All You Need is Love, without apology to the Beatles

 Read 1 Corinthians 13

In the next service we will do the love chapter. I thought I would do a round robin on the topic of love for this service, as most of you are here for both services.

Let’s go!

1 Corinthians 16:14

Let all that you do be done in love.

Every, all, all yall, with no exclusions is the essence here. Thats when you are in worship or at home making your fourth peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the kid who is eating like he was rescued from the Sahara.

It’s when you are in line at Walmart or stuck in traffic on I-40. It’s for early morning or late at night.

Everything is to be done in love, even the stuff that we don’t’ like to do. We don’t forgive out of guilt. We should do it out of love for the person whom we are forgiving, for ourselves, and for God who has commanded that we forgive.

Colossians 3:14

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Put on love. Thanks some unique verbiage. Think old self-new self, old clothes—new clothes, and human nature—God’s nature.

We are to put on God’s nature.

1 Corinthians 13:13

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

You will get this one again later, but it’s just too hard to pass up now. C’mon, I grew up with this one.  Faith, hope, love, abide these three but the greatest of these is love.

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

That’s some serious love right there. That is true agape love—unselfish and unconditional.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

You might have heard that one once or twice. Our salvation is rooted in love. Our salvation comes from God who is in his very essence—love.

1 John 4:7-8

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

There’s the cool part of this verse.  God is love. That’s some cool beans. Then there is the admonishing part. If you don’t love then you don’t know God.

Consider this from the Parable of the 10 Virgins parable.  In that one, the host of the banquet says, “I don’t know you.”  Ouch!

Imagine God telling us, "I don’t know you," because we did not live lives of love. I’m really banking on a “Well-done, good, and faithful servant, not an "I don’t know you."

1 Peter 4:8

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Jesus took away our sins on the cross, yet we still sin. How do we lessen the pain for all involved? Love is the remedy.

Ephesians 5:25

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

How much love is that? Christ died for us—for his church. In those marital words of “I do” we—the men—are saying that we would die for our wives.  I would die for you.

You think our wives might cut us a little slack for saying we would die for them. What do we get instead?

That’s what you say but you never do it.

Ephesians 4:2

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

These all are plucked out of a greater context, but even as stand-alone, there is counsel for us. This whole business of working with others gets sticky without love.

So be patient, humble, gentle, and live a life of love.

John 14:15

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

OK, that’s not touchy-feelie love. That’s action love. That’s put my words into practice, love. That’s forgive them as I forgave you, love. That’s sometimes some tough stuff.

We are told that it is love that fulfills the law.  We can’t follow all of the rules. Only Jesus did that but we can fulfill the law if we live with love as our new nature.

How do we know that love is our new nature?  Here’s a litmus test.

Substitute your name for love in this paragraph.

I am patient, I am kind. I do not envy, I do not boast, I am not proud. I do not dishonor others, I am not self-seeking, I am not easily angered, I keep no record of wrongs. I do not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth. I always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Did you get hung up on one or two of these, or am I in the company of the perfect people?

If you are here for the next service, you will get this again, but I will close with 1 Corinthians 13.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love

Amen.

 

Game Changer

 Read John 3

For those of you who are here every Sunday and wonder what happened to Chapter 40 of Genesis, I preached it at the first service.

On most Sundays, I preach about our discipleship—our response to God’s grace that we know in Christ Jesus.  That’s what we need on most Sundays.  How will I respond to this wonderful gift of life, life abundant, and life eternal?

This morning, following a week of our Vacation Bible School, I will talk to you about salvation. I am also going to use a theological term.

If I tell you that I am going to use a church term or theological term, you usually know that I am a little tongue-in-cheek and will say something like cool beans or that dog don’t hunt.

This morning I will give you a real term.  It’s regeneration.  Regeneration is preceded by repentance.  It includes reconciliation. It brings us to redemption.

We were dead in our sins but we are not only revived, we are reborn.

This morning, I am talking about being born again.  If you read the part that precedes this morning’s scripture selection, you find Jesus and Nicodemus—a Pharisee who is curious about Jesus—in a discussion about being born again.  Jesus does most of the talking.

Nicodemus cannot get his mind wrapped around being born again.  What do I do?  Do I try to crawl back into my mother’s womb?  You ask the impossible.

Jesus is a little terse.  And you call yourself Israel’s teacher?

We have all been born in the flesh.  Jesus tells us that there is more.  There is a lot more!

We are to be born of God’s Spirit.  Do you remember the story of God making Adam out of the earth—the humus and then breathing life into him making him a living being? We are of this earth and we are of God.

