Loving Completely
One Month To Live Week Three
Show Sermon Spice Video
What is Love – 3:15
What is love? NOW – that really is a good question… AND - defining love is not really an easy thing to do. I MEAN - how would you define it? YOU KNOW – I thought those people in the video gave it a good try…
• I like the guy who said that love is - ‘The essence of all things that leads to the ineffable”
• And the guy who said that love is – ‘fleeting. Every time you try to grab it, it disappears. Invisible. Ethereal (intangible). That which you constantly chase after but never catch up to.
• And I also liked the honest response that a lot of people had…‘I don’t know’ ‘I have no idea’ ‘I can’t describe it to you.’
NOW – I think that part of the problem in defining love is that love is the most overused word in the English language (THINK ABOUT IT - the word love is thrown around more then a football at the super bowl). I MEAN - we use the word love to refer to so many different things… WE say, “I love my wife, I love my kids, I love God. I love my country. I love really spicy food. I love McDonald fries, I love catching rays on the beach, I love it when Steve preaches for a really long time (man are you going to love today’s message) ”
WE - have love letters, love stories and love songs “I love you baby” “I’ve lost that loving feeling” “I just called to say I Love you” “I love you just the way you are” “All you need is love,” “How Sweet It Is To be loved By You” and that all time classic --- “hello I love you – won’t you tell me your name.”
LOVE – event though it is hard to define… still a lot of people want to tell you what it is… Here are a few definitions I found this week… LOVE IS;
• A warm hand on a cold night
• Friendship that has caught on fire
• A game you win by letting others go first
• What you’ve been through with somebody
• Heartburn w/o chili
• Surfing w/o a board and bungee jumping w/o a cord
• Not knowing how you feel and not feeling what you know
• A lot like jelly beans you have to eat the bad ones to enjoy the good ones
• The meaning of Life
• The way to live
• What it means to be human
• The solution to the world’s problems
• The way to make friends and disarm enemies
• The path to happiness
• The guide for the next step
• The hope of children
• The greatest power in the universe
• The antidote to: greed, selfishness, misery and indifference
• The reason to keep on keeping on
• The answer
• The key
• All we need
NOW – the bible, the word of God ALSO has a lot to say in regards to what love is;
1If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
(Understand – What Paul IS saying in those verses IS THAT without love; what you say, what you know, what you accomplish, what you give…AND EVEN your faith -- doesn’t matter!)
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angerjed, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8Love never fails. - 1 Corinthians 13:1-8 (NIV)
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
– Romans 5:6-8 (NLT)
16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17If 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? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. – 1 John 3:16-18
TODAY – is day 13 in One Month To Live Journey. QUESTION – how are things going so far? ARE YOU – asking yourself ‘that’ life clarifying question everyday and throughout the day? What would I do if I only had one month to live? ARE YOU – using that question to help you to not only figure out what is really important but to do what’s really important? ARE YOU – becoming more determined than ever to live fully the life God created you to live, fighting for it each day? ARE YOU – making time for things that really matter in life and removing those things that will not count for nothing, when all is said and done? ARE YOU – taking the time to read this book each day? LISTEN – there are concept, truths and practical action steps in this book that will RADICALLY impact your life and the life of those around you… IF – you put in just a little time and effort. ARE YOU – challenging those in your ‘Challenge Group’ to life differently. (BY THE WAY – there is time to go out and buy this book… THERE – is still time to join a challenge group. There is one that will meet tonight at _____).
I want to take a minute to read 2 quick exerts this past week’s reading…
• Day Eight ‘Kick Start’ page 56
• Day Nine ‘The Heart Of The Matter’ page 66
Prayer
God’s Love Is Unconditional
THIS MORNING – we are going to talk about loving completely. AND – I want to start off by talking about God’s love. UNDERSTAND – God has always loved completely. AND – in some ways God really doesn’t have a choice… BECAUSE love is who He is. IT’S – the essence of his being. IN FACT - 2 times the bible comes right out and says that God is love. NOT – that God loves (which he does).. BUT – that He is love.
