HOW’S YOUR LOVE LIFE?
INTRO: How’s your love life? You probably weren’t expecting to hear that question at church!
• Last week we started a series in Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts. How many of you went out this past week and started developing and using your gifts to bless others?
• Why not? Love comes before gifts! First we fall in love, and then we want to give gifts!
• We’re going to focus on love first, then we’ll talk some more about the gifts…
TEXT: “For the love of Christ compels us.” (2 Cor. 5:14).
• Why do we do what we do? Not because we have to – the motivation must be LOVE!
KEY TEXT: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35).
• How can you tell that someone is a Christian? They have a Christian fish symbol on their car? They have a ‘honk if you love Jesus’ bumper sticker? They go to church? NO!
THE BIG IDEA: Jesus said that our love for one another would be the sign to the world that we were His true disciples. However, we will never fully be able to love one another until we know and believe the love that God has for us. How’s your love life?
BACKGROUND TO THE DISCIPLE JOHN: Why take a look at John’s life?
• John was one of the 12 disciples, a fisherman.
• Four times in John’s Gospel, he referred to himself as, “The disciple whom Jesus loved.”
• He wrote more about love (over 50 times) than Peter, James and Jude together (14 times).
Was he always loving?
• No! In fact, Jesus called John and his brother James “the sons of thunder.” (Mark 3:17).
• There was one time where Jesus was preaching to the Samaritans but they weren’t listening to Him, so John said, “Do you want us to call down fire from Heaven and burn them up?” John was one of the first fire and brimstone preachers! (Luke 9:51-56).
• There was another time where John saw someone else casting out demons in Jesus’ name, but because he wasn’t one of the 12 disciples, he told him to stop. (Mark 9:38).
• There was one time where John and his brother came to Jesus and said (and I paraphrase here), “We’re more important than anyone else, and a little bit selfish. Please let us sit at your right hand and left hand in the Kingdom of Heaven!” This got the other disciples ticked off of course, and Jesus taught them about servanthood. (Mark 10:32-45).
• But when John wrote his Gospel in his later years, he referred to himself as the beloved disciple. Why? This didn’t mean that he was more special or loved than the other disciples. No – but he had a revelation of the Father’s heart of love for him!
When did John receive the revelation of the Father’s love for him? At the Cross:
• “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold your son!" Then He said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" And from that hour that disciple took her to his own home.” (John 19:25-27).
• “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him." Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.” (John 20:1-4).
• This is one of my favourite stories about John – I love how he puts in: “The other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first.” Boys, eh?
HOW CAN WE IMPROVE OUR LOVE LIFE? Let’s study John’s writings…
1. MEDIATE ON THE LOVE OF GOD:
“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1).
“We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19).
THE FATHERLESS GENERATION:
• This principle is so important to this fatherless generation. People are growing up without fathers, and therefore, they have a hard time receiving the love of God.
• TESTIMONY: Working with youth from single parent families, how God overwhelmed me at one of our Filling Station youth conferences with His loving heart for them.
• The more we know and believe the love that God has for us, the more we will love ourselves, and the more we will be able to love others.
• Fathers – we need to love our children, and speak the Father’s Blessing over them!
• TESTIMONY: Every night, I tuck my children in, I tell them how much I love them.
• You can’t give what you don’t have! The Bible says that God is love. If we don’t know God, we don’t know love, and we can’t love one another.
• God wants all of us to be like the disciple John and say, “I am loved by Jesus!”• How do we meditate on the love of God?
A. Read your Bibles, especially the Gospels. This is God’s love letter to you.
B. Spend time with Him in prayer. Let Him pour out His love into your heart.
2. REMEMBER LOVE IS ACTION, NOT FEELINGS:
“By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:16-18).
• How do we know love? Because Jesus laid down His life for us.
• Now, He calls us to lay down our lives for one another. Tell someone you love them!
• But – how do we practically show love to people? The Bible gives us the answer: “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. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.” (1 Cor. 13:4-7).
ILLUSTRATION:
Minister George Crane tells of a wife who came into his office full of hatred toward her husband. "I do not only want to get rid of him, I want to get even. Before I divorce him, I want to hurt him as much as he has me." Dr. Crane suggested an ingenious plan: "Go home and act as if you really love your husband. Tell him how much he means to you. Go out of your way to be as kind, considerate, and generous as possible. Make him believe you love him. After you’ve convinced him of your undying love and that you can’t live without him, and then drop the bomb. Tell him that you’re getting a divorce. That will really hurt him."
With revenge in her eyes, she smiled and exclaimed, "Awesome!" And she did it with enthusiasm. Acting "as if." For two months she showed love, kindness, listening, giving, reinforcing, and sharing. When she didn’t return, Crane called. "Are you ready now to go through with the divorce?" "Divorce?" she exclaimed. "Never! I discovered I really do love him." Her actions had changed her feelings. Motion resulted in emotion.
3. FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF JESUS:
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.” (1 John 4:7-12).
• God loved us so much He gave up His son for us, and forgave our sins.
• Now, He calls us to love one another and forgive one another.
CHALLENGE:
Let’s meditate on the love of God, remember love is action, and follow the example of Jesus.
NEXT WEEK: God’s Design for Love, Sex and Relationships.
Beausejour Community Church Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor Chris Jordan’s Blog: http://thelandofpromise.blogspot.com/
