Love Each Other
Notes
Transcript
Words to Live By: Love Each Other
November 17, 2007
AM Worship
Introduction:
Illustration: Grandmother: Can’t go barefooted until May 1st (At Cabin, kids were barefooted.)For my grandmother, they words to live by. Me, no. I don’t follow that one.Some people take my approach with my grandmothers so called words to live by.Lot of people, look at the words of Jesus. I am not going to do that one. It is doesn’t fit with my lifestyle. Look at Words of Jesus, I used to do that as a kid. But I am an adult now, I still go to church. I am just not going to follow all the words of Jesus.That is not how it works. These are not just words of Jesus. They are command of our Lord. They are commands of our Lord. When Jesus tells us to love our enemy, we need to do it. When Jesus tells us to take up our cross, we need to do it. These are commands of Jesus. They are Words to Live By.This morning want to look at more words to live by.Read -35This morning, command: Love each other. More words that we are to live by.PrayerHow do people know that you belong to God?Is it by the Christian T-shirt that you wear occasionally?Is it by the cross necklace that you wear around your neck?Is it by the Christian bumper sticker that you have your car?Is it by the big white family Bible that you have on your coffee table or bookshelf at home?Maybe people belong to God by what you do? I go to church, I teach Sunday School, I am on a Committee at church, I must belong to God.Or maybe people know that you belong to God by what you don’t do? I don’t dance. I don’t drink, I don’t curse, I don’t smoke.The Bible says that none of things show that you belong to God.The Bible says that we belong to God when we love each other. (Repeat)Confession, Not a big fan of name tags: I have worn name tags all my life. First day of school every year. During the week of Bible School, College orientation: name tag. BSU: wear name tag. Conferences: Name Tag Even went with a friend to church one Sunday. They wanted us to wear name tags. I reluctantly wrote my name on the name tag. I look over at my friends name and he had written a professional wrestlers name on the name tag: Macho Man Randy Savage. That must be college nickname, we will call you Randy. Talk about mortified. When my friend Josh returned to our seats, I was nowhere to be found. I had gone to sit in the balcony.Nametag serves a purpose: identify who you are.Love is the nametag that identifies who are in Christ.Dedrich Bonnheiper: Love is the badge of Christian discipleship, it is not knowledge, it’s not orthodoxy, it’s not fleshly activity, But supremely, it is love that identifies a follower of Jesus Christ.Paul says you can sing with the angels, you can preach till the stars fall down. But if you don’t have love then you are nothing.We are not identified as a believer by the Christian T-shirt we wear or the cross around our neck.We are not identified as a believer by the big white family Bible on our coffee table or the bumper sticker on our car. Rather we identified as a believer by the nametag of love.Look at V. 35: The mark of a believer is that we love each other.V. 34: Jesus that He has a new command for his disciples. A new command to love each other. With the Last Supper, Jesus had just instituted a new covenant with his blood. For a new covenant comes a new command. New guideline, new expectation. We are to love one another. Look at some things about this love for each other that Jesus is describing.
This love is not a superficial love. I love the New Orlean Saints. But I am not a die hard fan. I have never been to one of their games in person. I don’t wear a New Orleans Saints T-shirt. I don’t wear a New Orleans Saints Cap. I want them to win. But my life is not ruined when we lose. I am not going to have a bad Monday because the Saints lost on Sunday. I love the New Orleans Saints but it is only a superficial love. Love that has very little depth. This is not the kind of love that Jesus is describing in . The Kind of love Jesus is describing in is not a superficial love. Now, I also love my family. I try to be a die hard family man. I love spending time with my wife and kids. The love for my family is an unconditional love. A love that will not change on circumstances. My love for my family is not a superficial love. It is a deep love, genuine caring, sacrificing, unconditional love. That is the kind of love that Jesus is describing in . It’s not a superficial love but a deep sincere, genuine, sacrificial, and unconditional love. Out the four Greek words for love, Jesus chooses to use the word that is the capstone of the Christian faith. He chooses to use the word agape. In essence, it’s a love that seeks the highest good of other people. Type of love that refuses to respond negatively, refuses to reject another person, refuses to demand conditionsType of love that refuses to nitpick another’s spiritual life. It is a love that is the unselfish giving of yourself for the good of another person.This command in the Greek is in the durative which means that it is ongoing. It is present ongoing reality. You are to love now and you are to keep loving from now on. Jesus is not talking about a love that is temporary or a love that does something then quits. Jesus is describing a constant love, a love does not end.That’s the kind of love that Jesus is saying that we should have for each other.What kind of love do you and I have for each other?Would we describe our love for each other as superficial?How may times are we quick to church each other? That’s not the agape love that Jesus is describing in John. Agape love says that we seek the highest good in people.How many times do we respond negatively toward each other? So and so shares an idea with us. That is worst idea I have ever heard. That’s not the agape love Jesus is describing in . Agape love refuses to be negative.How many times do we point out each others faults? So and So has missed Sunday School three Sunday in a row. Or did you hear would he did last weekend? Or what about this one? I can’t believe she has the nerve to show up in church after what she did. That is not agape love. That is not the love that Jesus is describing in . Agape love refuses to nitpick the faults of person’s spiritual life.How many times do we have demands to our love? I