sake when we can.

We have covered the love between parents and children and the love we have for ourselves. I know there are too many types of love to cover in one sermon, but I want to cover three more types of love.

Christians have …


3. A LOVE FOR OUR CHURCHES

There is a dog whose name is Farley. It is a rather large dog, weighing in at about 50 pounds. Farley is clumsy to say the least. He has a habit of knocking things over by running wild in the house, and he makes a daily habit of tracking in mud.

But he is a very loving and lovable dog. For every bad quality Farley has, he has just as many good qualities.

Farley is like the church. Every church has faults and problems, and many love to spend their time pointing them out. We talk about decisions that are made that we do not agree with, or even about other people within the church that frustrate us. But despite all of her warts and problems, we Christians do love our churches, don’t we?

The church is the bride of Christ. It belongs to Him. He is the ruler over the church and it is every Christian’s job to make sure He remains the owner of the church.

I want to direct this part specifically to elders and deacons. Since we are going to vote on a new elder today, I feel it is only appropriate to add this.

Men have been elected by their peers to hold the office of eldership or deaconship. These men have been put in that spot by other men to make sure the church is taken care of, both the flock and the physical buildings and furnishing.

But too many times, we find that those men like the importance of the position, and then they begin to find ways to keep getting elected. If a church is not careful, they will keep electing these same men over and over, and then there seems to be that day somewhere in that tenure that the man who was elected elder takes ownership of the church.

When this happens, conflict begins because they want to call all the shots. But a pastor, if he is a Godly pastor, is anointed by God, not elected by man. And so the battle rages. A man who has been elected to take care of Jesus’ church now tries to dictate to the man who as anointed by God to lead the church.

As elders, may I caution you that your job is to take care of the church and to leave the ownership of the church in the hands of Jesus? My job as spiritual leader of this church is to do the best I can to guide this church body into a deeper relationship with Christ. But, I need help in making sure I do this correctly.

That is where the elders come into play. I use them as advisors. They are my teammates. We work in unison as one team, focused on the same goal, that of seeing people raised up in Christ through the means of this church.

And since this church belongs fully and totally to Jesus Christ, and since we love Him, we must love His church. We must all love it enough to chip in and do things when things are needed to be done. We must love this church enough to support it in every way we are able. And we must love this church enough to make it a house of worship and prayer for all people.

There is another love we need to be aware of. That is …


4. THE LOVE OF GOD

How much do you love other people? Would you be willing to die for somebody else? Oh, your spouse or your children you would, but how about somebody else that you are not related to? Would you be willing to give your life up for somebody who really hated you?

There are very few people who would ever be willing to die for someone else if it actually came down to that. Even in war where tens of thousands of men are in battle, we see very few incidents of real bravery or sacrifice. They are few and far between. But we do occasionally see men who are willing to die for another.

Jesus was one of those people. He died for you so you wouldn’t have to. He threw the gauntlet. He set the example and now, if we claim to be His, He expects us to live up to that example. Most of us, however, never have to worry about giving our lives up for someone else, but we are expected to show the love for others that He showed to us.

JOHN 3:16 says,

‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’

That verse is but once sentence long, yet in it, we see the entire structure of Christianity. And we see that the entire structure of Christianity is wrapped in one word: Love.

D.L. Moody was a renowned American preacher back in the mid 1800’s. He went to England where he was introduced to a young preacher named Henry Moorehouse. During their short conversation, Moorehouse said he wanted to go to America.

Moody, trying to be polite, said that if he did go to America, he should look Moody up and Moody would let him preach in his church. Well, the day came when Moody received a telegram saying Moorehouse was in America and was planning on visiting Moody’s church.

Moody was going to be gone at that time, so he told his wife that he had to let Moorehouse preach once anyway. He told her to let him give one sermon and if everyone liked him, let him preach two.

Moody was gone for a week, and when he came back, he asked his wife how Moorehouse was at preaching. She said, “He’s much better than you because he tells people that God loves sinners.” Moody snapped back that God hates sinners. His wife said, “You can tell him tonight, because he is preaching again, for the sixth night in a row.”

