Longing For Love

Longing for Love

John 15:12-15:12

Scripture (John 15:12)."Love each other as I have loved you"

There once was a very popular song, "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing."

The experience of many is that love is a many-splintered thing.

Human love fails!

A true story: A pastor tells that one day, a woman with a little girl at her side. This woman showed by the cast on her arm and some scars on the side of her face that she had been in the hospital. She said, "I was in the hospital because of a very serious fire. There were burns over two-thirds of my body. My husband walked into the hospital room, took one look at me, and said, ’You’re not the woman I married.’ " He left her to marry someone younger and more beautiful.

Human love says, "As long as you stimulate me, as long as I can be proud of you, as long as you’re beautiful, I can love you. If you change, my love for you changes."

Jesus Loves us as we are, it never changes.

Bob Weber, past president of Kiwanis International, told this story. He had spoken to a club in a small town and was spending the night with a farmer on the outskirts of the community. He had just relaxed on the front porch when a newsboy delivered the evening paper. The boy noted the sign Puppies for Sale. The boy got off his bike and said to the farmer, "How much do you want for the pups, mister?" "Twenty-five dollars, son." The boy’s face dropped. "Well, sir, could I at least see them anyway?" The farmer whistled, and in a moment the mother dog came bounding around the corner of the house tagged by four of the cute puppies, wagging their tails and yipping happily. At last, another pup came straggling around the house, dragging one hind leg. "What’s the matter with that puppy, mister?" the boy asked. "Well, Son, that puppy is crippled. We took her to the vet and the doctor took an X ray. The pup doesn’t have a hip joint and that leg will never be right." To the amazement of both men, the boy dropped the bike, reached for his collection bag and took out a fifty-cent piece. "Please, mister," the boy pleaded, "I want to buy that pup. I’ll pay you fifty cents every week until the twenty-five dollars is paid. Honest I will, mister." The farmer replied, "But, Son, you don’t seem to understand. That pup will never, never be able to run or jump. That pup is going to be a cripple forever. Why in the world would you want such a useless pup as that?"

The boy paused for a moment, then reached down and pulled up his pant leg, exposing that all too familiar iron brace and leather knee-strap holding a poor twisted leg. The boy answered, "Mister, that pup is going to need someone who understands him to help him in life!"

Crippled and disfigured by sin, the risen, living Christ has given us hope. He understands us--our temptations, our discouragement’s, and even our thoughts concerning death. By His love we have help in this life and hope for the life to come.

God offers sympathy & Love

What God Hath Promised

God hath not promised

Skies always blue,

Flower-strewn pathways

All our lives through;

God hath not promised

Sun without rain,

Joy without sorrow,

Peace without pain.

But God hath promised

Strength for the day,

Rest for the labor,

Light for the way,

Grace for the trials,

Help from above,

Unfailing sympathy,

Undying love.

—Annie Johnson Flint

Many, Many are longing for love.

A. Many are only living in a survival mode

In an interview Mother Teresa was contrasting the lives of the rich and the poor. Speaking of the rich she said, "The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread. The real poor know what is joy ... I find the rich much poorer. Sometimes they are more lonely inside."

B. The experience of many is that love is broken, crushed, twisted, and dried up

C. Empty lonely people are around

D. Who cares about me?

When wealth is lost, nothing is lost;

When health is lost, something is lost;

When love is lost, all is lost.

A greater way to Love

The Old Testament charge was to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18). But Jesus gave his disciples a new command with a radically different motive: "Love each other as I have loved you" (John 15:12).

We are healed by loving

We mature by loving

We have worth by loving

We are blessed by loving

We grow by loving

We fulfill every requirement by loving

1. Love them like they are.