More Than Just Sending Cards Or Giving Chocolates And Flowers

Opening: A husband always carried a photo of his wife in his wallet. Whenever he faced a difficult situation, he opened his wallet and saw the picture of his wife. When his friends saw what he did, they said, "You love your wife so much, don't you?" He replied, "When I saw my wife's picture, I said to myself, "If I survive being married to this woman for twenty years, I can survive anything!"." The husband used his situation to encourage himself. Since tomorrow is February 14, today I will talk about love. The title of my sermon is "More Than Just Sending Cards or Giving Chocolates and Flowers."

Did you know that seven in ten people in America celebrate Valentine's Day? According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), Americans spent more than $21 billion on Valentine's Day in 2021; the amount was 20% less than the $27.4 billion they spent in 2020. Giving something to someone we love on Valentine's Day is good. But as Christians, God wants us to do more than that. Let's go back to the history of Valentine's Day, learn from it, and what the Bible teaches us about loving others.

Approximately 250 years after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there was a priest named Valentine. He lived in Rome. At that time, Claudius II was the Emperor of Rome. Some people called him 'Claudius the Cruel.' Claudius wanted a big army. He thought men should volunteer to join, but many men did not want to leave home and go off to fight in wars. They did not want to leave their girlfriends and wives. So, not many men volunteered for the Roman army. That made Emperor Claudius very angry. He had a crazy idea that if men were not married, they would be more inclined to join his army. So, Claudius decreed that there would be no more marriages. Young people thought his new law was ruthless. Valentine thought it was ridiculous! One of his favorite duties as a priest was to marry people. After Emperor Claudius passed his law, Valentine kept performing marriage ceremonies – but secretly. He would whisper the words of the ceremony while listening for soldiers on the steps outside. What can we learn from this story?

1. Stand up for the truth and share God's love.

Sometimes it is dangerous to stand up against injustice, hatred, and prejudice. Sometimes it is difficult to oppose the world's view of things. Sometimes it's difficult to proclaim the truth of God's love. But that is what Valentine did! And that is what we are called to do! Acts 5:27-29 says, "The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name," he said. "Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man's blood." Peter and the other apostles replied: "We must obey God rather than human beings!" In 1 Cor. 1:18, Paul says: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing." So, we can expect opposition from the unsaved! Our message is foolishness to them! It's not always going to be easy to stand up for Jesus! It won't always be easy to tell of His love! But that doesn't give us an excuse for remaining silent! The Gospel is a message of love! God loves the sinners! Jesus loves them so much; He was willing to die for them! Let's get back to our story about Valentine! One night, he did hear footsteps at his door. The soldiers came. The couple he was marrying escaped, but he was caught. He was thrown in jail and told that his punishment was death. And that brings me to the next point of this sermon!

2. Die to self for the sake of others.

In John 15:13, Jesus says, "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." Jesus says that genuine love is seen in a person willing to lay down his life for his friends. According to tradition, all of Jesus' disciples except John died horrible deaths rather than deny their Lord. They all went out under dangerous conditions to spread the Gospel, and they were willing to die because they loved the lost souls. When I give premarital counseling, sometimes I ask the couple if they would die for the other, and they say, "Yes!" They would die for the one they love. But in our daily lives, not many ever face a life-or-death situation. We may never get a chance to die for another person! However, every day we do get opportunities to die to ourselves. We are presented with many situations to sacrifice our wants/desires for someone we love. Sadly, many marriages have been ruined because they were unwilling to die to themselves. Instead, they demanded their spouse to listen, understand, fulfill their needs, or 'sacrifice/die' for them.