Moody did go to the church that night, but circumstances made him a little late. He thought he would sit through the sermon and then tell Moorehouse he had to leave. But by the end of the sermon, Moody’s heart had changed, and he said that was the first time in his life that he really understood the love God has for us.

God loves every single person who has ever walked on this planet. And I am sure that God’s heart has been broken most of the time, because most people reject God. How that must hurt our Lord. But He still pursues us, doesn’t He? I praise God that He pursued me until I wised up. And I praise God that He is pursuing us yet today, forgiving us daily for the many times we fall to temptation.

There is another kind of love, and since Valentines Day is Thursday, I kept that until last. The other kind of love is …


5. THE LOVE BETWEEN SWEETHEARTS

We are surrounded by great love stories. We had Jack and Rose in Titanic. Jack was the poor man and Rose was the well-to-do young lady. They fell madly in love and when the ship sank, Jack gave up his life so that Rose could be saved.

There was the story of the love between Romeo and Juliet. Such sweet sorrow, and all that. Then there was the love story of Cleopatra and Anthony. To be truthful, the only thing I could think of when I saw that movie was how much did that thing cost to make? And, of course, who could ever forget “Gone With the Wind?”

One thing the stories all have in common is the absolute love one felt for the other. But like all great works of art, there is some literary leeway included. In other words, they never had any negative human characteristics mixed in.

Here is what I am talking about. A man and a woman fall in love and they begin to make plans for marriage. Do you think during this process they have any arguments? Absolutely not! Why? Because they are in an area of courtship, and that area has no reality in it, just emotion.

But what happens after they have been married for about a year or two? Things start to wear on their nerves. He leaves the toothpaste cap off; she is always on the phone during the game – and she sits right next to you as she talks!

Pretty soon, you start voicing your concerns about how the other is beginning to aggravate you. Well, that pushes their button and, as humans, we cannot let that type of thing go unchecked, so we have something called a “comeback” for them. This presses their button and off they go. Honeymoon is over.

But is that the type of love we are to have between a man and a woman?

There is the story of Mary and Joseph. In that culture, it was normal for a young virgin to be married to a middle aged man. Many scholars believe that was the case with Mary and Joseph.

How did they relate to one another? Before the wedding, Mary tells Joseph that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit, but that she never had relations with Him. How would you men react if that had happened to you? Would you have believed her? I doubt if there is one man in a thousand who would. And I can just imagine the buttons that would have been pushed then.

But how did Joseph handle it? Joseph was going to quietly put her out of his life. He cared enough about her to, even in that situation, not make a public fuss over it. But then an angel visited him in a dream and confirmed Mary’s story.

Not only did Joseph keep his promise to marry her, but also when they went to Bethlehem for the census, he let Mary ride the donkey. Now in those days, a good self-respecting man would never have let her ride the donkey, as a man always rode and the women walked.

How do we know she rode if the Bible does not say it? The length of the trip would have been too much on her to walk it. To get there by the census, Joseph would have had to let her ride. So, again, if we are to model our Christian lives after Jesus, maybe we should model our marriage relationships after His parents.

Thursday is Valentines Day. I would hope that each of you do something very extraordinary to show how much you love your partner. I want to give you an example that everybody in here can relate to.

If you want to know what real bonded love is, look at Don and Purlene. After going through what they have gone through for the last 6-10 months, Don was pronounced cancer free last Monday. The closeness this couple feels with each other is perhaps stronger than any other couple in this church now. And all this came about because of another love; the love God has for us, and their willingness to seek it in their lives.

As we end this message, do you have real love in your heart? You know that God loves you, but do you love Him? Do you love Him enough to fully surrender yourself to Him this morning?

Do you love God enough to become His? If you do, I want you to step out from where you are standing right now and walk straight up here to me. I want you to open your heart to Jesus, and I will go with you as you do.