The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love--so you can’t know him if you don’t love.
– 1 John 4:8 (Msg)
We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in him. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
– 1 John 4:16 (NLT)
[Tim…] God is love… AND – to be honest I was (and still am) a little intimidated to stand up here and talk about God’s love. I MEAN – I don’t even understand human love… SO – HOW in the world can I talk about God’s love… FORTUNATELY – in my studies I came across a quote by A.W. Tozer, (a really smart guy, who probably forget more about God then I will ever know) who also struggled to explain God’s love (that gave me some comfort), He wrote:
“I can no more do justice to this awesome and wonder-filled topic than a child can grasp a star. Still, by reaching toward the star the child may call attention to it and even indicate the direction one must look to see it. And so, I stretch my heart toward the high, shining love of God so that we may be encouraged to look up and have hope.”
GUYS – that’s what I want to do this morning… CALL – your attention to the complete love of God that was demonstrated in Christ Jesus… I want to stretch our hearts toward that love… I want to indicate the direction to it… SO THAT – you & I will be encouraged to look up this morning and have hope as we to strive together to love completely.
AND – what I want to do right now is to me invite you into my thought process… (hopefully it won’t be too scary). Are you ready…? NOW – you’ll need to “BUCKLE UP” – because you are about to enter the mind of Steve… AND FOR – your safety & the safety of those near you keep your hands and arms inside the car until Steve’s mind comes to a complete stop… ALRIGHT – let’s hit it.
1. God wants us to live a life just like Jesus… We see the We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. God wants us to grow up… like Christ in everything… AND…
2. Jesus loved completely
3. AND – He loved completely because He is God, and God is love… SO – in a way Jesus came to demonstrate God’s love…
4. OKAY – so what do we know about God’s love?
5. WELL WE KNOW – that God’s love existed long before Jesus came to the earth… BECAUSE – God is love (and God has always been and always will be).
6. WHAT - do we know about God’s love before the arrival Christ in Bethlehem? AND – where do we go to find out about that love?
7. HEY – I know where I need to go… I need to go to the O.T. YEAH – that’s the place. I need to check out the O.T. to find out about the love of God that Christ came to demonstrate and that I am to live completely.
SO – what I did in my studies for this message was print out every verse in the O.T. that has the word love in it… There are 366 verses that have the word love in them… (NLT). AND - what I did next was I asked some simple questions…
1. OKAY - how many of those 366 verses are talking about God’s love?
Answer – 204. (wow that’s a lot - that’s 56%... almost 6 out of every ten verses)
[the remaining 162 verses talk about; our love for God, our love for His word, our love His wisdom, our love for our friends, romantic love… and several verses talk about our love for wrong things… LIKE – sin, idols and money]
2. NOW – the next thing I did was to look at each of those 204 verses to see if there was a theme or a common thread in them about God’s love? YOU KNOW – do these verses say the same thing about God’s love… OR - do they say a bunch of different things? WHEN - the O.T. talks about and describes God’s love… What does it say?
HEY – do you know what was so cool…. Those verses said something. AND – they said it loud and the said it clear. CHECK THIS OUT - 175 of those 204 verses (that’s about 86% - nearly 9 out of every ten verses) said the exact same thing about God’s love. IT – was awesome! AND – to be honest what I found was exactly what I was hoping to find. IN FACT – it was the very thing about God’s love that I need and that YOU need to hear.
[Tim…] - do you know what those 175 verses said about God’s love? I’M – not going to tell you (just kidding)… THOSE – 175 verses said that God’s love is an unconditional no strings attached kind of love. They said that God’s love is not based on who we are OR what we have done… BUT RATHER – on who God is. AND REMEMBER – God is love!
111 times God’s love is described as “unfailing” (Could you use an unfailing love in your life?) AND - 40 times His love is described as ‘enduring forever… (AGAIN – could you use some enduring forever kind of love in your life?).
