Pataskala Nazarene
January 21, 2007
God’s Love Changing Me
John 3:16
Introduction:
It’s the first thing we want our children and grand-children to understand about God. We show them pictures; We tell them stories, and We teach them songs about it. It’s basic; It’s fundamental; It’s essential to our faith. Nothing else makes sense if we don’t understand this. God loves us! Do you believe that? But it’s even more than this! God is Love! This morning – it’s my desire that we all be seekers. Within all of us there are those things which we strive for and desire. We all have goals;
we all have dreams. And in every one of us there is the hope that those dreams will come true.
In our Spiritual Quest to find the Power to be Free in our relationship with Christ and others, we come to this 3rd sermon in our series and we find today something that every one of us desires more than anything: LOVE. Let me ask you - What is it that you are seeking? The fact is - all of us are involved in the living of life. But in this process, we find that things don’t always go as smoothly as we would like for them to go. The road of life has bumps and the road of life has many potholes. And as we weave ourselves around those hairpin curves and struggle to climb over those steep hills, we find that some things which we thought were important no longer seem to be as important to us. At some point, all of us struggle and have problems. I face them and you face them.
Everywhere you look you see people hurting and in need.
In 1971 Tim Clay had a hit song. It was number 61 in the top 100 on February 14, 1971.
The words of the song were, "What the world needs now is love sweet love, not just for some but for everyone."
Greg Jones says, “I have often wondered if the person who wrote this song ever read this verse. In the love gift of Jesus Christ provided by God for the world we have been given love in abundance. All the love we need can be fond at the cross! Love to save. Love to heal. Love to deliver. Love that will bring you peace with God and peace with mankind. We don’t have the capacity to love anyone apart from the love of God. Wives can not love their husband’s right apart from the love of God. Husbands can not love their wives right apart from the love of God.
Mothers and fathers can not love their children right apart from the love of God. Children can not love their parent’s right apart from the love of God. Brother and sisters can not love each other right apart from the love of God. It is in discovering God’s love for us that we learn how to love each other. I can see why the theme of this popular 1971 hit song seems so true to so many. They were simply unaware of the love gift provide by God. They are caught in the allusion that what the world needs now is love when in reality God has met that need.”
Christian friend, you and I must believe that God who is in heaven loves us with an everlasting LOVE.
1) The first thing I want us to see is God is Love!
“For God so loved …” the first part of John 3:16 says.
Illustration:
Let me relate this story to you: Some of you might remember back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, the pot-bellied pig craze when people were spending hundreds of dollars to own one of those exotic house pets imported from Vietnam. It was amazing. When Dru and I lived in Westerville, we had neighbors who owned not just one of those pigs, but two; I think they had 3 at one time. They treated them like pets. They lived in the house with them. I was simply amazed. When I asked about the pigs, my neighbor explained to me that they did their thing in a litter box down in the basement. I heard them squealing one day and looked over their fence to see them giving the pigs a bath on the back porch. Now folks, when I was young I was around pigs and hogs on the farm. This was a new phenomena to me. When I saw all that I was glad that I was half way normal and owned a dog. Do you know what I mean? But anyway let me get to the real part of this story. The potbelly pigs didn’t pan out to be what they were supposed to be as pets for many of these people. They were supposed to be gentle. Only gain up to a weight of 40 lbs. They were supposed to be very smart. Yeah! (Maybe that little pig in Charlotte’s web.) And you could put a leash on them and walk them like a dog down the sidewalk.
I don’t know how this affected anyone else, but every time I saw that I laughed. Well, they weren’t so gentle. They gained up to 150 lbs or more. And sometimes very aggressive in their behavior. So people were looking for a way to unload/to get rid of them. There was a man by the name of Dale Riffle who came to these pigs rescue. He loved Vietnam potbelly pigs. He actually sold his suburban home and moved with one pig to a 15 acre farm in West Virginia … and then he started taking in unwanted potbellied pigs and before long the guy was literally in “hog-heaven.” He had acquired over 200 pot-bellied pigs and he treated them to a luxurious pig - lifestyle. These little porkers snoozed on a fresh bed of pine shavings every night. They wallowed in mud puddles. They soaked in plastic swimming pools all to the sound of piped-in classical music. And every day these pot-bellied pigs waited in line for one of Riffles belly rubs. They never had to fear that one day they would become bacon or pork chops on the family table. And Dale Riffle said, “We are all put on earth for some reason and I guess pigs are my lot in life.” I guess the guy found his purpose in life.
