(Slide 1) Well it is Valentine week and it will be the first time since Susan and I have been married that I have been away over night on Valentine’s Day. But I will remember her on Valentine’s Day.
Gary Foster Consulting noted a year or so ago that of the ‘seven major gifting holidays, Valentine’s Day is the 3rd most widely gifted holiday after Christmas and Mother’s Day.
(Slide 2) Have you ever wondered how Valentine’s Day got started?
There are several different stories regarding St Valentine. According to Christianity Today, “St. Valentine was actually two people (that weren’t romantically involved) who were martyred on the same day (c. 270). Feasts commemorating them were celebrated on February 14. One was a priest and physician who died in Rome during the persecution of Christians by Claudius II Grothicus. The other was the bishop at Terni, Italy who was also martyred in Rome.”
And the article goes on to say that origin of exchanging valentines ‘is not thought to have any connection with the saint’s day. Rather it comes from an early European belief that the second week of February was when birds began to mate.’
According to Pastor Steve Miller it was the result of a priest named Valentine who stood up to the Roman Emperor Claudius because he (that is Claudius) banned marriage because he believed that men would stop volunteering to join the Roman army with wives and girlfriends to leave behind.
In the face of both hostility and even imprisonment for disobeying the Emperor, Valentine continued to perform weddings. He did so with a soft and quiet voice so that he could hear soldiers coming. He was eventually caught and jailed for the offense.
Many persons came to visit him in jail including some couples who he secretly married during their visit. The jailer’s daughter visited him often and expressed her support for Valentine and his stand.
On the day he was to be executed, Valentine left a note thanking the jailer’s daughter for her friendship and support and signed it, ‘Love from your Valentine.’ The date of this note and his death? February 14, 269 AD
In speaking of priests, Paul Durbin tells the following story of love and forgiveness amongst some monks on Valentine’s Day.
It seems that the monks at this remote monastery deep in the woods followed a rigid vow of silence. Their vow could only be broken once a year——on Valentine’s Day——by one
monk.
That monk could speak only one sentence. One Valentine’s Day, Brother Thomas had his turn to speak and said, "I love the delightful mashed potatoes we have every year with the Valentine’s Day Roast!" Then he sat down. Silence ensued for 365 days.
The next Valentine’s Day, Brother Michael got his turn and said, "I think the mashed potatoes are lumpy, and I truly despise them!" Once again, silence ensued for 365 days.
The following Valentine’s Day, Brother Paul rose and said, "I am fed up with this constant bickering!
Now, I don’t know about you, but what I get from these three stories is that (2a) love is an important expense, a costly commitment, and a patient attitude!
On this Valentine’s Sunday there are a couple of themes that I wish to weave together under our sermon title and our main text for this morning. The first theme is the theme of the wholeness, for lack of a better word, of our text that I call the Love of God. (Slide 3)
I must honestly tell you today that I cannot comprehend God’s love for me… in the words of the old hymn, ‘The Love of God,’ it is ‘vast, measureless, and strong.’ But I have experienced, and I continue to experience, God’s love in many, many ways: through my wife, my kids… you… my friends and family, as well as through my faith itself.
God’s love is overwhelming and grand. It is an engulfing cloud, a surging wave, it is a finely tuned instrument… it defines definition and description.
Last week I read to you from John 13:1 “Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He now showed the disciples the full extent of his love.”
As we continue to read, Jesus then “got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he had around him. When he came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, why are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus replied, “You don’t understand now why I am doing it; someday you will.” “No,” Peter protested, “you will never wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “But if I don’t wash you, you won’t belong to me.” Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”
Peter had trouble handling God’s love because Jesus’ act of love, of servant hood, exposed Peter’s need for complete surrender and reorientation in his attitude toward and commitment to God’s love. It does the same to us.
Now God’s love for us is great and grand. When we need it, God’s love (3a) comforts us and affirms us. I can recall, as you can recall, many times being affirmed by the God’s love during a difficult time. But I think that there is something else about God’s love that we may be don’t expect or believe that it can be an expression of His love for you.
God often (3b) disorient us through His love when we need to be reoriented in the direction that God would have us go! Peter experienced this disorientation as John records and there was a purpose to this disorientation.
Now this idea of disorientation might seem harsh or unloving but thinking about it for a moment. When you first began to experience God in your life were there not moments of discomfort because you became aware of your sin? What did you experience, what did you feel? I have felt guilt and shame and it was because God’s purity and power, two important parts of His love, was showing me my need for confession and repentance. God’s love is powerful and pure and for it to reside in our heart and soul, they must be purified by Christ through the forgiveness of our sins which blocks God’s love from fully engulfing us.
Paul says it very well in Romans 5:8. ‘But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.’ So, God’s love for us must first disorient our hearts away from our sin and toward Him so that, by faith in Christ, we are made right with Him.
Now there is also another reorientation that takes place and it is a reorientation of our life agenda and attitude in the direction that God wants it to go. That movement is illustrated in the open verses of I Corinthians 13.