will love you as long as you do this and that, but the moment you don’t do this and you don’t do that. Then I am moving you to my bad list, and you are never getting off. That is not agape love. That is not the love Jesus is describing in . Agape love does not make demands.How do you view your love toward others? Typically, our view is that we will love as long as we are loved. We will love someone as long as they are not hurtful or mean to us. Then once they are hurtful or mean to us our loves stops. They are on our bad list never to be taken off. That is not agape love. That it is not the love that Jesus is describing in the . Agape love is a love that is constant; it never ends no matter what the circumstances. Olivia has got to do everything big brother does. If big brother jumps off the couch, Olivia thinks she has to jump off the couch. If big brother gets on a riding toy, Olivia is right behind him on hers. If big brother get a sucker, Olivia has to got to have a sucker. If you give big brother a cookie, you better have one in the other for Olivia. She thinks she has to do everything big brother does.In a sense that is what Jesus is saying. I am God, I am big brother. You do what I do. You love with agape love, that is how I loved you.V. 34: Do you see love each other as I have loved you.Think about Jesus love for us.Jesus’ was unselfish. His love is unconditional. We don’t have to do anything making us deserving of God’s love.Jesus love was sacrificial. He gave up very life because he loved us.Jesus loves us constantly. We don’t get on Jesus’ bad list because we sin or do something that hurts us. NO! Jesus’ love is constant, without end.Jesus defined what agape love is all about.Our love for each other is not to be characterized by selfishness, judging, or fault finding, or I love you as long you are not mean or hurtful or go against me.Our love for each other must be characterized with the love of Christ, agape love. Unselfish, unconditional, constant, without end.Jesus is saying to us about love for each other: let all your actions and attitudes be rooted and ground in this called love.What if we let all actions and attitudes were grounded and rooted in the love of Christ?It’s hard to imagine what would happen if our actions and attitudes were grounded and rooted in love?Shouldn’t be hard to imagine because that is the kind of love that Christ is calling us to have others.How do I have this kind of love in which my actions and attitudes are grounded in love?Love can’t be about us. We have to take ourselves out of the picture.Remember that verse from a couple of weeks agoRom. 5:5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.We must take ourselves out of the picture, and begin letting God’s love pour through us. That is the only way that we will ever love with agape love.Are you willing to allow God’s love to pour through you?Are you willing to love other with agape love? A love that is unselfish, sacrificial, unconditional, and constant.That is the kind of love that Christ is calling us to.
2. This kind of love is not an emotional love.
Word for love is the Greek Bible is in the subjunctive, which is the mood of possibility, not the mood of certainty. It’s the mood of possibility. I believe the point Jesus is trying to make is that you have a choice to love.When it comes to love, don’t let emotions rule, let choice rule. This agape is a love that stays regardless of how we feel. We choose to express love no matter what. ¶ Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.Have you ever noticed in the Bible that when love is described in the Bible, it is never described as an emotion. Love is a choice you make, an action you take, a lifestyle that you cultivate.Love is a choice. Love chooses to be patient. Love chooses to be kind. Love chooses not to envy. Love chooses not to be puffed up. Love chooses to bear all things. Love choices to endure all things.We must choose to love no matter what. That is the point that Jesus is trying to get across.Love is not based on emotion because the moment we become angry or hurt or sad or bitter or mad. We stop loving. We must choose to love each other no matter what.Illustration: I wish I could tell you that I had practiced this my whole life or my whole ministry. But I have note. Didn’t choose to love at Leesburg. Ministry and life philosophy. I want to encourage you to make this your life philosophy. Choose to love. If you do not choose to love, then there people, people in this church that you will never love. Jesus didn’t tells us to love half the people or ¾ of the people, Jesus told us to love each other. We must choose to love.
Jesus tells us that the mark of the Christian is to love. That love is not a superficial love. It is an agape love, an unselfish, unconditional, constant love. We also see that this agape love is not based on emotion, rather we must choose to love.
Have you ever thought, why love? Why should the mark of a believer be love? Why couldn’t be faith or hope? Why do we have to love? Why do we have to love our enemies? Why do I have the people sitting on my church pew? Have you ever thought, why love? John thought a lot about this. The apostle John not only wrote the book of John, but he also wrote the letter of I John. The chapter of love in the Bible might be . But the book of love in the Bible is I John.
: God is love.
: God is love. What a simple direct statement, but yet it describes the very nature of God. God is all about love. We see God’s love at the dawn of time, and we will see it through eternity. God is love. God just didn’t tell us that he loved us. He showed.
: For God so loved the world, he sent his son…
: ¶ Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
We are to love each other because Christ first loved us.
Then look at a couple of more verses.
¶ If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
John is telling us that talk is cheap. It doesn’t matter what you say. It matters what you do.
Illustration: Olivia. Saying she doesn’t love us, but she shows it.
We can say we love God to we are blue in the face, but it doesn’t mean a thing until we show that we love each other. It’s doesn’t matter what you say. It’s about what you do.
Time to get honest with God. Do you love your fellow believers in Christ? Do you love the people of this church?