Unconditional love. You know - I even like the sound of it… BUT - what exactly is it? What does it look like? What does it mean? How do I recognize it?
LISTEN – despite the fact that unconditional love is probably something most of us could define ‘intellectually’… I still think that unconditional love is a hard concept for most of us to really get our hearts around… I MEAN – what is it really? AND - what does it feel like to actually experience it?
AND LISTEN – the reason we have such a hard time getting our hearts around unconditional love, is because most of us have had more experience with unconditional loves evil twin ‘conditional’ love.
NOW – the Greeks had a word for this kind of love. It was the word eros. NOW – when we hear this word we tend to think of the English word erotic. BUT LISTEN – eros has a much broader meaning then just sexual love. UNDERSTAND – at it’s core eros describes a love that only gives to what satisfies it’s desires, wins it’s admiration or fulfills it’s appetites. IN – other words. IT’S – a love that only loves because of what it gets in return. QUESTION – have you ever experienced conditional love? (not very fun, is it?) Have you ever loved anyone conditionally?
I MEAN – when I say ‘I love McDonalds fries, I love my new TV, I love that CD, I love my car, I love chocolate..’ IT IS – a conditional kind of love… BECAUSE – if the McDonald fries started tasting like Burger King’s, if my TV broke, if the CD constantly skipped at the best parts, if my car broke down and if chocolate suddenly turned into onions… I would no longer love those things… YOU SEE – I love those things because of what they give me in return… IT’S – a conditional love. THERE ARE – strings attached. IT’S - like the Greek word ‘eros’ it is a love that only gives to what satisfies it’s desires or fulfills it’s appetites…
AND – sometimes (though I don’t want to admit it) sometimes I love people conditionally… I love them because they act the way I want them to, give me stuff I need or want, make me feel happy… I love them because they love me. YES – we all at times love conditionally…
AND – we all have been loved conditionally.
AND – being love conditionally hurts…
YES - conditional love is a cruel task master.. BECAUSE – no one no matter how hard we try, we can ever meet all of the conditions… AND – the really ‘stinky’ thing is, that this kind of love is everywhere. IN FACT – conditional love greets us from the moment we leave the womb. STUDIES – show that adults smile at, coo over, kiss, and hold pretty babies more than plain ones… AND - that Fathers are more involved with attractive babies than those who are less attractive.
AND – what about the stories we read little children… I MEAN IF – you think about it, they just reinforce conditional love… QUESTION - why did princes and everyone else love Cinderella, Snow White & Sleeping Beauty? WAS IT – because of their ‘great personality’… NO – it was because they were hot… AND – because of what that hotness would give to those who loved them…
I MEAN – what do you think would have happened if like Princess Fiona… Snow White & Sleeping Beauty… both turned into ogres (and stayed that way)? I tell you what would have happened…The prince would have found someone else to kiss, the 7 dwarfs would have booted snow white out the next day and prince charming would found another pair of feet that fit or picked up a different pair of shoes.
YES – we live in a world and among a people of conditional love. A world where love is so very often tied to;
• How you look
• How well you perform
• What you possess
• If you behave
• What you can give
• If you do what people, want you to do
• If you say what they want you to say
• If you become who they think you should be
• If you - agree with them and always give them the responses they want
Conditional love is everywhere and it stinks… Conditional love traps all of us in an unwinnable contest to prove that we are pretty enough, smart enough, strong enough, agreeable enough or spiritual enough to deserve loving… Conditional love is a selfish self-seeking love…
NOW - that’s the bad news…(and it’s pretty bad)… I hate being loved conditionally… I hate how quickly this kind of love can turn to; judgments, dislike, slander & hate.
BUT – before you start looking for sharp objects there is some good news… AND – it is really good news… TIM – Almighty God does not love that way…
NO - His love for you is unconditional, no strings attached… IT – is not based on ANY condition… It is not based on who you are or what you’ve done… BUT RATHER – on who He is… AND – God is love!