How many of you this morning would agree that this is a pretty amazing story for anyone in their right mind that would fall so totally in love with Vietnam pot-bellied pigs?
Now some of you are wondering already how I’m going to apply this to this sermon: Here’s the Spiritual application:
Let me tell you something that is even more amazing. The central theme of the Bible is found in John 3:16. John 3:16 "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.” The amazing thing is that our majestic, all-powerful, all-knowing, perfectly holy God is passionately in love with imperfect, sinful, sometimes openly rebellious, frequently indifferent people like you and me. You see, in many ways sin makes human beings even more unlovely than Riffle’s pigs.
There might be someone here this morning who would rebel at this analogy, but let me take you to Romans 3 and read to you how the writer describes us people beginning in verse 10 and maybe – just maybe you’ll won’t feel as insulted about this analogy, maybe – you’ll still love me and go easy on me:
“There’s nobody living right, not even one,
nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.
They’ve all taken the wrong turn;
They’ve all wandered down blind alleys.
No one’s living right;
I can’t find a single one.
Their throats are gaping graves,
Their tongues slick as mudslides.
Every word they speak is tinged with poison.
They open their mouths and pollute the air.
They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,
Litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,
Don’t know the first thing about living with others.
They never give God the time of day.
This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin.
Mankind is a fallen creature! The Bible establishes that fact.
Isaiah said that even our best attempts at goodness is that we are as filthy rags in comparison to the holiness of God. BUT DON’T LOOSE HEART – GOD LOVES US ANYWAY! – Think of that! EVEN TO THE POINT OF WANTING TO ADOPT US AS HIS VERY OWN. No wonder John said in I John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”
So – while we are unlovely … we are NOT unloved.
And deep down inside of every one of us we desperately want to be loved. And to everyone here this morning – we must believe that God loves us with an UNCONDITIONAL and everlasting love. Charles Wesley wrote that song that said, “Love that will not let me go.”
This brings me to my second point:
God does not call us to simply receive the gift of His love; He calls us to become channels of His Love.
2) Therefore, God wants to Love through us.
When we become Christian believers we suddenly realize that all our unloving words, thoughts, and deeds must go. We through the Holy Spirit’s work in us - we realize how wrong they’ve been!
We cannot go on speaking and thinking and acting as we did before we accepted His love.
The Word of God says: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
This is where our behavior changes.
This is where our attitudes change.
This is where our treatment of others changes.
It’s what we refer to as Practical Holiness.
Jesus said: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”
All of us want to be liked/loved. Although there are probably a few people who are antisocial, the vast majority of people make an honest attempt to get along with others and would like for others to think well of them.
On our jobs,
around our neighborhoods, and
at church we try to be likeable and friendly.
We make an honest attempt to treat people in such a way that they have positive feelings toward us.
Sometimes it works, and other times it doesn’t. No matter how hard we try. That’s why it’s so difficult to be in leadership.
I just heard on the news this morning that President Bush with 2 years left to go in his Presidency has a 58% disapproval rate in his leadership. And His statement to this was, “I’m going to go out racing toward the finish mark.”
Unfortunately, there are those times when people decide they don’t like us, even though we’ve made an attempt to be kind to them. We think we’re okay people, and yet there are some people who decide we’re not and decide to become our enemy. And what do we do when that happens? We have a tendency to want to strike back. Often it produces further animosity and bad feelings. It makes the hostile person more hostile, and leaves us feeling worse instead of better.
And yet Jesus tells us there is a better way.
As a matter of fact, Jesus gave us a radical solution to this ancient problem. He said instead of retaliating against your enemy, you should love him by doing good to him. And our response is: “Love him! You’ve got to be kidding.” How can we expect to love those who are treating us like a dog - harshly and unfairly? In one of my pastorates, I had a board member who came to me after some unfair treatment I received from some on the Church board and he said, “Dan, I wouldn’t have treated my dog like that.” I’ve reasoned many times, surely, no one could do that, or would want to. There is no doubt that Christians have their limits. But when it comes to the Love that Jesus is talking about here, the limits far exceed what we might think.
