1. What Real Love is Like
As many here experienced in the Marriage enrichment class we did on Wednesday nights in the fall we learned that there are a lot of different kinds of love, and it makes a bid difference how we understand the word Love in our lives and in the church.
God is Love
1 John 4:7-8 (NIV)
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
• Love is the most important part of the Kingdom of God because it is the central character quality of God – He is Love.
• Love is the Oxygen of the Kingdom of God, we can get along without a lot of things that are important, but we cannot survive without Love.
• I want you to experience what a church without Love is like…So I am going to ask you to hold your breath as long as you can.
- In the beginning we think that it doesn’t matter, and then it becoming harder, and less comfortable, then a slight panic sets in and finally we can’t stand it any longer and we breath – that is how important Love is the family of God.
God is not just Love, he is loving
• Jesus laid down His life for us – that is what love looks like
• In the OT love looked like this:
Leviticus 19:18 (NIV)
18 ”‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
• In the NT the look and feel of Love is slightly different
John 13:34 (NIV)
34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
• Eternal Love is better still
John 17:26 (NIV)
26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
Real Love is Jesus laying down His life for people who are unable to pay it back or deserve it in any way.
In the fall of 2005, 8-year-old Briton Nordemeyer of Brandon, South Dakota lost her tooth. Briton had heard about the victims of hurricane Katrina, and wanted to help the little children who lost all of their possessions. So, she decided to donate the money the tooth fairy would bring for her missing tooth to the local chapter of the Red Cross. Instead of waiting for the tooth fairy to arrive, however, Briton mailed her tooth to the Red Cross. She included a letter explaining her desire, and her confidence that the tooth fairy would render payment upon arrival.
When news about Briton’s generosity reached the public, the Red Cross received a $500 donation from an anonymous donor who had heard the story and wanted to help provide a fairy-tale ending.
2. What real Love looks like @ Church
1 John 3:18 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Love can be seen in individual Christians and we see the evidence of Love all the time, but it is even easier to see Love as the church comes together.
• Love is not in a mission statement that we will love people, it is not the sentence on the bottom of a church’s stationary that says the Loving church
• Love @ Church is not seen in only words – we care about you, or we love you, of those words are not backed up by actions
• Love @ Church is seen in actions
1 John 3:17 (NIV)
17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
- If anyone has the means of life in this world and hoards them in their heart – How can the Love of God be in Him
- There is only room for one – either the Love of God or our stuff, the heart is only big enough for one.
According to the Self Storage Association, a trade group charged with monitoring such things, the country now possesses about 1.9 billion square feet of personal storage space outside of the home, 1 out of every 11 homes also own a self-storage space. This represents an increase of 75 percent since 1995. Last year alone saw a 24 percent spike in the number of self-storage units on the market. But, amazingly, as the amount of storage space required by homeowners has grown, so has the average size of the American house. In fact, the National Association of Homebuilders reports that the average American house grew from 1,660 square feet in 1973 to 2,400 square feet in 2004.
So let’s get this straight—houses got bigger, average family sizes got smaller, and yet we still need to tack on almost two billion square feet of extra space to store our stuff?
• We have more stuff than we need and struggle to find enough room for God.
Love is seen differently in Churches as well.
1. There are some churches that are friendly, but not close
- People are good at welcoming new people, and being friendly, but have not learned how to share their lives with each other
2. There are some churches that are really close, but there are not friendly
- They have learned to share their lives with other people, but the circle is closed and they never open their hearts and lives to people they don’t already know.
3. There are special churches where they are both Loving and Friendly
- They know both the joy of having an open circle where new people are invited to come to dinner, join the group for parties, and work groups, but is at the same time good at being close enough to be family.
- It is not easy to be both at the same time.
- Love @ Church is done when we move past words and statements to action where we meet needs of those in the body and those that coming in to the body of Christ.
3. The Benefits of Real Love
1 John 3:14 (NIV)
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
1 John 3:19 (NIV)
19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence
A. Real love gives us confidence with God
• Because God is love – when we love we can know that God is at work in our lives. This is the best evidence of God’s work in a church and in the our lives – when we are becoming more loving (unselfish) then we can have confidence that God is working
• We often think about what it means to be mature as a Christian – it is not what you think…It is not how many scripture verses we’ve memorized, and it is not our years in service, or enlightened views toward worship, or the ability to win every spiritual argument. Maturity in Christ is Love for God and Love for people, with love being the willingness to sacrifice for another’s good.
B. Real Love draws people to God
• How will people know that this is a church, and that we are Christians?
- Cross on the building (and it looks good)
- The way we dress, or size of the Bible we carry
- Our condemnation of sin
John 13:35 (NIV)
35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
• People will know that we are followers of Jesus if we are people of Love
C. Real love is the oxygen of a healthy Church
• In 1 Cor 13 we are told that even if we could speak in the tongues of men and Angels, know all mysteries, prophesy, or have enough faith to move mountains – without Love it is all worthless.
• Love is the proof of Salvation
• Loving others helps us to see Jesus
Shane Claiborne is a young Christian activist whose mission is to take Jesus and the message of the gospel seriously describes how God revealed himself through the homeless.
I saw one woman in a crowd as she struggled to get a meal from one of the late-night food vans. When we asked her if the meals were really worth the fight, she said: "Oh yes, but I don’t eat them myself. I get them for another homeless lady—an elderly woman around the corner who can’t fight for a meal."
I saw a street kid get 20 bucks panhandling outside of a store and then immediately run inside to share it with all of his friends. We saw a homeless man lay a pack of cigarettes in the offering plate because it was all he had. I met a blind street musician who was viciously abused by some young guys who would mock her, curse her, and one night even sprayed Lysol in her eyes as a practical joke. As we held her that night, one of us said, "There are a lot of bad folks in the world, aren’t there?"
And she said: "Oh, but there are a lot of good ones too. And the bad ones make you, the good ones, seem even sweeter."
We met a little 7-year-old girl who was homeless, and we asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up. She paused pensively and then replied, "I want to own a grocery store." We asked her why, and she said, "So I can give out food to all the hungry people."
Mother Teresa used to say, "In the poor we meet Jesus in his most distressing disguises." Now I knew what she meant.