LIKE I SAID – there are 175 verses in the O.T. that have been shouting for 3,000 years about the unconditional - no strings attached love, that God has for you… I’d like to read all 175… BUT – I won’t… I’ll read just a few… THE – first one is in Genesis 32… IT’S – the 1st time anyone ever talked about God’s love… (Jacob who up until this time had lived his life as a con man, a schemer, a player)
I am not worthy of all the faithfulness and unfailing love you have shown to me, your servant. When I left home, I owned nothing except a walking stick, and now my household fills two camps! - Gen 32:10
He passed in front of Moses and said, "I am the LORD, I am the LORD, the merciful and gracious God. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness. I show this unfailing love to many thousands by forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion… - Exodus 34:6,7
He gives justice to orphans and widows. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing. – Dt 10:18
You give great victories to your king; you show unfailing love to your anointed, to David and all his descendants forever. – 2 Samuel 22:51
But as for me, I will sing about your power. I will shout with joy each morning because of your unfailing love. For you have been my refuge,
a place of safety in the day of distress. – Ps 59:16
I cried out, "I’m slipping!" and your unfailing love, O LORD, supported me. – Psalm 94:18
9In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years. – Is 63:9
SO – what do you think? I think that God’s love rocks!!! It’s a love that loves… kings & orphans; the widow & the foreigner; the faithful & the rebellious, the schemer & the suffering… it’s a love that keeps on loving regardless of condition… IT’S – unfailing and endures forever. WHICH – brings us to the next point in your notes.
We Need God’s Kind Of Love
LIKE – I said earlier I was really pretty pumped when I found that the overriding theme of God’s love is that it is (unconditional, unfailing and enduring forever…) BECAUSE – I really need that kind of love…AND – so do you.
AND LISTEN – the reason we need unconditional love… IS – because our condition just isn’t so good. To be honest we are all pretty messed up. We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. – Is 64:6 (NLT)
YES - people like us who are in such a sorry condition need; an unfailing, enduring forever, unconditional love…
HEY - I’d like to introduce you to a close friend of my daughter Chelsea… THIS - is ‘sock baby.’ NOW – sock bay would have loved to be here with us today in person, but she is currently living in a plastic box in southern Indiana. Chelsea and sock baby have not hung out together for years… BUT – there was a time in Chelsea life that wherever she went, sock baby was sure to be there too.
• They ate together
• Watched TV together
• Played together
• Went to church together
• Road in the car together
NOW – sock baby didn’t always look like this (dirty, stained, loose thread, holes, tears and missing stuffing), she wasn’t always so raggedy…
YOU SEE - there was a time when sock baby was brand new… (clean, no stains, no holes, a time when she had all of her stuffing…) Check out the slide on the screen…
YES - when sock baby was new Chelsea loved her… BUT – do you know what - when sock baby got old, stained and torn… when some her stuffing started to come out Chelsea never even seemed to noticed… I MEAN – Chelsea loved sock baby; just as much when she had stains, holes and some of her stuffing was gone then when she was brand new…
HEY – do you know what…? WHEN - I look at sock baby… I see me… At times (most of the times) I don’t look so good either… YOU SEE - I am a little stained… (I have some new ones and some all too familiar stains that keep coming back)… AND – I’m a little torn in places and some of the stuffing has come out over the years…
NO - I don’t look as good as when I was brand new… AND - that’s why I need someone who will hold me, be with me and love me, like they don’t even notice the difference… ONE - of my favorite authors writes;
There are 2 truths about human beings that matter deeply. We are all rag dolls. Flawed and wounded, broken and bent. Ever since the fall, every member of the human raced has lived on the ragged edge. Partly our raggedness is something that happens to us. Our genes may set us up for certain weaknesses. Our parents may let us down when we need them most. BUT – that’s not the whole story. We each make our own deposits into the ragged account of the human race.