The confusion comes in our own carnality, when we adopt the thinking of the world.
Jesus even taught us that we are to turn the other cheek when someone slaps us. Jesus taught us to walk the second mile. He teaches us to pray for those who persecute us.
But you say – I can’t do that! Well, you’re right; you can’t do that in your own strength and power! Do you remember what they did to Jesus?
They taunted Him.
They spit on Him
They whipped Him
They pulled out His beard
They hung Him on an old rugged cross
And while He hung there on that cross humiliated and suffering, He said, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”
Practical Holiness: Do you see this?
This works in the workplace when unreasonable bosses are flexing their irritating office muscle. It works in the school room situation when someone demands and threatens you It’s that unreasonable demand that comes from a very selfish person. You see – going the second mile will touch others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
What is the real mark of a Christian? Is it that lapel pin that says, “Jesus first?” Is it a bumper sticker that says, “Honk if you love Jesus?” Is it a glib “Praise the Lord” when anything goes wrong?
No! It’s none of those things.
The real mark of a Spirit-filled Christian believer is LOVE!
Jesus said in John 14:23-24 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
The real mark of a Christian is unselfish love and a laying down of our lives for others. It’s not about our rights. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. If anyone had rights it was Jesus. But Jesus chose to lay down His divine rights. And when the soldier at the foot of the Cross began to see who Jesus was by His actions and His words, it finally hit him and he said, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
Spiritual Application:
If we as Christians learn this life of Practical Holiness of listening and obeying all that Jesus taught and go the second mile it will change our walk with God. Friends, listen to me, it will Free your heart and mind from this baggage and bondage of bitterness, anger, and even hatred. And when your heart is free, then no one can touch you or your peace.
How does the world respond to this kind of love? This kind of love is not expected.
It is the God kind of love that makes others want to love like that. When they see believers responding like that, they want what you have. This then becomes one of the greatest evangelism tools the church has. That’s why it says, “Let your Light shine, so that others may see.”
Illustration:
It was the day after Christmas and Mr. Greene parked his car to pick up the morning paper. He noticed a dirty, poorly dressed boy, looking at his car. Seeing the boy eyeing the car, he reminded himself to be quick or he might be missing a hubcap when he returned. He came out of the store with his paper under his arm and just as he opened the door to the car, the boy asked, “Mister, how much would a new car like that cost?” Mr. Greene responded and said, “I really don’t know, my brother gave me this car as a gift.” The ragged little boy looking unbelievingly at the car and, with a look of wonder in his eyes, said something unexpected. He didn’t say what you might think. “Gee, I wish I had a brother like that.” Instead, the little dirty boy said, “Gee, I wish I could be a brother like that.”
How do we love the way Jesus taught us to Love? How do we get over the hurdle of loving others even when they terribly hurt us? To think biblically and to live this out in practical holiness we have to adopt the teachings of Jesus.
Since God has loved us we are to love like He loves! This generation needs to rethink its understanding of God’s love. It’s often used as an excuse for bad behavior when people say, “Well, God loves me anyway.” Do you see the behavior issue here? Yes, God loves us that is true. But that does not justify our sinful reactions and attitudes. And let us understand that God’s love is powerful and life-changing! Friend, you must get beyond the carnal response of being unkind and unloving.
3) Because Christ loves us, He purposes to transform us so that we live in the power of His love and under the control of His love.
Ephesians 5:1-2 “Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn’t love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”
If the truth were to be known…deep down the Holy Spirit is calling every one of us to be more loving.
As believers we want to be more loving. We would like to be honest and admit, maybe even shed some tears, to give ourselves to each other. But we don’t know how to begin the process. Let me share with you how we can be transformed into the disciple Jesus wants us to be:
When we say we want to be like Christ – or we say we want to be everything Jesus wants us to be – it speaks of the Lordship of Christ in our hearts and lives. So how do we get this accomplished? How do we seek and become this?
