Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day! It’s a day in which we celebrate Love. It’s a day that for many people is the only time of the year that they convey their love to another. It’s a day that will mainly be celebrated between two people, two sweethearts.
I often wonder why so many of us are shy and closed off to sharing our Love to others throughout the rest of the year?
I see Valentine’s Day in a different light. I see it as a chance to share God’s Word of how we are to share our Love with others.
Col. 3:12-14 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
It’s hard to misunderstand how God feels about Love. Our understanding is not the problem. Our problem is the performance of the scriptures. We do not always love people deeply. How’s your love life? That is, how well do you love people? How well do you demonstrate love to people?
Do you demonstrate love when you feel wronged? This is something that we all need to do because our Lord Jesus did the same thing.
In our Scripture reading this morning we read that as believers, we need to clothe ourselves with some virtues don’t we? Compassion, Kindness, Humility, Gentleness and Patience are listed. We also see here that we are not to hold onto grievances, (that is grudges), we are to forgive one another just as Jesus forgives. Yes these things are very important but we are told at the ending the scripture something that trumps all of these virtues:
“…And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
We read that if we clothe ourselves with love, this will bind all the above virtues into PERFECT UNITY!
Isn’t that really what we are striving for? Perfect Unity! I don’t believe that we like dis-unity in our relationships. I believe each of us enjoy peace and harmony in our lives. Many of us may have people in our lives that we feel loves drama and seems to always be stirring the pot in all areas. But I think in general we are all looking for peace and God tells us that we will only find that if we put on love.
So, how do we clothe ourselves with Love? How can we incorporate love in such an evil fleshly world? How can we clothe ourselves with love when people make us so mad?
I want to share with you this morning a couple of thoughts on how we can clothe ourselves with Love. I believe it is a matter of choice. First of all, I truly believe that we control our actions.
I.We choose how to act towards others.
Proverb 25:28 like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.
A.Loving people master their moods. They do not live by their emotions. They do the right thing, even when they don’t feel like it.
Illustration: Isn’t this something that we are all taught? Our parents began teaching this as far back as we all can remember. I know I have told each of my children when they were small that they had to learn how to control their selves. That they couldn’t just throw their selves down on the floor kicking and screaming each time they didn’t get their way.
As a parent, one of my responsibilities is to help my children learn how to act.
1.Isn’t that an odd thing to say? That we need to LEARN how to act. Children are really emotional time bombs aren’t they? If something goes wrong what do most children do? Cry, temper tantrums, yell, throw themselves down on the ground and all sorts of wacky things that we as parents are responsible in teach our children not to do.
2.We all were small children once and we all had to learn how to act accordingly. Some of you may have been horrible with sharing your toys, some of you may have had a bad habit with name calling, or perhaps some of you had horrendous table manners.
3.Yes, it was our parent’s responsibility to teach us how to act because they loved us.
4.Isn’t this why God gave us the commandments? The commandments instruct us how to live. God gave these to us that we may learn how to act, how to treat other people, how to live a life of love.
B.Isn’t this really what all of the Scripture are about? Instructions from our Father on how to live a life of Love.
-Romans 15:7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.
-1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
-Philippians 2:3-5 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.
1.HAVE THE SAME MINDSET AS JESUS! His mindset is on each one of us. He has a pure mindset of Love and nothing else.
2.Jesus chose to Love us in spite of all of our hang-ups, faults and imperfections. Jesus Loves us so much that he gave His life for us and God Loves us so much that He sent him. Isn’t that the ultimate Valentine gift?
-With such a sacrifice how do you suppose we can give Him thanks?
Illustration: A story is told of a millionaire that gave most all he made to the poor. He was once asked why he lived his life this way and gave so very much to the poor. He said it was because of his father. One of his earliest memories of his father was when he took him to the circus. He said he remembers standing in line for what seemed to be hours waiting to buy the tickets and enter the Big Top.