We have all been born of the flesh.  We must also be born of the Spirit if we are to fully live this life and have life eternal.  We must be born again.

We must be made new!  How do we do this? The is no complicated formula or ritual.

We must believe in the One whom God sent—Jesus Christ.  We must believe that God raised him from the dead.  In that belief, we declare, Jesus is Lord!

Jesus is Lord!

In this single profession, we have passed from death to life.  We will live.  Even though these bodies will wear out, stop working because of an automobile accident, or explode if we get hit by a meteor or a trampoline doing 90 mph through town; we will live.

And from that moment forward, we will never make another mistake or have any more problems.  Not exactly.

Having trouble is part of living in this world.  Making mistakes is just being human.  But once we have declared JESUS IS LORD, we take on his yoke and learn from him.

There will still be trouble in the world.  We will still make mistakes, but they fall under this umbrella that we know as grace.

We get to grow and learn and serve in God’s grace. Grace is this umbrella of unmerited mercy and forgiveness and blessing that comes from God not because of what we have or have not done, but because of who God is.  He is love.

What’s that mean?  God will never kick us to the curb.  His grace goes beyond all of our sins.  We are not the sum of our past mistakes.  We have been born again.

Paul would say that we are a new creature—a new creation. The old is gone. The new is here. We are made new.  You don’t have to get a new driver’s license photo but you are made anew.

We want to do the best that we can.  We want to bring glory to God.  We want to be thankful people.  We want to be known by our love.

We understand that we will miss the mark time and again, but God is faithful to forgive every time that we confess.  He has promised his forgiveness.

The God who is holy and righteous and sovereign is most of all love.  God is love and God loves you.

Most of you know this.  Most of you have professed JESUS IS LORD!  If you have not, I challenge you to remain under the death curse of sin no longer.  Come to know the one true God by professing belief in his Son, Christ Jesus.

Do not profess Jesus out of the fear of an eternity in hell.  Those who do that often think they have reached the finish line. Game over. I win.  I’ll just sit out the rest of my life until Jesus comes to get me.

Profess Jesus as your Lord and Savior because you believe in a God of love. When you do this, you will have eyes to see that you are only in the starting blocks of life. 

Life is all ahead of you.  Live to the full now and live in the loving presence of God forever. Respond to the grace of God in everything you do.

This response to the grace of God is our discipleship. As I mentioned when we began, that is the substance of most of my messages as I preach mostly to the saved.  But what about those who are not?

Your human mind—your human understanding—will try to convince you not to do this.  This can’t be true.  This is just church nonsense.  I just refuse to believe it. It just seems too easy.

Receiving the gift is easy.  Living in response to the gift of salvation might take some work, but that work is not debilitating.

But for those who will take the faith that God has granted each of us and take a single step in faith, life awaits you.  We are saved by grace through faith.

We all come out of disobedience to receive this gift of life by faith. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  All come out of disobedience to receive this gift of life by faith

Will you still have trouble?  Sure.  That’s part of life. Life involves struggle.

Will you still make mistakes? Only if you are human.

So, what will I gain?  Life, life abundant, and life eternal.  Sin and death will have no more power over you. Sin will try to mess with your abundant life but it will have no power over your eternal destination.

But, but, but, I’m doing ok now doing things my own way.  I like my Frank Sinatra theology.  I did it my way.

What good is it to gain the whole world yet lose your soul? You might think that life is good doing things your way—the world’s way.  If that’s true, how much better is it to do things God’s way—to follow the instructions of the Designer himself.

You will still have trials and temptations but you will never face them alone.  Everything that happens to those who believe in God through Christ Jesus will one day see how God used everything that happened to you for the good.

This is our VBS Sunday.  I hope we made a difference in the lives of many young people, but I am also speaking to those who may have gone through life and never professed Jesus as Lord. 

Many have read the Bible and have verses that they like, but have never professed Jesus as Lord.  Lord is a tough word to say in our time.  We are independent.  We can make it on our own.  I’m not surrendering to anyone. And we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us for we have all fallen short of the glory of God.

Do not remain a prisoner of sin and death.  For all who have not professed Jesus as Lord, death is your preexisting condition.  That condition does not disqualify you from what the Lord has in store for you.

The kids this week might just call that a GAME CHANGER.

If you have never professed Jesus as Lord, turn away from the sinful ways of the world—the church word here is repent—and receive the life that God promises in Christ Jesus.  Make a wholesale exchange of your mind, body, soul, and spirit for the ways of God. Receive the Spirit of God to live within you. 

Come and be saved.

Amen.

Three Questions -- One More Time...