1. First of all we must remember that the only way this love can happen in our hearts is through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In our humanity and because of our sinful nature we are not capable of this kind of love; not on our own. Therefore we must become seekers of this kind Love. It’s a Quest. Only God can change our selfish hearts. We are by our sinful natures users and we must seek for God’s Holy Spirit to make us givers of love. We are by nature indifferent and we must ask God to make us caring.
Let me illustrate that here at the church:
You’ve heard the saying “only 20% of the people do 80% of the work of the church.”
What the staff and I see very clearly is that 80% of the members of this church need to see that we cannot afford to be indifferent towards the ministries of His church. If that trend continues, we will have continual fallout because of the frustration of the 20%. There are some who get so frustrated by this or they choose not to stay here because of the 20% doing all the work. Now this is only one example of being indifferent. But let me ask each of you this morning. Are you willing to pray about this and seek God to find out in what area you could help carry the ministry load here in His church?
Ephesians 5:25 says, “…Christ loved His church and died for it.” Please listen carefully – what I’m going to say is so important for every member of this church.
Illustration:
For quite a while the staff and other leaders in the church have been concerned about the lack of people stepping forward to help do effective ministry here in the church.
It has become a frustration to the 20%. How do I say this so that you will hear what I’m saying?
Now, mind you our church is not unique. This is happening everywhere. Does that make it any easier or right? No! But let me take you back to prove to you what I’m saying so we won’t take this lightly.
So we won’t just sit here this morning and not be effected by it. By our sinful nature we are indifferent and uncommitted to the cause of Jesus Christ when we don’t have His total Love and Care in our lives. The Holy Spirit won’t let me go here without telling you specifically what I’m talking about.
Being indifferent about the ministries of this church means saying I told Pastor Derek just before the service that if every believer in this church would commit themselves to the transforming power of Jesus and His Spirit we wouldn’t have a problem with 20% doing 80% of the work here at the church.
This church would explode if everyone would jump in and become involved. A Spirit-filled believer says: “I won’t be indifferent when it comes to making sure our church chairs are set up before a service. I’ll step up and help.” “I won’t be indifferent when it comes to teaching a class in the Children’s church department. Not only the women, but we need men who will step forward help teach our children.” “I won’t be indifferent when it comes to how my church looks; I’ll volunteer and be committed to doing things with my hands so that His church will look as good as my home.” “I won’t be indifferent when it comes to prayer for the ministries of our church. I’ll come a little earlier and spend time in the prayer room praying for the services.” “I refuse to be indifferent with it comes to Upward Sports and the ministry that is involved with the kids. I’ll pray and trust God to help me give my testimony of how Jesus has changed my life.”
True Love and Care begins with the Lordship of Christ. How do we seek this Love of Christ?
2) Secondly, We must be Honest with God and then ourselves. Honest with God.
As believers we must be willing to confess our indifference and our sins. This must start with honesty:
- those feelings of bitterness
- jealousy
- hatred
- competition
- accepting the truth
- apathy towards His church
We have to admit our sins. II Chronicles 7:14 says, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Notice here that Repentance begins with God’s people. God’s people must be honest and sorry for their sins before we will ever have an impact on our world. We must also be honest with ourselves.
We have to stop justifying our attitudes and actions. Folks, it’s a sin when we slander or gossip about someone. It’s a sin when we make fun of another’s failures. It’s a sin when we turn away from one in need. It’s a sin when we put down our church … or the leaders of our church. When we tear down others to make ourselves look better. In these cases we must stop saying we are righteous. We must stop excusing our behavior with the words, “Oh, we didn’t mean anything by it.” We must stop pretending to be noble. We must stop making excuses and face reality …. WE ARE SINNING. And we have to start thinking and asking about the Love of God – the Love of Jesus.
What was Jesus committed to and what must I be committed to?
IF we want to be like Jesus – we will reevaluate our spiritual lives and look deeply inside to see where we are.
Conclusion:
Are you a channel of God’s love? Do you live out God’s love? What are you doing to give yourself to the ministry of His church? Are you allowing the 20% to do 80% of the work in your church? Are you giving your 10% tithe and offerings to the furthering of His Church? You see - we’re on a Quest here and honesty is where we begin.