In front of them was a man with his wife and three small children. You could tell that these people lived a meager life as was evident by their clothes. As the line advanced the family in front couldn’t stop talking about how excited they were to see the circus, you could just see the pride in the father’s eyes that he was taking his family to the circus.
Finally they made it to the booth to buy the tickets. The man said proudly to the cashier, “I will take five tickets please.” The cashier came back with the price but it was far more than what the father had planned for. He didn’t have enough money to pay for the tickets. You could see the proud man’s face change to sadness.
The millionaire said what had happened next is what made him into the man he is today. He said his father dug into his pocket and pulled out all he had and dropped it on the ground just behind the other man. He then tapped on the man’s shoulder and said with a wink, “friend looks like you dropped this.” The father‘s eyes swelled up with tears as he bent over to pick up the money. He gave a wink back to say thank you. He was able to take his family to the circus.
The millionaire said that they never made it into the circus that day as his father gave all he had. He said his father told him that they stood in line for hours to be a blessing.
He said his father was always doing things like that his whole life and it really molded him into who he was and how he treated people. He wanted to model his life after his father.
3. I believe that we can honor and give thanks to Jesus by how we live our lives by modeling our lives after him. This would be the greatest compliment to Jesus that we can ever do. Live our lives as Christ lived His!
4.Love for others is what fueled Jesus and this too is what should fuel us as well. As Christians we need to realize that we have made a choice to be Christ-like and the very foundation of that is showing LOVE to others.
-We choose how we act, how we treat others, and how we re-act as well.
II.We choose how to re-act to others.
Proverb 19:11 A person’s wisdom yields patience; it is to one’s glory to overlook an offense.
A.Loving people restrain their re-actions.
1.Sooner or later relationships will have conflict. When someone offends us or misrepresents us, what are we to do? The world’s answer is easy: GET EVEN! But if we’re growing in the Lord, we’ll be uneasy with that response. We know we’re called to do better.
Illustration: Martin Luther King JR. was a great hero of the twentieth century. Perhaps it was because he knew how to respond to insult and injury. “When evil men plot, good men must plan,” He said, “When evil men burn and bomb, good men must build and bind. When evil men shout ugly words of hatred, good men must commit themselves to the glories of love.”
Paul says in 1 Peter 3: 8-9, 8 Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.
2.Why does “Evil for Evil” come so naturally? How does reacting that way show Love and help our relationships?
3.I am sure that we have all been hurt, and at one point we have all wanted to get revenge. We all can identify with it. When we are wronged, often our first reaction is to get even. It's a natural desire to want someone to hurt like they made you hurt.
4.In our fallen world, it is acceptable to tear people down verbally or to get back at them if we feel hurt. We feel as though the revenge is justified.
5.In God's Kingdom, revenge is unacceptable behavior, as is insulting a person, no matter how indirectly it is done. Instead, Jesus says we should do good to those who wrong us.
6.Our desire should not be to keep score, but, to love and forgive. This is not natural - it is supernatural. Only God could give us the strength to love as he does.
7.Instead of planning vengeance, pray for those who hurt you. Rise above getting back at those who hurt you. By loving and praying for our enemies, we can overcome evil with good. Good is Jesus. Good is Love.
8.According to Jesus, it is more important to give justice and mercy than to receive it.
Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
9.Your best approach would be one of godly behavior: You should show others the kind self-giving love that Jesus shows.
10.Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. We choose how we re-act to others. We can choose to fuel evil or smother it with Love.
Conclusion:
Illustration: The Heart of Texas is a documentary of how a tragedy pierces the heart of a small community Texas.
Grover Norwood and his family experience tragedy when their little girl was killed by a hit and run driver. After learning that the driver who killed his young daughter was his friend Ulice, Grover chooses to comfort and forgive his friend.
VIDEO: “No Blame”
-Grover made a choice didn’t he? He chose good over evil, he chose Love! And by doing so he impacted his own life, Ulice’s life, the community, those that have seen the film and now I pray he has impacted our lives here this morning as well.