(Slide 4) And this movement, this reorientation of our life agenda and attitude hinges on two important words in this text… ‘if,’ and ‘but.’ Listen to the opening three verses.
If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would I be? And if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, without love I would be no good to anybody. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it, but if I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.
Take a look in your Bible at the pivotal turns in priorities and attitudes that Paul speaks as we allow God’s love to truly possess us. (And remember it was written to a church who was racked with conflict and contention.)
‘If I spoke Spanish, French, or Arabic to help tell the gospel but truly did not respect and care for the audience I was speaking to, why say anything?’
‘If I preached God’s word with power and polish and make the Bible come alive but did not love, value and support those who heard it, why preach or teach?’
‘If I believed that God could and would do anything for anybody but did not love and respect those He would do miracles for, why believe in God and preach faith in Him?’
‘If I served with great passion and did much for many but did not love them as Jesus would have me do, why care?
John Maxwell has written, ‘People don’t care know how much you know until they know how much you care.’ I remember reading somewhere of Gordon MacDonald telling the story of being in graduate school and having classmates almost coming to blows as they argued over point of contention in an American History class. He dropped the class, and if my memory serves me correctly, dropped out of graduate school because he thought the arguments were pointless. What really matters in life?
The end of our main text tells us, ‘There are three things that will endure—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.’ Love is what matters and the greatest, and the most mysterious, and the most transforming love in the world is God’s love… for us.
(Slide 5) God’s love not only affirms us or, at times disorients us; it also re-orients us from an egotistical perspective to God centered perspective. What God is saying to the church at Corinth, and to us these days, is that love gives us a new direction and purpose to speak, to proclaim, to believe, and to serve.
We need this kind of love. We need a change of heart. We need to move from a ‘what’s in it for me’ to a ‘how can I serve God’ perspective.
(Slide 6) How is the love of God being expressed in your life these days? What area(s) of your life needs God’s love to operate?
One critical area where God’s love needs to operate is in marriage and interestingly enough a request recently came to me to speak to the issue of the spiritual influence of a believing spouse on an unbelieving one. It was an issue in the Corinthian church as we read in chapter 7 of 1st Corinthians. Of note for us this morning are verses 12 through 17.
‘Now, I will speak to the rest of you, though I do not have a direct command from the Lord. If a Christian man has a wife who is an unbeliever and she is willing to continue living with him, he must not leave her. And if a Christian woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he is willing to continue living with her, she must not leave him. For the Christian wife brings holiness to her marriage, and the Christian husband brings holiness to his marriage. Otherwise, your children would not have a godly influence, but now they are set apart for him. (But if the husband or wife who isn’t a Christian insists on leaving, let them go. In such cases the Christian husband or wife is not required to stay with them, for God wants his children to live in peace.) You wives must remember that your husbands might be converted because of you. And you husbands must remember that your wives might be converted because of you.’
Now it is important, I believe to note that Paul is not stating a direct command from God in this segment. However, I believe, given the context of what is said on either side of this segment, this is a very Godly and good word that we need to believe and practice.
In the opening verses, and closing verses, of this chapter Paul makes clear that he prefers celibacy (singleness with total abstinence) over marriage but calls for fidelity or absolute loyalty to one’s spouse in marriage if you are married. He insists that as part of one’s testimony, full loyalty and commitment to your spouse, even an unbelieving one, is a key part of one’s faith commitment.
Easier said than done these days, isn’t it? There is so much that tempts us to be disloyal to our martial commitment these days. But just because others are doing whatever, does not mean that it is right.
One of the things about God’s love is that it is holy. To be holy is to be set apart. It is to be different. It is to live life at a higher and better standard.
We are to express God’s love in marriage even when our spouse believes differently or not at all. We do so because it holds out the possibility that they can be saved.
Marriage is important. Marriage matters. Marriage is hard work at times but marriage is very rewarding and rich. Marriage is part of God’s plan for humanity.
To those who are in a situation where belief is not shared, I say, ‘Don’t give up!’ Keep praying and loving your spouse!’ Honor your spouse and show them respect. God’s love for your spouse is greater than any one else’s love for him or her, including yours. He is aware of who your spouse is and his or her spiritual issues and condition.
This past week there have been two sad and troubling events occur that I believe highlights the need that we have for love and the lengths that we will go to get love. The first story is the story of the NASA astronaut Lisa Nowak and her arrest earlier this week. The second was the death of Anna Nicole Smith on Thursday.
While the one has been in the news for many years and the other has been part of a highly regarded profession, both situations underscore the powerful passions that will, and do, erupt when the need for love and acceptance become so over powering. We are created to be loved and to love. It is part of who we are as human beings.
We need to pray for the families of both women as well as for Nowak. They matter to God. God loves them just as much as He loves us.
And I would conclude this morning by reminding us to ask for God’s help in our loving and caring so that He is honored by our loving and I close with a very important reminder of what love is…
‘Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.’
God loves you… and so do I. Amen.
Sources:
Foster statistic is from sermoncentral.com
Valentine story is also from sermoncentral.com and christianitytoday.com/holidays/valentines/features/history.html
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘021107slides’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