We choose to deceive when the truth begs to be spoken. We grumble when a little generous praise is called for. We deliberately betray when we’re bound by oaths of loyalty. Like a splash of ink in a glass of water, this raggedness permeates our whole-being. Our words and thoughts are never entirely free of it. We are rag dolls all right.
BUT we are God’s rag dolls. He knows all about our raggedness and he loves us anyhow. YOU SEE - our raggedness is no longer the most important thing about us…There is a wonder about you. Raggedness is not your identity. Raggedness is not your destiny, nor is it mine. We may be unlovely, yet we are not unloved.
THE NEXT – point in your notes is;
Jesus Demonstrates God’s Love
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:6-8 (NLT)
CIRCLE – powerless ungodly sinners
2,000 years ago Jesus came to demonstrate/to live out completely; the unfailing, enduring forever unconditional-no strings attached love that God has for rag dolls like you and I… Rag dolls that are powerless ungodly & sinners… AND - Jesus demonstrated that Unconditional love in at least 2 ways…
He demonstrated that love, by the way He lived…
I MEAN – the guy just love unconditionally….
• He loved His friends – He loved His enemies
• He loved the rich – He loved the poor
• He loved those who listened – He loved those who walked away
• He loved the young – He loved the old
• Those who loved Him – He loved those who hated and killed Him
• He loved the Jew – he loved the gentile
• He loved the healthy – He loved the sick
• He loved the touchable – He loved the untouchable - He loved everyone
LISTEN - Jesus was consumed by love when He walked this earth… AND – no wonder, after all He was God) Checkout an O.T. passage I found this week… It rocks! This is what the LORD Almighty says: My love for Mount Zion is passionate and strong; I am consumed with passion for Jerusalem! - Zech 8:2 UNDERSTAND – there is nothing that makes you more passionate, more obsessed, or more crazed then being in love… WHY – do sports fans; paint their faces & their bellies; WHY – do hunter wake up so early and stay so late…? WHY – do people dating always have to be with each other? WHY – do all of these people act so crazy, so intense? BECAUSE – they love their, team; they love to hunt; they love the person they are dating…
WHY - does God? Why does Christ act so crazy? Why would he give so much? Why is He so passionate about you? What is it the fuels the fire of passion? The answer – is one word, LOVE….
LISTEN – believe it or not… God simply cannot help himself. YOU SEE – He has falling madly in love with you. YEAH – we may be rag dolls but we are His rag dolls…
[TIM, LAURIE] – God could not, not love you… Unconditional, unfailing and enduring forever… Jesus demonstrated that love by the way He lived…AND;
He demonstrated that love, by the way He died….
IN – that great chapter on love that we find in 1 Cor 13, we read; “Love…endures all things” 1 Cor 13:4-7 (NASB)
He could have given up. No one would have known otherwise. Jesus could have given up… UNDERSTAND AT – any step along the way he could have called it quits.
WHEN – He who has never been bound by time, all of the sudden become limited by the clock, he could have said, ‘on second thought, I don’t think so…’
WHEN – He saw the size of the womb, he could have said, “no way, I’m not going in there..” WHEN – He saw how tiny His hands would be, how soft his voice would be, how hungry his stomach would be, how sore his feet would get, he could have stopped.
WHEN – he saw the dirt floor of his small Nazareth house. WHEN – Joseph gave him a chore to do OR chewed Him out for something he didn’t do. WHEN – his friends goofed off or slept when his words were read in the synagogue. WHEN – his neighbor used his name in a curse.
WHEN – the lazy farmer blamed his poor crop on Him… Jesus could have said, “alright I’m out of here…” – but he didn’t…
“Love…endures all things” 1 Cor 13:4-7 (NASB)
UNDERSTAND – didn’t have too, the choice was his the whole time. AND – Christ could have stopped. He could have given up…
WHEN – those who should have treated Him best, treated him worse…
WHEN – the crowds left because His teaching became to hard.
