Sermon for Sunday February 22nd, 2009

AND THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE by Bruce Ball

1 John 3:18-3:18


As humans, our emotions can vary widely throughout a whole range of subjects. And while this is certainly true, since Valentines day was yesterday, I want to focus on love. We are capable of feelings several types of love, too, and each type has its own focus of 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 the parent of a teenager.’

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

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 in or 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 the old ‘what for’ father-son lecture. 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 is 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 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. Many people just pushed past others without caring if they hurt anyone, just so they could hurry down the staircases and save themselves.

There were not many, but there were some who stayed behind to minister to others who could not make it out. We even saw how some people ran back in once they got out, just to die while trying to save others. 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, without concern about getting anything back for ourselves.

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 loved them enough to love and serve them, so that they might learn how to love and serve 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 giving than what we are trying to give in the first place.

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 to take as much as you can from someone else. I say that having the type of heart that could be that sinful is never okay. 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 75 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 sole owner of the church. He wants us to assist Him in the daily operations of His church, but He does not need us to ’take over’ as many church leaders seem to do.

Let me remind the leaders of this church that leadership within the church is all about responsibility, and has very little to do with authority. At any time I see a church leader who is concerned with his or her authority and importance, I will act instantly to remove them from their position.

That may sound harsh, but everything must be done to insure that we are servants for, and not owners of, the church that only belongs to Jesus Christ.

And since this church belongs fully and totally to Jesus Christ, and since we love Him, we must love His church. We must love it enough to chip in and do things when things need to be done. We must love this church enough to support it in every way we can; and yes - that includes helping the local church out with your honest tithes and offerings.

And, most importantly, we must love this church enough to make it a house of worship and prayer for all people. In short, we must love Jesus enough to make sure His church is a place others can come and learn about eternal salvation which is only available through Him.

There is another love we need to be aware of, too. That is -


4. THE TREMENDOUS LOVE OF GOD

How much do you love other people? Would you be willing to die for somebody else? Oh, for 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, or someone you do not know?

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 and me so we wouldn’t have to. He threw the gauntlet. He set the standard; and now, if we claim to be His, He expects us to live up to that standard.

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. And we should always remember that if Jesus died for us, shouldn’t we be willing to live for Him?

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. It was at the end of that sermon that the great and famous preacher, D.L. Moody, found himself with tear-filled eyes at his own altar, coming to know the full realm of Jesus for the very first time.

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 Him. 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 and fail to live up to His standard.

There is another kind of love, and since Valentines Day was yesterday, I kept that until last. The other kind of love is -


5. ROMANTIC LOVE

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 it cost to make that movie?’

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. They never argued or disagreed with the other.

Here is the reality of relationships. 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 a year? 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 him as she talks!

Pretty soon, you start voicing your concerns about how the other is beginning to aggravate you. Well, that pushes their buttons and, as humans, we cannot let that type of thing go unchecked, so we have something called a ’comeback’ for them. This presses their buttons in return and off they go. The honeymoon is replaced by reality.

But is that the type of love we are supposed 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 woman 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 the relationship His parents had for each other.

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 finally pronounced cancer free. 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.

God is a God of many chances. His promise is that He will never leave us nor will He ever forsake us. He sees us, not as we are in our flesh, but who we can be in Jesus.

God loves you. The important question to ask yourself is; do you love Him? Do you love Him enough to give yourself to Him? Do you want God in your life enough to surrender to Him this morning?

If you do, and as we sing our closing song, I want you to walk straight up here to me. There is somebody here today who needs desperately to get back with God, and who may not ever have another chance. Won’t you come to me right now – before we close this service?