 This is what you have been waiting for all year, a chapter on rape and circumcision, and the vengeance of brothers upon every one of the Hivite men.  Just when you thought it was safe to go out in the water, here comes circumcision again.

We are going to save all of that for the next service.  There really are not two distinct stories here that deserve to be split between services, so I am going with an old favorite—three questions.

The questions are:

How long will God love you?

How much does God love you?

What are you going to do about it?

To the first question. How long will God love us?

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying:

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

    I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.

Here it is in The Message translation.

God told them, “I’ve never quit loving you and never will.

    Expect love, love, and more love!

It seems that our world is going absolutely bonkers, but our God just won’t stop loving us.  It’s not about how well the world is doing.  It’s not about our performance, though our very lives should be a living sacrifice—on ongoing offering—to God.  It’s not about how well we scored on our Law of Moses test.

It’s about love.  It’s all about love.  Why?

God is love!

God wants us to have his divine nature. He wants us to know love and to be love and to do that he just keeps on loving us. 

Evidently, he thinks that we are worth it.

Question 2.  How much does God love us? We know this answer by heart.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

I can comprehend my own child going into the service and perhaps risking his life for his country.  I get that.

I have a hard time comprehending the trust that Abraham had in God when he told him to sacrifice his one and only son, Isaac. That’s some stuff right there.

Risk of death is one thing.  Giving your son over to death is another.  I am glad that God called me to be a Marine officer and to pastor a church in Burns Flat, America.

I don’t know if I would have it in me to sacrifice my own son.  As much as I preach trust in the Lord and as much as I try to live trust in the Lord, sacrificing your own son just seems like a bridge too far.

Yes, there were some teenage years when it might have been easier, but sacrificing your own son is too much.

When it came to loving us, God said that no price is too high. He paid the price in his own blood—the blood of Christ Jesus.

When you wonder how much God loves you, visualize Jesus on the cross.  His arms are stretched out wide to make it difficult to breathe.  The Romans were devious like that.  They built good roads and aqueducts, but they knew how to maximize pain as they killed you.

But as you visualize Jesus being executed on the cross think of his arms stretched out for you. How much does God love you?  More than you can imagine.

So now, to my favorite question.  What are you going to do about it?  What are you going to do in response to this fantastic, unbelievable love of God that we know in Christ Jesus?

Our salvation rests in our belief.  We believe in Jesus and the One who sent him.  In our profession of faith resides our salvation.

But we are promised more than just being saved from the flames of hell.  We are promised fullness. We are promised abundant life.

Our salvation is one thing. Our response to salvation is another.  Our response is our discipleship and our discipleship begs the question:  Do we realize how much God loves us?

How could our response be anything less than everything we have given willingly to God.  Yes, we tithe and make offerings and sing hymns of praise and sometimes stay awake for the sermon, but I am talking about more. 

I am talking about in everything we do, doing it for the Lord.  Our jobs, our school, our time with our families, and our time alone is all meant to be an offering to God.

God wants to see us bring glory to his name and enjoy him while we do it.

Do we comprehend that?  God wants us to enjoy bringing glory to his name.  It’s not a gotta-do.  It’s a get-to-do—a blessed-to-do.

Even our loving response to God’s unfathomable love is designed to be a blessing to us.

Let’s respond to God’s love by living fully for him and enjoying him every step of the way!

Amen.

Sprinkles on a Cupcake

The world took hold of us and conformed us to its model.  We were lost but God had mercy upon us and sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world but to save it through him.  The Law and the Prophets pointed us to Jesus. 

At some point, we rejected the world and walked away from it.  We repented and believed the good news of life in Jesus Christ.  We were—we are saved!  That should rate a chorus of hallelujahs.

But how have we lived since then? Is loving God and loving one another chief among our core values and redeemed character or is responding to God’s mercy and grace by being his love just something we work in when we can?

Is he our all in all or just sprinkles on a cupcake?  How can we answer that?  Please consider two very direct commands from Jesus.  The first you know well.  Love one another.  The second is more than a command, it is a commission.  Go into the world with the good news of life in Jesus Christ.

There is much more to living in response to God’s grace, but take some time this week to see where you stand in relation to these two very direct commands from our Savior.  Then, ask yourself, If I was accused of following Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict me?

Are we known by our love?  Do we trust in the Lord with all of our heart?  Are we on the sidelines criticizing other believers when we should be sharing God’s love in our every encounter?

There is a line in the Casting Crowns song Courageous that reads:

May the watchers become warriors

Let the men of God arise

Isn’t it time that our Christian life was more than sprinkles on a cupcake?  Isn’t it time that we get off the sidelines and become known by our love?   Isn’t it time to be known by our love?   Isn’t it time?