WHEN – the accused him of being a drunkard, a glutton and a friend of sinners; he could have just thrown up his hands and went back home… but he didn’t…
WHEN – the disciples fell asleep in the garden
WHEN – the temple guards arrested and beat him
WHEN – the roman soldiers shredded his body with the cat of 9 tails
WHEN – crowd shouted crucify him
WHEN – he carried that cross through those streets for 2 miles
WHEN – both his hands and his feet were nailed…
AS – he hung suspended between heaven & earth…
He could have given up but he didn’t…
QUESTION - How did Christ endure treatment like that? BETTER YET – why did Christ endure treatment like that? I MEAN – at any point he could have said, “I quit. That’s enough. I’m out of here.” BUT – he didn’t. Why didn’t he? BECAUSE – He is God and God loves His rag dolls unconditionally-no strings attached-to the end… WE – see this love in the upper room
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.
HE – loved them even though they would soon betray, deny and leave him alone. TALK ABOUT – unconditional and no strings attached. NOW – for the final point in your notes… THE – point intended to change everything…
QUESTION – what should your response be to God’s: unfailing, enduring forever, no strings attached love that was radically and completely lived out in Christ.
Be Loved (completely)… Love(completely) God’s Rag Dolls
Be loved…
LET – God’s unconditional-unfailing–enduring forever-no strings attached love, love you! REALLY – love you. LIKE – we read in on day 9 of OMTL book, let’s stop splashing around on the surface of God’s love… AND – begin to plunge it’s deeps. A love that Paul said was so wide, so long, so high and so deep that we will never plunge it fully… LISTEN – our problem is not that we do not love God enough, IT’S – that we are clueless as to how much God loves us! AND – when you decide and go DEEPER into His love for you get ready… BECAUSE – you will never be the same again.
We cannot be loved without being changed. LISTEN - When people experience love, they begin to grow more lovely.” THINK about the rag dolls that Jesus reached out to in love… People who experienced maybe for the first time in their life, ‘real’ love…
A sinful tax collector named Zacchaeus
A women living in adultery who Jesus met by a well in Samaria
A proud Pharisee named Paul
The leper who came back to thank him
A demon possessed men from the
A prostitute named Mary
A Roman Centurion
YES – on the other side of love – these rag dolls were not the same….they became lovely… LISTEN – knowing that we are loved by someone, warts and all, feeling loved, being loved & accepted despite our sins, our shortcomings, our failures and our past, experiencing love not for what you do… OR – for who you are… BRINGS ABOUT - a powerful transformation in us…we become lovely… there is a gleam in our eye, a strut in our stride, a smile on our face and I new power in our lives… “I’m loved”
There is such a love that creates value in what is loved. There is a love that turns rag dolls into priceless treasures. There is a love that fastens itself onto ragged little creatures, for reasons that no one could ever quite figure out, and makes them precious and valued beyond calculation. This is a love beyond reason. This is the love of God. This is the love with which God loves you and me.
– John Ortberg
AND – last but not least….
Love God’s Rag Dolls…
19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. – 1 John 4
WE – love because of what? BECAUSE – God first loves us…
UNDERSTAND – being loved by God. Accepting that love. Diving the deeps of His unconditional-unfailing-enduring forever-no strings attacked love for us… IS – the power, is what will enable you to love others completely. IT – frees you to love them without looking for ‘anything’ in return. AND – at the same time relieves them of the pressure to be more to you than is humanly possible.
THE TRUTH IS – we are incapable of loving this way without being first loved by God. EVEN JESUS – was empowered by this same love… AT – His baptism… “This Is my son, whom I love. With Him I am well pleased.”
Love Completely (Mission 318)
let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. – 1 John 3:18
• Write a note to everyone in your family telling them what you would tell them if this was you last week or their last week.
• Scroll through you phone list and find someone you need to call to say thank you to. Maybe take them to lunch.
• Do something special for everyone who lives in your home…
• Challenge Groups…
• Before you leave this room…
